If you are a New Yorker, especially an uptown Manhattan person, you've no doubt heard about, and probably even patronized, Copeland's -- the dream and product of hard work of Calvin Copeland. But times caught up with Mr. Copeland and Sunday was his final day in that famous space on West 145th Street. For $25 Sunday you could enjoy some wonderful live music and you could eat all you could. Believe me, some of the folks did just that.
People came from far and near. Some came because they'd seen or heard something in the news and wanted to represent. Some, including a celebrity baker, came as volunteers. Most, like myself, had once been regulars though the myriad choices now available in a booming Harlem made Copeland's less the must-go-there place. Star Jones Reynolds and her husband Al heard about the closing while vacationing in France and upon landing stateside Sunday made a bee-line for Copeland's where Star said she just had to have a final order of chicken wings from one of her favorite places. Rep. Charles Rangel, among the many politicians to attend or send representatives or issue proclamations, noted: "Calvin Copeland for over five decades has endured, through the riots of the 1960s, the crack epidemic of the 1980s, personal financial ruin and even fire, [and] found a way through his cooking to keep people like me, Muhammad Ali, Richard Pryor, Stevie Wonder, David Dinkins, Harry Belafonte, Dakota Staton, Natalie Cole, Bishop Tutu, Sammy Davis Jr. and Michael Jackson as frequent and enthusiastic customers...."
Malcolm X's daughter, Attilah Shabazz, stood on line with everybody else, some for more than an hour in the rain, trying to get in for that final meal. Mr. Copeland, 82, was the gracious host, chatting with everyone, posing for pictures.
There were parties of six and parties of twelve and parties of twenty -- and I couldn't help but think if all these folks had been more faithful, maybe Copeland's would still be around. But, on the other hand, Mr. Copeland did not keep up with the times and has said that he was caught off guard by this boomtown Harlem and its culinary tastebuds.
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2 comments:
wow.
That's a heckuva way to go out. I hope it's a positive, overall.
And I hope that last meal was good. :-)
I ate there once when I lived in NYC. It was a memorable experience. Too bad it's now closed.
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