If there’s one thing that The Gourmet Girls know plenty about — besides food — it’s mazel. Some good and some bad.
First, Barbara Collurafici and Lisa Honick opened their upscale market, cafe and catering service — at 3713 Old Court Rd. in Pikesville’s Dumbarton Square shopping center — in the midst of a global pandemic. Then, both co-owners contracted the COVID-19 virus shortly before the store’s grand opening in October of 2020.
Life went on and business bounced back, but The Gourmet Girls suffered another bump in the road on Wednesday morning, Apr. 5 — shortly before the start of the Passover holiday, their store’s busiest season — when a storage refrigeration truck containing approximately 250 seder meal orders malfunctioned and all of the contents needed to be thrown away.
“The truck went into defrost mode and never recovered. This has never happened before to us. It was a fluke, a nightmare,” said Collurafici. “It was like … I can’t even put into words how we felt. It was overwhelming — what are we going to do? What will our customers do? It was one of the worst days of my business career. I can’t even imagine going through it again.”
Immediately, Collurafici, Honick and their staff rolled up their sleeves and began trying to contact customers to let them know about the situation, apologize profusely and say that refunds would be available for all of the orders.
“Most of our customers were very nice about it,” Collurafici said. “Some were mean, but you take the good with the bad. Our staff was amazing. They stayed and tolerated some abuse and anger. We couldn’t reach everyone, so we had to tell some customers when they came into the store for their order. There was a lot of confusion. But our staff just did an amazing job and were very professional and caring with our customers.”
After posting videos about the Passover refrigeration breakdown on social media, Collurafici said she and Honick were quite moved by many of the responses from customers.
“Some of the remarks were very kind and supportive,” she said. “Some told us they didn’t even want to be reimbursed. It felt good to know we have such a loyal customer base. Ours customers were really amazing.”
One example was Pikesville resident Sherry Mauer, who posted on social media, “You did the best you could in a difficult situation … No one died … and people found a way to be with family and friends for the holiday. No one starved. I know it was a huge financial loss for you. I encourage everyone to rally around you ladies and support the store as much as possible moving forward so you can move forward.”
In the meantime, Collurafici said The Gourmet Girls team will be even more vigilant than ever about food refrigeration operations. She also said she and Honick — both of whom are local food service veterans — are confident that insurance will cover most of their financial losses.
“It was a nightmare,” she said, “but we’ll move on.”
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