When the pandemic shut down Casa Nuova’s dining room, the Fundora family kept paying the people who worked there. Maria Fundora says doing so, while covering the restaurant’s bills, meant taking out a $200,000 personal loan.
Years later, the family is still repaying it.
“We are still paying that loan, but we feel that we have survived,” Fundora told North Atlanta Star in written answers about the restaurant’s nearly three decades in Alpharetta.
Meet your neighbors over dinner
Casa Nuova received some federal Paycheck Protection Program assistance, she said, but the family also borrowed personally. The full-service Italian restaurant shifted to takeout food and wine sales, operating as what Fundora described as a bodega…