the ZuppeQueen Chronicles

It never ceases to amaze me how much information is available on the web.  So among other things, I have developed the habit of Googling the family name and other family references to check up on everyone.  I like to see if everyone in the family is behaving or if something might have gone awry that needs my attention or anyone might have been disowned and I never got the memo…. err… its email nowadays. 

A few of you out there know the ZuppeKing was raised in a family restaurant named The Coney Island Cafe that was owned by his father and his father’s brother.  When I was 5 or 6 years old I began learning to cook by the ”old school method” which meant first developing all the essential skills of any good restaurant owner before I was allowed to actually make anything a customer would taste. 

These would turn out to be essential skills like peeling the tough sausage casings off hundreds of ice cold wieners before they became hotdogs, peeling and hand chopping 30# of onions to exactly the right fine dice, double mopping restaurant floors every other day, washing more dirty dishes in 12 hours than most households see in a year, slicing hundreds of Coney buns, stirring a 20 gallon pot of chili [sort of like "wax on... wax off" in the Karate Kid movie], learning how to count money and make change with out getting scammed, mashing 30 pounds of hamburger into patties daily, washing the front picture windows, constantly carrying ice and filling the drink machine, or the most revolting job in the restaurant [oh yes, even worse than scrubbing toilets] which was cleaning the sewer’s grease trap. 

In retrospect, I realize I was actually being taught the most essential skill of all successful restaurant owners which was to work hard and to do the job right the first time.  Over the next thirteen years I developed a love/hate relationship for working in that restaurant but I also learned a lot of great stuff about life at the same time.  I learned not be afraid of hard work.  I learned how to make a profit in a business. I learned to be proud of my good work.  And, I learned never to quit.  

I was feeling nostalgic today and so I Googled the key words “Coney Island” and “Pampa”. One half second later back popped a listing of hyperlinks to 11,900 web pages that contained my key search words.  That’s when I came across a web page showing the state of Texas Legislature in the form of H.R. No. 126 recognized the Coney Island Cafe up in Pampa located in Gray County, Texas for it contribution to the well being of the citizens of the State of Texas. 

The Coney Island Cafe was started in 1933 by my grandmother’s brother, great-uncle Bill Coronis who brought my father into the business after WWII.  Then after Bill’s death in 1952, my father’s brother joined the business.  The Coney Island Cafe of Pampa is still in business today though my relatives no longer own the business, after seventy-two years of serving food to the residents of Pampa Texas. During those scores of years, the Coney Island Cafe touched thousands of lives and spawned hundreds of thousands of colorful memories for Texans, the most famous probably being Woody Gutherie the song writer/philosopher who at one time washed dishes in the Coney Island just as I had done. 

To this day I yet to figure out if I was a better employee than old Woody Gutherie or if Woody was just much smarter than the ZuppeKing because I ended up washing dishes a whole lot longer at the Coney Island Cafe than did Woody Gutherie. I have a nagging suspicion the real reason was that I worked a whole lot cheaper than did Woody Gutherie.

H.R. No. 126 adopted by the House on March 25, 1999

R E S O L U T I O N

      WHEREAS, The residents of Pampa enthusiastically support a noted dining landmark in their community and it is fitting to join with them in recognizing Coney Island Cafe as it commemorates 66 years as a successful family owned business; and

            WHEREAS, In 1933, Bill Coronis started the restaurant using recipes he brought from his native Greece; his nephews, John and Ted Gikas, began working with their uncle as boys and have managed the business since 1946; and

      WHEREAS, Through the years, this popular establishment has fed thousands of coneys to generations of hungry Texans and countless  visitors to the Pampa area; the chili dogs with trimmings are still  a favorite meal as the cafe handles a lunch-hour rush six days a week, 49 weeks a year, closing its doors only for the last week of May and the first two weeks of June; and

      WHEREAS, The food is satisfying, as is the entire dining experience here; the Coney Island Cafe evokes in its longtime customers memories of childhood meals, teenaged dates, and family gatherings; instead of writing down orders, waitresses sing them out to the Gikas brothers, who work side by side at the storefront window grill greeting lifelong friends who come in for coneys and a slice of pie from one of 20 baked by John each day; and

      WHEREAS, The Gikas brothers recall some of their more well-known visitors; Bob Wills used to wash dishes at the cafe in the 1930s and Woody Guthrie ate there, lived upstairs for a time, and even wrote a song about the restaurant; and

      WHEREAS, John and Ted Gikas and their Coney Island Cafe have remained significant in the life of Pampa for many generations, and it is fitting that they be recognized at this time; now, therefore, be it

      RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 76th Texas Legislature hereby commend John and Ted Gikas and the Coney Island Cafe for 66 years of providing nourishment and friendship to the citizens of Pampa and its visitors; and, be it further

      RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be prepared for John and Ted Gikas as an expression of high regard by the Texas House of Representives.

Warren Chisum, Represenative