Joe and ida coppola and family mark fifty years supplying mullingar with great chips

There are two things Joe and Ida Coppola of Coppola’s takeaway on Dominick Street won’t tell anyone: how they make their vinegar, and how they make their batter.
“No, no!” they laugh. “They’re family secrets!”
And in terms of priority, the batter secret is guarded even more carefully than the vinegar recipe.
They’re secrets that have tantalised the tastebuds of the people of Mullingar for an incredible 50 years at this stage – the exact anniversary falling on Wednesday, March 25.
It was on that date in 1965 that the two came to Mullingar, to take over 'The Malocca’, opened in 1961 by Joe’s uncle, Mario Coppola, in a building that had for generations operated as Tommy Brophil’s 'Ennel View Hotel’.
After trying out the business scene in Mullingar for a year, the young couple decided they were happy here – and Mullingar was where they would stay, with, working alongside them, Joe’s parents, Anna and Biagio, and his brothers, Tony and Vincent, all from Monte Cassino in Italy.
“It was a small sit-down café,” recalls Joe. “It served chips, fish, eggs and beans.”
The burger hadn’t been really invented; the kebab had certainly not made it this far, and as for curried chips – well, they were still a food of the future.
“When I took over, I put on a menu like my father-in-law, with steak and onions, and mixed grills,” says Joe.
The other big novelty was ice-cream, direct from his father-in-law, Benedetto Forte’s, in Dublin, and ultimately, made by Joe and Ida in Mullingar.
The novelty of this new – and affordable – restaurant made it a big hit: after football matches, it was full; on days when the salesyard was selling cattle, the farming community came in hankering after T-bone steaks; and every time the train pulled in, they were guaranteed a few famished travellers.
Also, recalls Joe, the café became a favourite with a company bringing pilgrims to Knock, who would stop off for a hearty breakfast, and reward the waiting staff with a tip that was as good as a week’s wages.
In 1973, VAT changes pushed up the cost of sit-down food, and so, Joe and Ida made the decision to close the café, and concentrate on the take-away business, and it’s in this area that they have specialised ever since – along with son Anthony, who is now following in their footsteps.
Even then, they realised how difficult it can be for families to stretch a budget, and to this day, they have made sure that the treat of a take-away from Coppola’s is affordable, even with special affordable chicken rolls for schoolgoers and working people at lunchtimes, and, for Lent, deals on fish.
Over that time, they have kept abreast of changes, introducing new products as tastes have changed – although there are some non-variables, the aforementioned home-made batter and home-made vinegar being two that no one dare tamper with.
It’s a matter of both pride and principle for the Coppola family that their food is prepared from scratch, and is made from the freshest and highest-quality ingredients, whether they be the vegetables, the eggs, or the meat, chicken, fish, sausages, burgers, or their pies – extremely tasty steak and kidney or chicken and mushroom pies.
Even the potatoes are bought in fresh, jacketed, and peeled and chipped in-house. The onions too are peeled, sliced and battered in-house, and Joe always insists on trying out a sample if taking produce from a new supplier.
These days, they use Maris Piper, but Joe still goes dreamy-eyed remembering the luscious Kerr’s Pinks of old.
Making great chips isn’t as easy as it seems, you know.
“You have to have the temperature right: if you put the potatoes in too cold, they absorb too much fat, and don’t taste as good,” says Joe.
The two love Mullingar, and are grateful for the life they have had here, and the community in which they have worked and reared their family. “We would really like to thank all the people of Mullingar for their loyalty and support,” says Joe, with Ida stressing that they appreciate both the support to them as business people, but also as a family.
They also extend thanks to their own families for the support they have received from them over the years.
But no matter what: there’s no way anyone is getting their hands on the treasured batter and vinegar recipes!