They Sure Had Some Good Food

I for one will be sad to see them go. I just knew that one day soon, on my way home from work, I would be stopping by to get me some collard greens, macaroni and cheese, and whipped potatoes. I am so disappointed. I can at least thank Missoutlaw for introducing me to this place which thankfully I got to visit many times.


Heart, soul of Harlem dining saying farewell
Monday, July 23rd 2007, 4:00 AM

Clem Richardson: Sad news, New York: A week from now Copeland's will be no more." Calvin Sad news, New York: A week from now Copeland's will be no more.

That means gourmands have six days to gorge themselves on Calvin Copeland's signature stuffed chicken wings, macaroni and cheese and bread pudding with Grand Marnier before both his legendary 145th St. restaurant and the steam-table eatery next door close for good.
"We'll have the jazz brunch on Sunday and we'll be closed for good on Monday," Copeland said. "That's it. It's done."
Copeland, 82, has been selling soul food with a New Orleans flavor uptown for 50 years, ever since he took an aunt's advice and used the $850 he'd saved working in restaurant kitchens across Manhattan and opened a restaurant in a cubbyhole on Broadway around the corner from his present location.
For years, Copeland's was the destination for an upscale uptown dining experience. Stars like Stevie Wonder, Harry Belafonte and the late Sammy Davis Jr. were regulars. Copeland also catered events and benefits for a bevy of politicians, including former mayors David Dinkins and Ed Koch and Congressman Charles Rangel.
"I catered a lot of events at Gracie Mansion for Mayor Koch," Copeland said. "We're good friends."
He blamed the restaurant's demise on a variety of factors: the gentrification of Harlem, which has attracted a new generation unfamiliar with southern soul food or the restaurant's history; an influx of Hispanic residents and restaurants on his block of 145th St. ("They have their own restaurants and their own food," Copeland said) and the one thing that has bedeviled Copeland's since it opened, the lack of parking.
"I have a man who drives here from Brooklyn for breakfast," Copeland said. "The other day, he double parked, ran in and ran back out and found a $145 ticket on his car. Who can afford that?"
"It will be an institution missed in our community," said Bill Lynch, deputy mayor under Dinkins. "It's a shame they could not survive the changing of the community."
Lynch, who lives three blocks away, said his wife still uses Copeland's catering. "There are a lot of new restaurants in Harlem, but Copeland's is an institution."
Copeland was born in Smithfield, Va., and grew up in Newport News, Va. Both his parents died when he was a child, and Copeland and his seven siblings were raised by relatives.
Despite labor laws, he started cooking in Virginia restaurants - all these years later he can still name the establishments and their addresses - when he was nine years old.
He moved to New York in the late 1940s. "Just like immigrants today, I thought the streets in New York were paved with gold," he laughed.
He took any job he could, from dishwasher to bus boy to cook. At each he would watch the chefs and try to pick up techniques. "I worked from 3 p.m. to 12a.m., seven days a week, for five or six years," Copeland said. "For a year I never saw the sun set."
The first Copeland's opened in 1967 on Broadway between 148th and 149th Sts. after his Aunt Alma told him to take what money he had and put it in his dream.
Copeland said he plans to give away most of the restaurant furniture - he does not own the space. He also plans to spend more time with wife, Rita, 86, who is bedridden with Parkinson's and Alzheimers diseases and recently suffered a stroke.
The closure will mean unemployment for the restaurant's 24 employees, some of whom have been with Copeland for over 40 years. "I held on as long as I could," Copeland said.
Not that he's done. Copeland said he may open another venture sometime next year.
Copeland said he is calling Sunday's brunch, which starts at 1 p.m., "the Last Supper" and will feature all of his specialties. His book, due out later this year, is titled, "You Got to Love What You're Doing and I Still Do: Calvin Copeland and the Story Behind the Legendary Harlem Restaurant as told to Mary Ellen Gardiner."
crichardson@nydailynews.com

Bye Copelands!!!!! You will be missed!!!! My only consolation is that I learned how to make collard greens and macaroni and cheese. Does anybody know how to make whipped potatoes???