Community rallies around Denver pizza place after hit-and-run driver destroys patio

There was a normal lunch rush consisting mostly of Northfield High School students at Carmella's on Monday, so naturally many were curious about the abnormal: a line of caution tape surrounding an area of the Denver restaurant's patio.   

"You always continue to remain on your toes and on your feet," owner Dustin Chiappetta said with a chuckle. 

It was a surprise for him as well when he came to work at the restaurant located in Pearl Market in the city's Northfield neighborhood early Saturday morning. 

"We were pulling up to go do a charity breakfast for one of the neighborhood schools and we saw our patio in complete disarray," he recalled. 

First he noticed the mess, then took a look at his security cameras. A hit and run had happened as a driver barreled over the sidewalk and smashed directly into the patio area, knocking out a light fixture post some time early Saturday morning. 

"We lost about 70% of our furniture," said Chiappetta. 

The driver walked away from the scene but later was found by police and took responsibility for the wreck. Much of the patio is closed as the shop awaits a final verdict from their insurance company about what will be covered. Had the car not collided with the concrete barrier on the edge of the patio, Chiappetta said, it could have continued unimpeded into the building itself. 

But there was plenty of immediate community outreach and support as the restaurant and market is waiting on what to do next. 

"The really cool part is immediately afterwards it was like 'Hey do you need us to come clean up and help right away?'" said Chiappetta, adding in a joke that any attention might inadvertently be good attention in today's world. 

"Use it as an opportunity to come in, helps make things a little bit easier as we try to rebuild our patio," he said, chuckling. 

At the tail end of the rush, students continued to crowd the pizza window after putting in their orders and were calling the "patio-in-progress" a lunchtime home again.