An early-morning phone call from an unknown number is never usually good news, but a disaster was averted and Spiro’s was touched by community kindness, all within 36 hours.
It was a typical Monday morning for Maria Kokonas, owner of Spiro’s Restaurant in the 1400 block of 50th Ave. That is, until a few minutes after 7 a.m.
“I was awakened at 7:07 a.m. by a call with no caller ID, and we know that when you see no caller ID, it’s never good. It was a constable on the phone letting me know my restaurant was on fire, and she was really kind. From what they could tell, It was located in the kitchen, and I needed to get there as quickly as I could,” explained Kokonas.
She grabbed the nearest coat, and living just a block away, arrived at the family business within minutes.
“I was in disbelief when I saw the fire trucks, the convoy of police cars and the paramedics, I was gutted, I was literally gutted.”
She has the highest praise for the firefighters who did their job professionally and for the Sysco food delivery driver, who didn’t mess around and called 9-1-1 when he saw the fire.
“I walked up to him (the driver), and I just grabbed him, and I hugged him, and said, ‘Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,’” said Kokonas.
The aftermath of a fire for any business is overwhelming, “When you see a fire, you don’t know if you’re ever going to open again.”
So when a team led by her son-in-law, Jeremiah Young, said they would be open by the next day, she was shocked and thought there was no way … but they found a way.
“I know I had just about every trade go through here yesterday. I know Bioclean Disaster Services was here within the very early hours of this potential disaster, they took charge of it, along with my son-in-law,” recounted Kokonas.
“I give so much credit to every single person that was here yesterday, the support we had from them and the community has just been unreal.”
Her gratitude to the community is endless.
“To say I have no words is not true, because I have so many words. I am in disbelief at the way we were able to turn this around, and it is truly because of our community. I want to say the biggest thank you from the bottom of my family’s heart to everyone that stepped in this door and the community as a whole, I am just touched by the community,” she said.
“I cried today. When I stood at the podium at 4 p.m. and watched people come in the door, I cried,” admitted Kokonas during our conversation, but they were happy tears and tears of relief.
With that, Spiro’s is open after this averted disaster. That means Maria Days, a celebration of Kokonas’s naming day, is a go. A vendor’s market next Thursday, a concert on Friday and a car show with kids activities on Saturday, all because a community came together to show they cared.
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