"The Best In Delco"- Jimmy DelRaso

                                                                   “The Best In Delco”

Bruce Bley begins to toss large dough
in order to make a pizza.

            Have you ever wondered what it takes to make a small time business into a successful, township landmark? Coco’s Pizzeria and Pub in Aston, Pennsylvania is just that business. The reason for its success can be mostly contributed to the owner, Bruce Bley who has been working in the pizza industry for 27 years. His energy and charismatic personality can be shown by his persistence to always please the customers, while his leadership and teachings help develop his employees into more effective workers. Bruce has been owner of not just one of the Coco’s pizza shops, but a one point two of them simultaneously. In 1990, he became owner of the Brookhaven Coco’s and then eight years later became the owner of the local hot spot Coco’s in Aston. He ran both pizzerias until 2005, and because of the success Aston’s location was receiving, he had to relinquish ownership of the shop in Brookhaven, Pennsylvania.

            Entering Coco’s Aston, you receive an assortment of aromas ranging from the hot and delicious pizzas to the tasty cheesesteaks. Following the various smells, the sounds of the pizzeria include families and friends enjoying their time at the restaurant, but mainly to hard working employees working in the open kitchen area. When ordering to go you will definitely witness the employees shuffling around one another as they travel from station to station trying to complete orders as quickly and efficiently as possible. Following that you will hear one of the multiple phones ring before an employee answers with, “Hello, this is Coco’s in Aston how can I help you?” As you observe the hectic kitchen area you will take notice of the grill, fryers, and pizza ovens off to the right of the kitchen, and opposite of those cooking station would be the wrap station, where sandwiches are wrapped up for to go orders, the hoagie, salad, and freezer area, and finally the main focal point of the kitchen, the pizza table.

Bruce places a pizza into the oven after putting all
the ingredients on to the pizza.

            Whether you eat in, order to go, or over the telephone for pick or delivery, don’t be surprised when looking at the various food options. When choosing you may notice that the prices may seem a little unreasonable for certain items, but that is only because of the customer and market demand for the food choice, as well as the cross use of the ingredients used for that item. However with that being said, you cannot go wrong with choosing any item on the menu because they are all mouth wateringly delicious. If you decide that you would like to indulge in a famous Coco’s pizza, then there are thirty-five different options ranging from the traditional plain pizza all the way to a Bacon Cheddar Cheeseburger Pizza, which includes bacon, meatballs, cheddar and mozzarella cheese, and lastly pizza sauce. On the other hand, if you would like to choose something other then pizza, the list goes on from stromboli’s, various salads, steak sandwiches, hoagies, and even thirteen different burger choices. There are also multiple side orders, including chicken fingers, fries, fried shrimp, and more to choose from if you only want a quick bite to eat.

            The slow times at Coco’s are few and far between. On an annual basis, the slowest time of the year would come during the first two weeks in August because at that time, the summer sporting activities have ended and the fall sporting activities have not yet begun. For this reason, the majority of the customers, which are families go on vacation and won’t be ordering for those two weeks. As for the busy times, they are promising and very hectic. The absolute busiest time of the year is leading up to the holiday seasons. For this reason, Friday nights are especially busy. Cooks bump into one another completing orders by dropping food into the fryer, chopping steaks on the grill, and tossing dough in the air to make the pizza’s or stromboli’s. The kitchen in the pizza shop isn’t mainly male based because the female staff or “phone girls” as they are called are busy answering the phones and refilling the empty workstations on a typical Friday night.

            The location of Coco’s is positive for business, but can also contributes to the negative aspect of business. The positive aspect in terms of location is that it’s located right off of Dutton Mill road, which is a main road going through Aston. As for the negative contribution to business, the limited parking is a major factor for customers. To help slightly solve this problem, Bruce offers out special offers or coupons, as well as inviting people to special events that occur over the weekend. He also makes sure that his business is actively involved in the community with sponsorship for the local sports teams and offering discounts to the schools around the area.

Bruce pulls out Coco's famous Sicilian Pizza
from the oven. The Sicilian Pizza is
a square shaped pizza.

            A typical day inside the kitchen starts with the opening or setting up of the kitchen. This process includes turning on the pizza ovens and soup tables, setting up the pizza tables and hoagie station, and draining the fryers. The doors open at eleven, but there may be tickets already for customers who decided to preordered their meals from Coco's online services. These orders are mainly for businesses and can be rather large at times. Lunchtime at Coco’s is a bit rather because it can be rather busy or remain at a steady pace, but since there are only up to four people working in the kitchen at a time, then they need to prepare themselves to multi-task on a regular basis. While completing orders efficiently, the cooks must also do prep work for the dinnertime rush. Prep work consists of making the different sauces for the chicken wings, cooking up the different pizza toppings on the grill, cutting up produce for the hoagies and salads, and more. Dinnertime sneaks up quickly as there are no breaks taken in the kitchen. Depending on the day, dinner can start early or late and goes well into the evening. Cleaning of the kitchen begins around 9:30 or 10:00 and can be quite vigorous. Cleaning requires just the opposite of what it takes to set up the store. A big difference though is the time that it takes to clean the store because when setting up the store, the employees do not have to cook at the same time, but when cleaning up they do. Closing time comes around eleven o’clock from Sunday to Thursday and twelve o’clock on Friday and Saturday. However, the closing employee’s aren’t able to leave at exactly closing time because more than likely they are still finishing up the cleaning process before leaving for the night.

Manage Connor McGuire
is making various sandwiches
during the busy "lunch rush"

Manager Steve Schmucker
attempts to complete
numerous orders.

       For those of us who get lost in the idea of the pressures and stress that it takes to take a business from the bottom to the top, Bruce provides valuable knowledge. First and for most, he mentions that for him the most stressful part is the dedication that you must have when owning your own business. This stress also incorporates being reliable on those who could be considered unreliable. In terms of working on an everyday schedule when running your own business, he highly suggests it simply because when you’re at work, it takes the pressure off the employees of having to handle everything. Since being an owner is stressful enough, you will always have to place people in charge to take a managerial role. In Bruce’s case, Eric Keeth, Steve Schmucker, and Connor McGuire take on that role because in his eyes the exemplify the qualities of being trust worthy, dependable, inspire the younger staff, and most importantly committed. Finally when hiring new employees always pitch the dedication aspect of the job, but for him he says to those employees, “Work here for the challenging aspect of working at a busy and fast paced restaurant, because there are definitely easier ways to make money.”

Bruce prepares a small pepperoni
before placing it into the oven to cook.

            The atmosphere surrounding Coco’s can be very positive with all the families enjoying there meals and all of the different people sitting at the bar, chanting at the television. It does not matter the time or day, experiencing a meal at this famous pizza place is a must. Leaving with a full stomach and smile from ear to ear is always the expectation for the Coco's employees. When walking out the door, always remember the hard work of these employees and the positive feed back from the customers is why Coco’s in Aston is “The Best in Delco!”