Community Rallies Around First Black-Owned Pizzeria In Minneapolis After Fire Closes It Down

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) --  Community members rallied around the first Black-owned pizzeria in Minneapolis after a fire closed them down.

On October 2nd, surrounded by a crowd of support, St. Paul natives, Adam Kado and Hosie Thurmond, celebrated the grand opening of their new venture - a walk up, New York-style, sell by the slice pizzeria, called Slice.

It is the first Black-owned pizzeria in Minneapolis and sits on a slice of land between Hennepin and Central avenue in the heart of Northeast.

Only two weeks after their grand opening, a fire started along the side of their building around 9 a.m. on Oct. 19, causing more than $11,000 in damages.

"I'm blown away," said Kado, "Just imagine something you work so hard for, you show up and it's scorched."

The fire burned a hole in the side of their building and damaged their outside refrigerator, forcing them to close down for a month.

However, the owners say this was the least of their worries.

"More so, the employees and everyone else that was out of work and lost revenue. It was probably the most problematic thing I would say about it all," said Kado.

Almost immediately after the fire, this small business got a big boost. Several friends and strangers reached out asking how they could help and wanting to donate.

"We put up a GoFundMe for $25,000 and it got filled within like 4 days," said Thurmond, "that really fed our fires and that really showed that we have the community's support, and however that happened as far as the fire, it's very much an outlier to what the community feels about us."

Since $25,000 is more than double the cost of the damages from the fire, Kado and Thurmond used some of the extra money to pay their employees who were temporarily laid off during the shutdown.

The rest of the money is going towards renovating the outside plaza for summer 2022, when they expect to have peak foot traffic for their walk-up business. The rendering includes having permanent benches and tables outside.

"We kind of see it as a melting spot of the Northeast for people to come and eat pizza, but also to have a community space where people can connect," said Thurmond.

These entrepreneurs were inspired to give back to the community that gave so much to them.

Slice has their re-opening on Saturday, Nov. 6 at 12 p.m. They have 300 slices to sell and will stay open until 10 p.m.  or until supplies last.