Posted on 12/22/2020 5:55:51 PM PST by texas booster
It's no wonder to most folks why Artur Pira, owner of Aboca's Italian Grill restaurant in Richardson is one of my favorite people in the world. He's well known and loved among our city for his giving heart. My fondness for this hero began because of this scene that I witnessed just happening at his restaurant more than five years ago.
...I came across the website for Aboca’s during a Google search. It had favorable reviews. We had never been there before so it fit the bill.
After sitting, I notice a woman sitting by us who the waiter called, "Anna."
Anna is sitting, I found out later at the same table that she’s sat at for the past nine years. It’s a busy Friday night, and the restaurant is packed. Anna sits at a table for four alone.
Pira walks up with a big smile on his face to greet her. Not knowing he’s the owner, I just think he’s this nice, burly guy in a chef’s smock.
“Your usual, minestrone soup?” he asked.
“Yes,” Anna said, smiling, revealing missing teeth. She takes off her knitted hat unveiling an aluminum foil cap, which she leaves on.
“It protects me from alien laser rays,” she later tells me.
Anna is a homeless person, who Pira feeds twice a day for free. She is mentally ill, believing that Dolly Parton stole her identity, and a notebook that she fills with ink squiggles is money, which is how she pays.
Pira, a native of Albania defected from the communist country in 1990 before coming to America. He worked at various restaurants for years eventually saving enough to purchase his own, including in 2003 opening Aboca’s, an Italian eatery at Central Expressway and Belt Line Road.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
Little is known about Anna, including her last name. She won’t accept city or state help. Pira feeds her, even packing food for her on Saturday evenings so she can eat on Sundays when the restaurant is closed.
“Anna must be homeless due to mental problems,” Pira said. “But she is peaceful and not mean.”
Pira has even bought her clothes during the year and gives her money or other necessities for Christmas or her birthday.
Pira is known around Richardson and the community for his generosity working with everyone from the city's fire department to schools to even hosting a lavish luncheon each year honoring close to 200 Network of Community Ministries volunteers for free.
Anna told me that she “loves the atmosphere” at Aboca’s. “Everyone treats you like family,” she said.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3918082/posts
Here is a story from 2013, from a suburb of Dallas, about an anecdote that the author witnessed at a local Italian eatery.
Think about the thousands of businesses that take it upon themselves to reach out to the needy, such as Mr. Pira.
Most of us at Free Republic are able to help others, due to our own hard work year after year. Here is a gentleman from Albania who reaches out (and has for nine years) to help a homeless person, for nothing in return.
And the criminal politicians simply do not care about the pain they cause, since it helps them maintain or gain power over citizens.
They claim to be helping others but all that they do is to prop up themselves as feudal kings over a dying province.
May G_d judge these politicians properly.
What a wonderful, good hearted person. Long May he prosper.
‘It’s heartbreaking’: Richardson restaurant on the cusp of closure as Christmas approaches
Aboca’s Italian Grill is one of thousands of Texas restaurants behind on bills and low on customers.
https://www.dallasnews.com/food/restaurant-news/2020/12/22/its-heartbreaking-richardson-restaurant-on-the-cusp-of-closure-as-christmas-approaches/
12/22/2020
At age 54, that IS his retirement nest egg.
I will try to head up there to visit him.
Or at least to help out one of a dozen other needy restaurants that I am aware of.
Huh. We’re actually looking at hitting an Italian place tomorrow night before going by the big Plano neighborhood with the fancy lights. Definitely thinking this place just beat out Olive Garden and Macaroni Grill by a wide margin!
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