Veteran-owned Porthole Pizzeria Weathers the Pandemic with PPP Funding

Porthole Deli and Pizzeria is a small restaurant started in 2020 by ECC SBDC client Tony Scerra. Scerra, who has family in San Pedro, left the Coast Guard to pursue his dream of owning a restaurant. His mother already had the location where the pizzeria is located and runs a commercial bakery next store where he buys his fresh pizza dough. Coincidentally, Tony’s mother had once operated a pizzeria in the same location as where Porthole is now but closed it several years ago when the commercial accounts at the bakery grew.

Unfortunately for Scerra, he opened his business right before COVID and struggled to grow the business to the point where it was making a reasonable profit. He had to streamline his business to operate with minimal staff and longer hours to reduce costs while increasing sales. Most of the earnings he was generating were poured back into the business for operations and marketing.

Solutions

Scerra sought assistance from the SBDC to help him address cash flow management, point of sale system issues, profit and loss statement creation, financial projections, and disaster funding. ECC was able to provide a combined total of 24 hours of advising and 7.5 hours of training resulting in the creation of the business, 6 new jobs, and both first- and second-draw Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans.

Results

Through hard work and the support of his family, customers, and the SBDC, Porthole Deli survived and today is growing in sales.