Joe's Little Italy has been serving up pizza in the Belmont section of the Bronx for over 30 years, but this year may have been its hardest yet.

Between the coronavirus pandemic and looting, 2020 has hit Joe’s Little Italy rather hard.

"That happened, a lot of things you know, the pandemic, business went down, schools were closed, vandalism, they break in, take all of my merchandise," says owner Chris Castlano.

Castlano says he always looks at the bright side and refused to let a few bumps in the road stop him from doing what he loves.

He says he, along with his landlord, wanted to bring some light to an otherwise dark situation.

"Not to look at the damage, I wanted something better for my community,” says Castlano.

That’s when he called on artist Fernando Carlo, known as Cope 2, to paint a mural to brighten up the neighborhood.

“As people are walking by, they compliment how beautiful the mural is and the owner and the landlord tell me they wanted this in the community for the children to see something positive,” says Carlo.

Continuing to stay positive, Castlano is back to business serving pizzas, subs, pasta and more.