The Reel Inn, a longtime restaurant in Malibu, was just one of the businesses lost on Pacific Coast Highway following the Palisades Fire.
The restaurant, built on decades of hard work and friendship, was made up of a team of 23 employees, according to co-owner Teddy Leonard.
“I feel really blessed to have known these people, to work with these people and they were our first concern when the restaurant was gone. What are they going to do?” said Leonard.
The fire is not the only hardship Reel Inn has faced in recent years. The pandemic also took a toll on the team.
“Even during COVID, they didn’t even want to take paychecks,” Leonard said. “A couple of them asked if they could give us their paychecks because they knew we were taking it out of our savings account.”
In an effort to repay the support of their employees, the owners started a GoFundMe account which has raised nearly $200,000.
The donations will be distributed Thursday in hopes of sustaining the Reel Inn employees over the next few months.
The Palisades Fire, which started on Jan. 7 in Pacific Palisades east of Malibu, has burned more than 23,000 acres and was 65% contained as of Wednesday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
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