A Slice of Survival: D’Amore’s Pizza
In the first hours of the Palisades Fire, Joe D’Amore had an impossible decision to make: save his house or his restaurant. The choice was ultimately made for him.
"Those 48 hours were chaos,” D’Amore said. “I was trying to decide — do I save the house or the store? My wife was packing at home while I stayed here, trying to keep the doors open for firefighters… I thought about staying and fighting it with a hose, but the police — friends of mine — told me, 'This isn't an ember fire. This is 100-mile-an-hour winds. You've got to go.' So I left.”
D'Amore's Pizza has been a fixture of the Malibu community since 1999. D'Amore first opened in Canoga Park where he built a following on his grandmother's 100-year-old pizza recipe. When he opened in Malibu, the community embraced him immediately.
During the 2018 Woolsey Fire, he kept his restaurant open and fed roughly 3,500 first responders over two weeks, many of whom were sleeping in his shop beside their fire trucks.
Malibu city officials estimate roughly 720 homes were lost during the Palisades Fire, reducing entire neighborhoods to empty lots. D'Amore's house was one of them. If D’Amore’s pizza shop had not been built with cement, D'Amore believes he would have lost the restaurant as well.
Eventually, he was allowed to briefly visit what remained of his home. The fire had consumed everything except his mailbox and the park bench in his front yard. “If you went there right after the fires it was like a war zone,” D’Amore said. “The smell was horrendous.”
Volunteers from Samaritan's Purse, a disaster relief organization, spent hours sifting through the debris in search of anything salvageable, but almost nothing remained.
"Everything was gone… even my grandfather's World War I doughboy helmet. It didn't survive," D’Amore said.
D'Amore's Pizza serves as a gallery of its own history, with photos of iconic customers ranging from actor Adam Sandler to former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. The photos reflect D'Amore's long history and visibility within the community. Alongside the celebrity photos are more personal ones: pictures of D’Amore’s grandmother and his family.
Currently, D’Amore is trying to do 70% of his yearly business between May and September, so he says this summer is essential.
"I'm a survivor. I'm back to the days when I first opened up and no one knew who I was. At least I have a famous name now — I just have to get people here.”
He credits travelers with much of his business' success, saying people from all over Europe visit because they've heard of his pizza.
"One day a Hungarian customer came in with a copy of my menu," D'Amore said. "I asked where he got it. He said, 'From my travel agent.' I thought it was the coolest thing. Two weeks later, a guy from Munich comes in — same story, from his travel agent. Somehow, some way, with no help from me, I got on some list in Western Europe.”
The economic reality of Malibu’s recovery continues to weigh on his business.“This past Super Bowl Sunday was the worst I've ever had,” D'Amore said.
Traditionally, Malibu has experienced a steady stream of vacationers, but after the fire displaced residents and businesses, local tourism has dwindled.
“The only thing keeping me going is my Google presence. Last Saturday, we had 142 orders; only nine were from Malibu.”
Before the pandemic, D'Amore had expanded the family business he started with his grandmother's recipe to multiple locations across Southern California. Today, two remain.
“This is all that I have left — but I'm still standing,” D’Amore said.
After being displaced, D'Amore and his wife moved between homes before eventually settling in Stevenson Ranch.
“I’m still living out of the same two gym bags.”