When an executive of the Italian restaurant chain Buca Di Beppo fired Joe Busone, the longtime manager of the Chandler location, he might as well have fired much of the rest of the staff.

In an act of loyalty, seven servers and the hostess walked off the job late last month at the height of the dinner hour, forcing the restaurant to close for the night.

The dismissal might have chased away for good some loyal customers as well.

Busone, 53, had been the manager at Buca Di Beppo at Ray and Priest roads for eight years, and he had built a reputation as someone generous to community groups and loved by his staff.

Greg Geryak, who owns an insurance agency in Ahwatukee, had organized an annual dinner for the Ahwatukee Kiwanis Club at the restaurant. Forty people showed up for the 6 o'clock reservation.

Shortly after, Geryak said, "Joe saw me, gave me a hug and walked out the door. Five minutes later, I heard he was fired. Then . . . the three guys that were going to take care of my party walked out."

The group received their dinner, at a reduced rate, but Geryak said it wasn't up to Buca standards. The salad was soggy, drinks were slow in arriving and Geryak had to get up to refill water glasses himself. Desserts were so slow that a number of the group had left by the time they arrived.

Geryak was so incensed at Busone's firing that he wrote an e-mail to Planet Hollywood, which recently bought the Buca chain.

"People do business with people they like and trust, and we have lost that trust in your restaurant after a very rash decision your company made on Sept. 23," Geryak wrote.

He went on to praise Busone.

"Joe's commitment to his community was extraordinary," he wrote. "His attitude toward helping others is a sound business decision that benefited everyone involved, including Buca."

Busone has donated food or gift cards for fundraising drawings to a number of organizations, including VFW, Cub Scouts, Chandler High School, Desert Vista High School, the Corona Del Sol football team, Valley Christian High School, Chances for Children, a number of parochial schools, and Tri-City Jewish Community Center.

Busone also has donated free food to the Festival of Lights Wine Tasting and to Kyrene Sierra Elementary School.

He has helped raise money for breast cancer research. Last year, Buca was the site of a fundraising dinner for participants in the three-day walk that raises money for breast cancer research. Busone charged a nominal fee for dinner, which covered only part of his cost. This spring, he donated six big pans of lasagna to a dinner in Chandler for breast cancer survivors.

"Your organization has lost a great leader in Joe Busone," Geryak wrote.

"I . . . will inform my entire circle of influence that we will not be dining in Buca or any other restaurant owned by Planet Hollywood again."

Geryak received no response from Planet Hollywood.

Calls from the Republic to Planet Hollywood, Buca Inc. and Serkan Ozekan, the district vice president who fired Busone, were not returned. So it's not clear why Busone was fired. He won't talk about it.

Mitch Gonder, one of the servers who quit, spoke highly of Busone.

"He was understanding and interested in your life," he said.

Another server, Scott Hernandez, said, "He always took a special interest in everyone. It was not really working for a boss, it was working with him."

Hernandez said that many of the employees, mostly college students, don't have a father in their lives, and they looked to Busone as a father figure.

"He was the guy to turn to," Hernandez said.

For his part, Busone, who owned restaurants in New York before moving to Arizona, says he is looking for another job. He is concerned about health insurance. His wife, Cathy, is a breast cancer survivor, and his mother, who has Alzheimer's, lives with them. Joe and Cathy have a son who graduated from Arizona State University and a daughter who is a student at Chandler-Gilbert Community College.

He is touched by the loyalty his staff showed by walking out.

"I never expected them to do that," he said. "Even if they had asked me, I would have said no."

He said he took an interest in his staff.

"All young men and women have goals . . . I try to find out what it is and help them achieve their goal."

He figures if he takes care of his staff, "they will take care of the guests because they don't want to let me down.

"If I take care of my people, my people take care of my goal, which is that my guests left happy."

Busone said the Buca in Chandler ranked Number One in the division of seven restaurants in customer satisfaction surveys, and it ranked fourth in the entire company.

Geryak said the restaurant chain "was so ignorant of the relationship Joe had with his servers."

Geryak took clients to the restaurant, and he had his daughter's christening party there.

"I've had so many different personal and business events there over the years, all because (Joe) is a guy who believes in a relationship of giving back to the community who gives to him."

Another server, Billy Woodmansee, said the staff went to Ozeka and asked him to call Busone back.

"He didn't say anything. We just took our aprons off, put them on the ground and walked out," Woodmanesee said

Emily Smith, who worked for five years as the hostess, walked out with the servers and already has another job as hostess at Z'Tejas in Chandler.

She is a student at Chandler-Gilbert Community College and plans to transfer next semester to Arizona State University.

She said she quit her job out of loyalty to Busone.

"He cares," Smith said. "He's one of those people that makes you realize people can be good."