After loss of restaurant, couple give back with food
Welcome to Lockdown Heroes, which celebrates great Kiwis going the extra distance. Do you have a Lockdown Hero?
A couple who lost their restaurant in a devastating fire last lockdown have been praised for donating food to those in need this time.
Kostas Grigorakis and Sarah Newson’s Campbells Bay restaurant El Greco was gutted by fire in June last year, just after Auckland came out of level 4 lockdown.
They ended up trading from a food truck “The El Greco Box” outside the restaurant to keep their business afloat. The rebuilt restaurant only opened again in February and the pair were just starting to get on their feet again when the current level 4 lockdown hit.
Despite this, they have been making up food parcels to send to local charities.
Grigorakis and Newson are today’s Lockdown Heroes.
“My sister always said you don’t have to look far to find someone worse off than yourself and that is so true,” Newson said.
“We have realised there is such a great need out there and we just want to do something.”
Unable to open in level 4 the pair have been making up food parcels to donate.
“We have been donating all of the food from our fridges and what we have in stock. We have another food parcel going out tomorrow.”
The pair said they will keep giving when they can trade in level 3.
Newson said they were keen to give back to the North Shore community that had rallied around them when they lost everything in the fire.
The fire was caused by “spontaneous ignition” when a bag of cleaning rags that had been dried at a commercial laundromat were left in a plastic bag at the restaurant.
Self-ignition fires can happen when dried washing is left to sit in a pile without cooling down.
The couple were told the rebuild would take six weeks but it took seven months.
“It was a bolt out of the blue and it was seriously scary,” she said.
“Our community really looked after us after the fire and their support kept us going.”
Customers were quick to acknowledge the support the restaurant owners were giving to the community.
Louise Jones told the Herald the pair were “the best” for dealing with challenge after challenge but still taking the time and energy to give. “They had only just opened in February after the fire and now another lockdown,” she said. “All that and they are still helping the community with food parcels.”
The couple said they will continue to give to those in need when they could open El Greco for takeaways in level 3. “We want to continue to do something in level 3 so we will look at something like making pizza and pasta at the end of the night and finding a way to get them to people in need.
“We take our responsibility to the community quite seriously, it is so worth it.”