Committed Pig of the Month: February

Committed Pig of the Month- February 2018

For February, we actually have two standout employees for our Committed Pig of the Month. Aside from their strong work ethic, our employees this month were chosen for their everyday service, hospitality, and overwhelming sense of humanity. Rylee Kasbar and Katherine (Kathy) Tacuri from our Summit location have certainly earned a shout out from an event that occurred not too long ago.

 

In the early morning of December 31st, 2017, the usually quiet town of Summit, NJ experienced a scary incident involving a fire in a large apartment building located near The Committed Pig. Patrick Angelo, the Summit restaurant’s General Manager, lives right next to the building as well and was awakened by his dog frantically barking at 5am. When he noticed the fire, he immediately woke up his wife, Laura, and dialed 911. Patrick and his wife made the quick decision to leave their apartment with their four month old twins in case the fire spread, heading to The Committed Pig to wait it out.

While in the restaurant, they saw Summit Police Officers and residents of the burning building outside as they were being evacuated toward the restaurant. “I ran over to the officer and told him to tell the people to come into the restaurant for shelter. Keep in mind it was about 5 degrees out that morning, and people were running out in their pajamas without coats on. Some people didn’t even have shoes on,” explained Pat.

Once everyone was inside, Pat made them coffee and as soon as the cooks arrived, he had them make eggs and pancakes to comfort the crowd. The problem was that Pat and his wife needed to feed the twins, however they did not have baby formula on them and would not be getting back into their building any time soon. Laura’s mother’s house was close by, so Pat made the decision to call Rylee, as she lives very close to The Committed Pig.

The phone call woke Rylee up, as it was around 6am, but once Pat explained the situation, she was at the restaurant within ten minutes. While Pat and Laura went to feed the twins, Rylee was instructed to just make sure the residents were comfortable. Pat also called his Assistant Manager, Kathy, who was due in at 7:30am, to alert her of the situation.

When Pat arrived back at the restaurant, everyone was still there, including EMT’s, firemen, police officers, and local politicians. Since things were not going to wrap up anytime soon, Pat decided not to open for business that day and told his staff they could go home. The cooks were told to cook up a few more things and then they could call it a day as well.

Pat looked back on the day and said, “what touched my heart about Rylee and Kathy that day was that they refused to leave. They could see the desperation on all these people faces and just wanted help out as much as they possibly could. They both stayed until the situation was wrapped up and did whatever was in their power to comfort everyone, without asking for any direction from me. Both of these women have an incredible sense of humanity and compassion which is something that cannot be taught. It is just instilled in some people naturally.”

Rylee and Kathy were shining examples of what it means to do the right thing and lend a helping hand out to your community. Thank you for your hard work ladies- we all appreciate your dedication to your job and the wellbeing of others.

Everyone at The Committed Pig who was involved in helping out that day will be honored on February 8th by the Summit Police Department for their hard work!

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