DEALS
Teaching has never been an easy profession, but these last two years have pushed many teachers to the edge. Thankfully restaurants around the world have stepped in and will occasionally offer teachers discounts and freebies at certain times of the year. Usually, though, those are reserved for Teacher Appreciation Week, which is the one week out of the whole year where everyone realizes how overworked and underpaid teachers are, before largely forgetting that we exist for the rest of the year.
And sure, some free mozzarella sticks or a couple bucks off a plate of nachos is nice and all, but ask any teacher these days what they could really use to help them survive the school year and the answer very likely would be an alcoholic beverage (or two… or three). Now at least one restaurant out there has heard those cries for help and is offering special Happy Hour deals just for teachers and administrators every day of the week.
Steven Sciacca runs Pizzette, an Italian restaurant in the heart of Brooklyn. He says he got the idea for a “teachers only” happy hour after talking to a buddy of his who also happens to have a connection to the classroom.
“[It started with] a conversation with a regular named Jose who works for the New York City Department of Education in an administrative position. [We] have regulars that are teachers and administrators.” says Sciacca.
Pizzette is an Italian restaurant and bar located within a few blocks of 4 schools, so when they decided they wanted to do something nice for teachers, they decided to focus on the bar side of things as opposed to the food. From there the idea blossomed into a full-fledged year around happy hour for anyone working in education.
“We know how trying the last few years have been. As a show of support, we wanted to announce that we will be offering teachers and admins Happy Hour anytime 7 days a week.”
Sciacca says the promotion has just begun but it’s already catching on with both teachers and administrators in the area. He says they’ve seen 10-20 educators a week take advantage of the deal and he hopes that as word spreads, more will swing by to imbibe and blow off a little steam after a long day in the classroom.
Of course, one would expect that the idea of combining teachers and alcohol would rub a few people the wrong way, but Sciacca says he’s heard no complaints up to this point and the response he has received has been nothing but positive. It also seems he may be a bit of an innovator. A deep dive on Google turns up a lot of date-specific teacher discounts at various restaurants, but Pizzette may, in fact, be the first restaurant to launch a Teacher Happy Hour that runs every day all year long. Even Sciacca admits he’s heard of food specials, but never something quite like this.
If you are in the Brooklyn area and want to give Pizzette’s a try, they’re located at the corner of Graham Avenue and Scholes Street, and remember to bring your school ID with you! Sadly, not all of us can get to Pizzette’s in Brooklyn, but hopefully, as word of this good deed spreads to the corners of the internet a few more restaurants out there will see this and it’ll catch on so teachers everywhere can partake.
This has been an absolutely bonkers school year across the board, and regardless of where you teach, what you teach or how you teach, we can all agree that a few refreshing adult beverages every now and then may be one of the only things that will help us survive yet another insane school year.
