Forty years and four million chicken wings ago, Coop de Ville opened on the Oak Bluffs Harbor front. Originally opened by Jeff Casara, Coop started with a local following of painters, construction workers, and people stopping by for chicken wings and oysters on their way home from the beach. One of those people, spending his college summers working on the Island, was Petey Berndt. In 1986, with a small loan of $10,000 from his father, Petey bought the Coop. Thirty-eight years later, Petey still loves his job, loves his food, and loves his employees.
Coop de Ville is nothing without its fearless leader, and Petey is nothing without his loyal staff. Laurence Jackson has been cooking in the Coop kitchen for 31 years, Claudia Ray for 21 years, and Shamel Abraham for 20 years. On the patio, Brandon O’Neil has been serving for 21 years, and Jenny Ward for 20. Together, the Coop staff have worked more than 180 combined years at the waterfront restaurant. Petey explained that his favorite part of working is the people; the customers, but especially the “employee family.”
Menu favorites unsurprisingly include chicken wings and lobster rolls. The most popular wings are the LJ style, a house mix of Old Bay seasoning from Petey’s hometown of Baltimore, Cajun seasoning from Laurance Jackson’s hometown of New Orleans, and Jamaican Jerk Seasoning from Shamel Abraham’s hometown in Jamaica. The Coop has daily specials and weekly discounts. On Mondays, lobster rolls are $25, and on Tuesdays, a steamed lobster and corn is $25. The Coop will steam up about 200 lobsters on a given Tuesday, with the record being 256 in one day.
Staff hometowns are not only reflected in the menu. The TV screens are always playing Gaelic football thanks to Brandon O’Neil’s Ireland heritage and accent. The Coop has also become known as the Island’s soccer bar. During the semifinals of European Soccer Championships this summer, the Coop sold 1,000 pounds of chicken wings and 1,500 pints of beer in two days.
Coop de Ville went from being only the second harborside restaurant in Oak Bluffs, to one of many fun and funky spots, but still boasts being the closest restaurant to the water. “Any closer to the water and you’ll fall in,” according to Petey. The 42-seat restaurant hosts almost 600 people a day in the summer, but stays open as the off-season slows for locals to enjoy too. In the spring and fall, the Coop is the first to open and the last to close on the harbor, with special events for Islanders like live music and lobster fests.
After 38 years of trial and error, Petey says his restaurant is “Often imitated but never duplicated. They can’t because these guys in the kitchen do it with love.”
