Local businesses stepping up to help pizza shop destroyed by fire

DELMONT, Pa. — A popular pizza restaurant that has recently seen national social media attention is closed after fire ripped through the pizzeria early Sunday morning.

“Devastated. It’s just like...What?!” said Paula Johns, owner of Ianni’s Pizzeria. “We thought it was just a small fire at the oven, in the oven area. When we came in, it was like...’uhhh..this was like a total gut job.’”

>>> Overnight fire seriously damages Westmoreland County pizza shop

Crews from several departments worked to fight the fire at the pizza shop — which has been in business in Delmont since 2011.

It’s still unclear what started the fire.

In the last few weeks, the Johns family said business has been booming since Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports did a pizza review on his social media.

“That was really, really a wonderful thing for us, and then this,” Johns said.

The Johns are heartbroken for their employees.

They’re working to get them shifts at their Vandergrift and New Derry locations.

Some local businesses are stepping up to help.

“We don’t really look at them or anybody really as competition, but more as just pizza friends,” said Sean Jefairjian, owner of A Slice of New York.

A Slice of New York is another pizza shop less than 10 minutes from Ianni’s.

They are selling t-shirts for $25 — with $10 of each shirt sold going directly to Ianni’s.

They’re also teaming up with Yellow Bridge Brewing for customers to leave an extra tip that will go toward Ianni’s employees.

Meanwhile, A Slice of New York is offering their entire restaurant to Ianni’s — free of charge — while they’re closed for two weeks later this month.

“There’s this perception that things are cutthroat and very competitive, but at the end of the day we’re all just a community and we’re people first,” Jefairjian said.

The Johns aren’t sure they’ll be able to use A Slice of New York for those two weeks because A Slice of New York doesn’t use a wood fired oven.

But, they tell Channel 11′s Andrew Havranek they’re beyond grateful for all the help.

“And all the customers coming by, we appreciate them all. Everybody. We love Delmont. We just love it,” Johns said. “We have insurance, we’ll rebuild, and we’ll be up and running as soon as we can.”

A Slice of New York said they’ve reached out to Dave Portnoy to see if his team can help, but has not yet heard back.

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