Anthony βRoccoβ DiGrazia doesnβt remember how long the construction project on Broadway lasted. The street was being widened at the doorstep of his beloved, decades-old pizza establishment, Roccoβs Little Chicago.
βAt that point we were literally so traumatized we were taking it moment to moment,β he said.
The expansion of Broadway had been approved by voters in 2011. For years leading up to the project, the city sought feedback from stakeholders and community members.
βI was on the committee as a representative of the north-side businesses for 150 hours worth of meetings,β Rocco said. βThere was a lot of public input. There was a lot of RTA input and banter back and forth. The road that was designed was designed by the community, which is why everyone hates it ... itβs pissing everybody off equally.β
βOriginally it was going to take every building on the north side of the street,β he said; his restaurant sits at 2707 E. Broadway.Β Instead, the meandering path the main street takes dodges historic buildings and preserves some of the commerce on the north side of the road.Β
Rocco was expecting the construction to be disruptive β and it was. βI was planning on a 20% contraction of business,β he said. He posted photos on social media of maps for customers to navigate the dirt frontage road that bypassed the construction.
After a decade of deliberation, the expansion project put up the first traffic cones in February 2020. In just weeks, the businesses that had spent years anticipating a major change would be hit by another transformation β the COVID-19 pandemic.
βWe didnβt do dine-in for six months, maybe longer, after the pandemic started β I donβt remember exactly how long, itβs all a blur,β Rocco said. βInitially, we pivoted the best we could to takeout only, we did contactless takeout on the patio ... When nobody could get toilet paper in commercial packs, we could still get big packs of it. So we had a list of groceries we could get, like eggs and flour and yeast and stuff (that civilians couldnβt). We did everything we could to have a positive cash flow.β
βThe PPP loans kept me afloat,β Rocco said. βRio Nuevo gave me some cash, the Sunshine Mile Project. All of this kept me afloat, but my workers kept coming to work and the customers kept coming for pizza. The customers helped us survive.β
Not every business on Broadway was so lucky.
βZemamβs had to (temporarily) close because their parking lot was denied by the road widening projects. But he still closed, but he has Zemamβs Too on Speedway that has kept his business alive,β Rocco said. βEverything in Solot Plaza directly to our west left. They didnβt have any parking after the road widening project. I guess thereβs been a few businesses tucked back in the Continental Building Iβm forgetting.
βBut no free-standing structures had anybody open the whole time. Various places are closed. There was a radio station on Broadway, a Hispanic station ... Itβs hard to tell what was due to the road widening and what was due to the pandemic,β Rocco said.
Over the quarter century Roccoβs has been in Tucson, the business has endured other challenges, but none as threatening as the combination of the construction and the pandemic.
β[When I started,] I didnβt know how to run a business. I learned as it went on,β Rocco said. βWe survived the last recession, too. That one was a little easier because the sorts of restaurants that took a hit then were the less affordable ones. We were positioned as a quality comfort food that people could still afford.β
When COVID fractured us into our germ pods and home offices, Roccoβs persisted as a connecting point, remembering its regulars of the community they love.
βIβve always felt lucky. I try to treat my employees right and they do well by me. In addition to me having loyal customers, our employees keep us around,β Rocco said.
βJust like, I donβt know man, I seem to have hit something that really resonates with people. I just wanted a neighborhood restaurant that I would go to and I think thatβs what people feel when they get in there. I think they feel like theyβre part of a family, even though itβs kind of artificial, you know,β Rocco said. βAnd apparently the foodβs good too, so thatβs something.β