New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Wallingford eatery: $17K from Barstool Fund a ‘lifesaver’
In December, the founder of Barstool Sports put out a message to small businesses struggling during the pandemic.
“OK, I’ve been rant raving lately about the plight of small business in the United States. New York City just shut down indoor dining, it’s like how do you expect these people to survive?” said founder Dave Portnoy in a Dec. 17 video on social media.
So, Portnoy said in the video that they’d devote $500,000 to helping businesses that needed it through the Barstool Fund, with additional fundraising efforts after that. Provided businesses were still cutting checks to their employees, Portnoy said they could email Barstool Sports and request assistance.
And leadership at Laskara — a 21-year-old Wallingford restaurant with Mediterranean offerings — jumped at the opportunity.
Maria Riopel, a manager for the restaurant, said they’ve gotten $17,000 from the fund.
“Right now, during COVID, it is a lifesaver,” she
“We had some really hard times. We had some things that we didn’t know about after my dad passed away. We were struggling to keep the doors open. We finally did a turnaround. We were starting to do really well, we were starting to see profit again, and then COVID hit.”
Maria Riopel, a manager at Laskara
said in an interview, adding it’s helped them with paying staff and ordering food.
The Connecticut eatery is among dozens of businesses — one of which is Hartford’s Red Rock
Tavern — listed as receiving funds on the webpage for the Barstool Fund. At this point, the effort overall has raised more than $17 million, according to the website.
In a video posted on the site, Riopel gave some background on her family and the business’ origins — how her parents had moved to the U.S. in the 1970s, opened an eatery and eventually ushered in Laskara. Later, her father died and
“it was a huge hit,” she said in the video.
“We had some really hard times. We had some things that we didn’t know about after my dad passed away. We were struggling to keep the doors open. We finally did a turnaround,” she said, wiping a tear from her eye. “We were starting to do really well, we were starting to see profit again, and then COVID hit.”