LaBrasca’s celebrates 50 years, raises money for neighborhood flood recovery

LaBrasca’s Pizza restaurant and its Columbia neighbors have been supporting one another for half a century now.

When restaurant owner Brett Wilson decided to celebrate LaBrasca’s 50th anniversary, he also decided to return some favors to the community that helped his business recover from October’s devastating flood.

It was nearly two months before the restaurant reopened after the flood, made possible in large part to $15,000 raised by volunteers. But now, almost 10 months after the flood, many of the people who lived in homes in the neighborhood behind LaBrasca’s, along Rickenbaker Road and Burwell Lane, still haven’t recovered from the destruction.

“I ride through this neighborhood every day to do my errands ... and I see the devastation that’s still there and the people who are not back in their homes,” said Wilson, who spent much of Saturday afternoon in a dunking tank. Along with an auction, a beauty pageant, kids’ activities, and food and drink specials, the tank helped raise money that would be donated to the ongoing flood recovery efforts in the Cross Hill neighborhood area.

“I don’t think I can really make enough money to make a major impact, but every little bit helps,” Wilson said. “If somebody can just get $50 worth of groceries, sometimes it’s a big help.”

Katie Gentry and Sam Blackman, who worked at LaBrasca’s as teenagers more than a decade ago, brought their 3-year-old son, Jax, to Saturday’s celebration. They both grew up in the area, and their parents used to visit LaBrasca’s as kids themselves, Gentry said.

“It’s just generations and generations of people who have great memories from here,” Wilson said.

That kind of loyalty, he said, is what drove the community to support the restaurant in the aftermath of the flood, with some of his customers even showing up before him at the restaurant the day after the flood, ready and waiting to help.

“When you grow up with something, it’s hard to let it go. If you have one good memory, that’s all you need,” Wilson said.

Five-year-old Anderson Stumpf had fun tossing balls to dump Wilson into the tank of water Saturday afternoon. Anderson represents the fourth generation of his family to regularly eat at LaBrasca’s.

His grandmother, Terri Hill, and her parents ate at the restaurant when it first opened in 1966, and she still does. She can remember piling into cars to watch movies and eat LaBrasca’s pizza at the drive-in theater that used to sit behind the restaurant.

“This was the only thing here” when the restaurant opened, Hill said. “I’ve pretty much seen everything come, go, and everything else be reconstructed.”

LaBrasca’s, though, has stayed the same.

This story was originally published July 30, 2016 at 10:58 PM with the headline "LaBrasca’s celebrates 50 years, raises money for neighborhood flood recovery."