CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - Chicago Fire Department investigators are looking into the cause of a fire that destroyed a 77-year old catering company on the Southwest Side overnight.
According to CFD spokesman Larry Langford, firefighters were called out at 12:20 a.m. Friday morning to a fire at Georgis Catering on 63rd and Central, just west of Midway Airport.
The entire operation was destroyed, according to long-time employee Becky Walowski.
"It's just a mom-n-pop shop and we all work and make it happen so now we're just, 'Oh my God!'" Walowski said.
Walowski said meals the company had prepared for today went up in flames, including 2,000 meals for senior citizens throughout suburban Cook County.
"We go to their senior centers, deliver the food. They may have drivers that take them on their own route and distribute them, and then you have the centers where they congregate and they have lunch," Walowski noted.
She said the company also caters to private aircraft at O'Hare, Midway and Chicago Executive Airports, including flights for the Bulls and Blackhawks.
Walowski said the fire began shortly after the night shift had left at midnight.
She said the company employs about 35 people and that the owners are looking quickly for a kitchen so that they can resume operations.
"The chef's been there over 30 years, Jose. Juana's been there over 28 years. She does the cold, the fruit trays and things like (that). There's just so many people that are affected by this."
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Walowski said Georgis Catering has been around since 1946.
"The father started it. It was like a banquet hall, restaurant/bar, and then, I believe, when airline catering started, he got into that, the son took over and we've bloomed since then," she said.
Walowski said owners Buzz and Alice Georgis are already looking for a new kitchen where they would be able to resume their operations.
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