Bartucci turns lemons into limoncello

Like every other local restaurant, BarTucci’s on Harlem Avenue has been hit hard by the pandemic. With business slowed to a crawl and inventory sitting in coolers, owner Gino Bartucci stepped out onto the street in mid-March with bagged lunches that he distributed for free to Chicago Streets and Sanitation workers. Bartucci has stayed afloat since then by selling meals to curbside customers. Meanwhile, he has broadened his generosity to embrace first responders and health care workers, as well as veterans and the homeless, bestowing more than 5,000 meals to date. “Our most important priority right now is taking care of the people who are taking care of us,” Bartucci says.