Mmmmmm.... A Wopburger!
Posted by: tony on 05/15/2007 04:49 PM
Updated by: tony on 05/16/2007 02:47 AM
Expires: 06/15/2007 12:00 AM
Since 1919, this treat has been on a Louisville restaurant's menu. It consists of a sausage patty with sauce and melted cheese on a bun. Now one cafone who is in desperate need of a humor transplant has kaboshed it.
It all began about 1919, when Michael and Emira Colacci, fresh from Campobasso, Italy, decided that opening a restaurant in Louisville made sense. A place for coal miners - of which Michael was one - to eat, to be comfortable around fellow paisanos.
The you-know-what [WOP]burger's name wasn't an ethnic slur. It was, Michael and Emira's granddaughter would insist 88 years later, "A nickname. It just meant they were Italian, proud to be Italian."
At least that's what Michael and Emira thought. At least that's what their son Joe and their grandchildren Joan and Richard thought. And, apparently, it's what generations of locals like Chuck Scarpella thought.
Scarpella, former head of the Louisville Society of Italian Americans, says the you-know- what [WOP]burger had "been there all my life. My grandma worked in the Blue Parrot. My mom worked there, I worked there, my kids worked there. It's never been offensive."
OK, so maybe over the years, a few eyebrows had been raised, concedes State Rep. Paul Weissman, a Blue Parrot bartender for 18 years. "But after it was explained that it had been on the menu for 88 years and the tradition behind it, people were fine."
Until about a month ago.
A transplanted East Coast Italian-American named James Gambino came in, saw the item on the menu and, says Joan Riggins (nee Colacci), "really raised a stink. He said he was offended and demanded we take it off the menu."
My guess is that it's a New York City transplant who has the same well defined sense of outrage and entitlement as the rest of his compatriots.
I'm a wop. It was originally a term of derision aimed at Italians who emigrated to the US (like my grandfather). It originally stood for "without papers". It soon became co-opted by us to refer to fellow paisans, as in "us wops really love wopburgers" [ed.- intentional bad English].
Part of it was lighthearted ribbing at holding really tight to the old ways. Now, in this era of multiculturalism (read that balkanization) there is no desire to assimilate into American culture. As a matter of fact, to many it's offensive to even state that there is an American culture.
So what does this East Coast crybaby do next?
Gambino admits he was "shocked," but remembers "politely" speaking to the Blue Parrot. "They basically laughed at us."
Of course, stupido. When you beclown yourself, people will laugh at you.
Then the April 13 letter from the Washington, D.C.-based National Italian American Foundation arrived. The one in which NIAF Chairman Dr. A. Kenneth Ciongoli wrote he was "alarmed to learn" of the you-know-what [WOP]burger being on the menu. "Perhaps you are not aware that this is a pejorative term that insults the Italian American community," he added.
No way, thought Riggins, to Ciongoli's renaming suggestion. "This is our business." Apparently, the Boulder Valley School District didn't agree.
Gambino, who complained to the NIAF, also took his case to the school district, which, it seems, had been happily buying Blue Parrot sauce for 10 years and using it in its lunch program.
"We love using the product," says Linda Stoll, director of food services for the school district. "It's 100 percent natural, exactly the kind of product we want."
When Stoll learned the Blue Parrot had a you-know-what [WOP]burger on its menu, she called Richard Colacci, a restaurant owner and boss of the sauce operation.
"I explained that the district is very proud of our stance on ethnic equity issues," recalls Stoll, adding that the you-know-what burger "didn't conform to the way we felt about those issues."
Then, "I asked if they would consider renaming the item."
Hahahahahahaha!!! Spoken in the true Cosa Nostra fashion :)
"Dats-s a nice-a contract you got-a dere. Would hate-a to see annyting-a happen to it!"
And Colacci "got-a da message"
Although Colacci admits, "I was kinda shocked" that "someone was so upset," he adds, "I understood her point of view 100 percent if they were getting that much heat."
Stoll says she never threatened to terminate the contract, which accounts for about 4 percent of the Blue Parrot sauce operations. Any sauce cessation "would have been a decision requiring more people than me."
Of course they didn't [directly] threaten to terminate the contract. That would be... well... blackmail, wouldn't it. :)
They simply "reasoned" with Mr. Colacci :)
Although he takes pains to praise Stoll's cordial tone, Colacci said, "She presented it to me in a very straightforward manner. We had to make the move on the menu or possibly lose their business."
Yup. Mr. Colacci is a wop. He understands "muscle" when he hears it.
And, essentially, what happens is the icon blinks first. Which is why the menu at the Blue Parrot restaurant will soon offer an "Italian burger" instead of a you-know-what [WOP]burger.
I have a suggestion for him. Change the name from wopburger to DAGOburger. :) However, I understand that this gentleman has a business to run, and it's easy for me to give advice from over here.
I think I'm going to buy some sausage patties this weekend and make them on the grill. I'm going to smother them with mozzarella cheese and my mama's delicious sauce. I'm going to put them on nice Italian hard rolls, pour myself a nice glass of Italian red table wine, put some Dean Martin on the stereo and thoroughly enjoy my WOP burgers. They will probably be the best WOP burgers I ever ate.
WOP, WOP, WOP, WOP, WOP!!!
Update 1: I told my wife that this weekend, I wanted to make wopburgers on the grill and she said: "Why's that? Is it because you're a wop?" (I hadn't had a chance to tell her the story yet.)
That's-a my wife!
Update 2: The guy in the picture is the "Italian Al Sharpton", Dr. A. Kenneth Ciongoli.
