2011 will be 50 years that we have been in business. It is confusing with all the different Coppola’s in the area. We happen to be the original one. The success of the original restaurant allowed the family to expand.
Originally we were located on 273 Main Street and then moved to the current location. It wasn’t by choice. The city of Poughkeepsie as part of their urban renewal knocked down several buildings. Ours was one of them. So we were forced to look elsewhere to continue our business.
So in 1979 the city of Poughkeepsie forced us out of our building and we moved to upper Main Street in the town of Poughkeepsie taking with us alot of history. We have had the same phone number for 50 years. We are still operating under the same corporation started in 1961.
Throughout the years we have modernized our facility and gotten many facelifts. But for nostalgia sake we have kept some artifacts for reminders of the roots of our success. Keeping some of the original plates and some of the original pots is a daily reminder.
We have an antique scale that we used to weigh all our meats on. We have the original industrial size mixer. It still works. Amazing that things made 50 years ago are of such good quality. We even brought our steam table with us and built the kitchen around it! Some of the original chairs do come out from time to time. If you look on our brick walls we have gold statues that we brought along with us. Those from from the Rialto Theater that we started in 50 years ago.
Throughout our many years in business we have weathered the ups and downs of the economy. Right now we are experiencing another valley. But because of the lessons taught by my father as he started a business from scratch (which was built on hard work and perseverance) we will climb up this valley too. I will be writing on this blog different memories from our experiences in the business. So stay tuned. Not focusing primarily on our family history but I will write about some of the interesting people we have met along the way.