Coppellas

I hope someone is taking it over Zooropey as it really is an asset to us on the site. I am not sure when they take over, but at the moment it is still open, although the opening and closing times seem to be a bit hit and miss at the moment. We went past it last night at just after 11 and it was all locked up, so I gather they must have had a quiet night.

One thing is for sure, it can only get better!

Sharon

It's in IRM's interests to have a good clubhouse open.  It adds to the golfing experience and will attract customers and now that the resort is filling up it should generate enough money not to run at a loss, so i am confident that IRM will ensure the resource remains open :-)

Hi, let's hope so. The site will be rather dead without coppolas.

Best regards john an Wendy carr 2671c

only 3 weeks on Friday and we are out for 9 days .

We are going in to Coppola's tomorrow and will try and find out what is happening! Will let you all know. Let's hope we will keep it, it will be a big loss if we don't! We have been here since 21st September and we have seen storms, thunder, lightening, floods and a lot of mud! We now have wall to wall sunshine and today it has been 31 degrees! Bliss!

Kind regards

Sharon & Richard Majek

2932a

Hi all, is coppolas definately shut now?, hope not as we are out this Friday.

Best regards john an Wendy Carr.

Yes its shut but the bar next to golf shop is open

Coppola's closed on Sunday 2nd November, we were the last paying customers in there, as we left the place they locked the doors for the last time.

Spikes bar is still open, they will be doing food and obviously serving drinks, and it is being run by the same people. I know there was a rumour going around that Raphael had done a runner, but he hasn't.

If it does open again, it's doubttul it will be during the winter months, as there just aren't enough customers.

We had a long chat with Raphael and he was very disillusioned with the people who own Coppolas, hence he had had enough and decided to move on. He has opened a bar in Balsicas and one in Roldan. We have been to the one in Balsicas (Capital Central) and it is very good.

Hope this will only be a winter closure but not holding our breath!

Sharon & Richard

The site really needs coppollS open all year. When we bought last nov we thought it was a lovely place and one of the reasons we bought on terrazes .the place just will not sell it's remaining properties without a centreal point .

Best regards john snd Wendy Carr . 2671 c

I have faith Wendy, but i guess whilst the place is quiet it makes sense not to heat and light a big building when you can use the small one and the customers fit.  Its not in IRMs interest not to have a bar on the site as i am sure its all part of the golfing experience they offer their customer.  Nothing better than the 19th hole on a hot day ;-)

Tina 

Hi , the little bar at the golf club is not the same as coppolas though . When we was out last jan for instance there eas only me and Wendy in the place. Let's hope irm bucks it's ideas up.

best regards john and Wendy . 

Will be flying thei time tomorrow. Yeh.

I agree with you John and Wendy, but unfortunately as Tina says, to heat and light Coppolas during the winter months is not viable when some nights there are only one or two customers in there, sometimes none at all. It's a shame really as it is a great place. Let's hope they will sort something out for next year. It is certainly needed in the summer months.

Have a great time there, when we left on 5th November it was 26 degrees! Hope the weather will be good for you too!

Sharon & Richard

2932a

Thanks Sharon and Richard. We have been out ja , June and nov this year and even in June there was only 8/9 people in .you would think with irm,s resources they could run it at a lossy during the winter. I retire in two years and was hoping to spend my winters out there . Let's just hope w have a good bar up and running by then

again, our best regards john an Wendy, bed soon , up at 2. 30.

From what I have read here and heard elsewhere, the problem with Coppola's wasn't that people didn't use it, it was that the service was poor and it drove customers away.

To be an effective business, Coppola's needed to attract both the residents' business and the visiting golfers' business.

This means opening early and serving value breakfasts, providing sandwiches and "pub grub" at lunchtime and a decent evening menu supplemented by a good community bar.

From what I have heard and read, the restaurant didn't open when customers wanted it open (early/late) and staff were disinterested to the point of being rude. Not a recipe for a successful business!

While I have been here over the last week, the course has looked pretty busy. Lots of golfers about and a fair few residents too.

I have been told that IRM are taking over the running of the restaurant and bar and will cater for both residents and golfers to make it the heart of the community. This sounds like a really good move.

Add to this, bank reposession sales have been picking up over the last year and the community continues to grow. Hopefully I will be joining the community too in the next month.

I am looking forward to visiting La Terrazas as a new resident next year and seeing a thriving pub/restaurant at the heart of the community.

Hi Duncan,as I said earlier was ar resortaluas office a couple of weeks ago and they told me the same about irm. Let's hope it comes of . All the best.

John and Wendy Carr 2671 c.

Greetings friends,

We looked with little hope at the parched mounds of earth and the faded sign on the roundabout which had been announcing for years the ‘Coming shortly’ of the town centre and I guess in terms of the longevity of planet earth this assertion must be accepted as subjective.

Time passed and we watched with renewed hope as the supermarket moved to more suitable premises and large signage told us Coppola´s bar and restaurant were onsite. We waited, occasionally wiping dust to peer in the windows of Coppola’s Restaurant, which, although fully equipped remained unopened with imagined shadows of the good ladies of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union diligently protecting the layers of dust.

There were whispers at the pool that Coppola’s had been opened for a short time earlier in that year but disheartened we dismissed this as urban myth propagated in the interest of selling properties.

It became a pilgrimage; each time we visited our apartment we made our way to Coppola’s to perform the ritual of dirtying our hands on the glass and making peeping Tom eyes at the imagined temperance ladies.   Then it arrived, the email with the news that the temperance ladies had been evicted and  restaurante Coppola's abre el 25 de mayo, our excitement was tempered by the fact our next visit wasn’t planned until 21 June and we feared we would miss the opening *and* perhaps the closing ceremonies.

With eyes alert for the slightest glimpse of the temperance ladies we made our approach on 21st June and there it was, an oasis in the parched earth, doors flung open with tables and umbrellas for alfresco dinning. There were two pots of tall spiral topiary trees growing to attention either side of the entrance door, at their base colourful bedding plants worshiped.

It was open, La Terraza de la Torre had come of age and Rafael was there to greet us. Finally we could enjoy a drink and a meal onsite, we blew raspberries to the overpriced taxis we had previously begrudgingly used to visit local watering holes.

There were teething problems but the food was good and the prices reasonable given that we were a captive audience if we wanted a drink within walking distance of our apartment. For us it was our first port of call on each visit, then things began to change, no doubt there were many reasons why the staff became apathetic and in many cases the price increases made it either prohibitive or it was more cost effective for families to share a taxi into Roldan where the local dining establishments offered considerably better value on both food and beverages.

I held out hopes of improvements but there was the niggle that tenure may be similar to my experience of Yacht, golf and other clubs where the caterer usually survives three years going from ´the best thing since sliced bread´ to ´why were they ever engaged in the first place?´. Sadly Rafael’s story took a similar path and he has moved to pastures new leaving the good ladies of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union to once again take over Coppolas.

The sign at the roundabout has faded to white, it would take some forensic examination to detect the original promise of a town centre and we are back to window wiping and peeping Tom impersonations.

People pass with New Year´s greetings but little news of the plans for Coppolas in two thousand and fifteen. I do hope in the very near future we will once again be able to enjoy food and drinks in a community environment, to greet old and make new friends.

Happy New Year to all at LTDLT.

QB

When I attended the A.G.M. In December the subject of Coppolas was discussed at length resulting with the assurance from I.R.M. that the bar will reopen early 2015 but not in its present format.

Initially the bar will be reconfigured to incorporate the pro shop with drinks and cold food available, should the number of clients increase both golfers and residents then hot meals will become available, I should add at this juncture that I also suggested a supply of light bulbs and heaters be installed.

When the bar does reopen it will be in the interest of residents to support the bar in order to ensure that some vestige of a Town Centre is in place for the future of us all.

Good timing Clive &  eve (I hope your well)  I went on my normal bike ride this afternoon and on my way back I was passing the golf club house,  there will several business men and a couple of workers measuring things,  I stopped and went to talk to them,  they had IRM jackets on. They told me they are moving the golf shop etc over to coppolas next month,  they were measuring the lean to roofs that are by the club house bar to see if they will fit.  They said the golf parking will stay and the club house changing rooms will stay but everything else will go. 

So it shouldn't be long before coppolas is open. 

That's brill news, let's hope it takes of .all the best for the new year.

john and Wendy Carr, 2671 c