Order up!
A quick-thinking Long Island diner owner whipped up food in record time for more than 80 snowed-in and starving hospital workers during last week’s historic blizzard — after the medical center’s kitchen staff couldn’t make it in.
“We didn’t have enough people to make certain that we were able to get our staff fed,” Joseph Manopella, president of St. Joseph Hospital in Bethpage, told The Post.
“Immediately, I said, ‘I know what I need to do.’”
Manopella phoned his close friend, Gus Tsiorvas, of the Embassy Diner, directly across the street from the hospital, at around 7 a.m. Monday with nearly two feet of snow piling up — and told him St. Joe’s needed to feed its staff.
“He just said, ‘Come over in 30 minutes,’” the hospital boss recalled.
Now Tsiorvas and his eatery are being served back as Oyster Bay Supervisor Joe Saladino honored them Tuesday.
“All essential workers hit home for me, because I know what they do,” said Tsiorvas, whose entire family is made up of cops and frontline workers.
“They sacrifice their lives for other people’s lives.”
The patriotic-themed diner lived up to its usual reputation of staying open come hell — or, in this case, high frozen water — to give first responders a hot meal and a place to rest their heads during the brutal conditions Sunday into Monday.
“I actually just finished doing an order for PSE&G for 100 people when Joe called,” said Tsiorvas, who had two workers sleep in the diner Sunday ahead of the storm’s biggest squalls just in case.
“I went back to the cook, and I said, ‘Listen, we’ve got one more. So he looked at me, goes, ‘Are you serious?!’ I said, ‘Yeah, we got one more. Do it again.’”
His five devoted kitchen staff went to work like a NASCAR pit crew to fill the massive order in what seemed like record time.
They were flipping pancakes, making waffles, French toast, eggs, corned beef and hash, potatoes and any other breakfast staples one could think of — all of which took five members of the hospital brass to carry on foot back to St. Joseph’s.
They had to trudge across the usually bustling Hempstead Turnpike, which was transformed into a deep, powdery mess that was closed to non-emergency vehicles.
“It was a challenge,” said Manopella.
The reward, however, was well worth it. Hospital leaders quickly served dozens of its staff a fresh, hot breakfast as they continued working through the prolific snowstorm.
“Pancakes and waffles were the favorites,” added Manopella, who said that “people were not selective” and filled their plates with as much as they could.
When all was said and done, Tsiorvas sprinkled in another treat for the hospital — the breakfast was on the house.
“They’re my neighbor, how could I charge them?” he said.
And, as a thank you to Tsiorvas’ dedicated team, he said he “ran right to the safe” and handed out cash bonuses of around $300.
“They put in their blood, sweat, and tears for our community,” he said.
“So I’m big into that — you take care of the guys that take care of you.”