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

Black Pepper and Lemon Oven Fries

1 1/2 to 2 pounds small red potatoes, cut into wedges
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon (you can substitute lime for a variation)
1/8 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated
Preheat oven to 375, place oven rack in the second to the top slot.
Now, in a bowl toss the potato wedges with a few big pinches of sea salt and five or six cranks of the pepper grinder. Add the olive oil and toss until every potato is nicely coated.

Arrange the potatoes cut side down on a baking sheet. Place in the oven for 30-35 minutes, flipping the potatoes with a metal spatula half way through the cooking process.  While the the potatoes are baking, zest the lemon and cut it into a few wedges.

When the potatoes are cooked through, fork tender, remove them from the oven, and adjust the seasoning. Add more salt and pepper to your taste (don’t skimp on the pepper!).  Now serve the wedges in a big shallow bowl, or on a platter, drizzled with lemon juice and dusted with the lemon zest and finely grated Parmesan.

Off-site report: This article is being filed from the Baltimore International Airport as I patiently wait for my flight to San Antonio.  

I am sitting here on a mezzanine next to the food court overlooking boarding gate 2 of Southwest Airlines.  to my right is a medium sized plain latte I have been sipping and all arround me there are at least 7 other people all working on their computers just as I am doing.  I can see the ZuppeQueen two hundred feet away at the coffee kiosk grabbing herself a Mucho-ChocoRific Mocha or something that is far too complicated for my brain to embrace. 

It was not that long ago travel by airplane was a simple undertaking.  Today it is a complicated undertaking to say the least.  Though I must honestly admit I find it far less stressful flying today than the flying I endured 15 years ago.  Way back then I lived in Houston Texas and I traveled almost weekly with my job.  So, I had come to know that my house was exactly 19 minutes from the airport and if all went well I could actually be waiting to board my plane 40 minutes after leaving the house after driving the loop, parking the car, shuttle bussing to the terminal, and clearing security.  I was a seasoned traveler and I had boarding airplanes late down to an art.    So why was it stressful for me to fly when I seemed so practiced?  It was because I did indeed have it down to an art form and I thought it was normal to always be rushing about trying to improve my record for cutting it close boarding airplanes.  I felt I was in a race and I did not know why.  That made flying stressful.  Well afterall, what was I supposed to think?  That is how we all learned to be a passenger, by watching television or movies.  No one told me different and I did not figure it out for a long time.  

Well now today, the radical Muslim terrorists and the federal government have helped me to see the error of my past ways.  Nowadays boarding an airplane has matured into a very complicated serious process.  There is no more rushing through airports O.J. Simpson style.  That is no longer considered cool and is almost certainly guaranteed to attract unwanted air marshal attention.  

Airline travel is still a good experience for me but it is also perplexing to me.  I find it a strange diacotomy of complicated and simple all at the same time.  for instance, each step of the boarding process must be performed correctly and in the correct order or you simply will not board that plane.  That’s ok; I appreciate feeling safe as possible while in the air.  Not too surprisingly air travel began feeling difficult to me when a lot of people seemed to get angry and frustrated at all of the airport drama suddenly thrust upon the air traveler.  I still remember feeling frustrated by all of the confusion revolving around the ”new and improved” airport security process.   About this time I began to watch the faces of the airport workers.  I could see they were not having fun either.  In fact nobody at the airport seemed to be having fun.

That very moment is when it dawned on me that this whole messy situation is exactly what the terrorists wanted to happen.  How sick is that anyway?  So, the ZuppeKing and ZuppeQueen decided to fight back.  We decided to beat the terrorists at their own game and so we talked it over.  It was decided that we should begin enjoying air travel no matter how complicated or frustrating it seemed to be.  We resolved ourselves to always try being Zen like and to learn to go with the “flow” of things.  We decided to be like water…  

#8 The Taoism of Water

The best of man[kind] is like water,
Which benefits all things, and does not contend with them,
Which flows in places that others disdain,
Where it is in harmony with the Way.      -LaoTze - TaoDeJing

We wanted harmony in our air travel.  So, behaving like water, being gentle and putting forth the effort to get in harmony with airline travel is exactly what we began to do.  These days plenty of time is allowed to get to the airport.  We wait patiently in lines and smile at people around us.  We try to always thank airport personnel for doing their jobs and give them a smile because we understand they are the ones keeping us safe while we passengers sit back and relax and of course, wait.  It has become my personal goal to get through the entire check in process without frustration.  And, everytime that happens I feel really good inside sort of like I might have just used my left hand to pick my nose in front of the radical Muslim terrorists of the world. 

So, that is why I am sitting here 40 minutes before my departure writing this blog and enjoying a decaf low-fat latte in bright sunny Baltimore International airport.  I am feeling great and I am feeling relaxed.  In fact, I am happy and I am not at all frustrated.  The ZuppeQueen and I are totally cool water.   And because of that I am convinced that because I have less stress and anxiety in my life I am going to live a lot longer.  I think I’m going to spend those extra years of life I just gained by figuring out a way to eliminate terrorism so I won’t have to wait so long in airports.