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I came up here to work at Copabanana and also at Cafe Nola, which was their other restaurant at the time. PGN: When did you first come to Philadelphia? DC: 1991. PGN: Sounds like you work your way up the food-service chain. My uncle, Bill Curry, was the one who founded Copa.
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I worked for Sysco food services, which I generally hated I was a partner in a restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, then I worked in Charleston, S.C., and I’ve worked here in Philadelphia twice. My body doesn’t understand anything but full-time work. I went to college for a little while but never graduated. PGN: What was your first job? DC: I worked at Burger King for 10 years starting when I was 17 and then later for four years. And I was an Eagle Scout, all three of us were.
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I love math, which is probably why I’m in the management business, but I was the president of the Golden Scroll, which was the journalism society at school. PGN: What kind of things were you into other than working? DC: I was into music I played the oboe and the viola. Since there were three of us, we would switch alliances and gang up on the third person usually that was me since I was the oldest. It probably didn’t help that when I was 17, I was his manager at Burger King and fired him. We get along very well now but there were some tumultuous years. My brother David is two years younger and Tom was born one year after him. PGN: Where are you in the sibling hierarchy? DC: I’m the oldest. It was my first time putting vinegar on French fries so I had a lot of new experiences that trip. As a thank you, the guy took us to his home and they served us homemade fish and chips and moose that he’d just shot. PGN: Kind of like being on a roller coaster without the coaster? DC: Definitely! My father was the quintessential good Samaritan so when we came upon someone with two flat tires, he stopped to help. I almost killed myself because it had basically turned to ice at that point. There was still snow on some of the higher mountains so of course we went up there so we could slide down. The first year we drove to Newfoundland, it was their coldest summer in like 60 years and there was an iceberg in the harbor. PGN: An exciting memory from one of the trips? DC: Growing up in Miami, we never saw snow. I had two brothers so it was probably hard on them traveling long distances with three boys fighting in the back. We drove from Miami to Newfoundland twice and to Alaska twice. Because both of my parents had the summers off, we did a lot of exploring. PGN: With a marine-biologist father and living in Florida, did you spend a lot of time at the sea? DC: Oh yeah, and we did a lot of traveling. Both of my parents were teachers: My father was a college professor - he taught marine biology - and my mother was a high-school history teacher. DC: I was born in Tallahassee, grew up in Miami. He also serves as the chairperson for the South Street Headhouse District. This week we spoke to Daniel Christensen, one of the owners of the iconic Copabanana and the (relatively) new wine bar and restaurant Redwood.
COPA GAY BAR FORT LAUDERDALE PLUS
It starts with the Easter Promenade on April 20, hosted by Master of all Ceremonies Henri David, followed by Dining Out for Life on April 24 (a citywide event with a number of South Street restaurants participating), plus the grand Spring Festival on May 3. In addition to new restaurants and shops catering to a more sophisticated crowd, mixed in with the hipster places and shops for the young, there are plenty of events coming up this season to delight and entertain you.
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But I am happy to report that the South Street-Headhouse area is on the comeback and has become a destination site again for tourists and locals alike. Then both South Street and Headhouse fell into a bit of a slump, and a lot of younger folks with mischief on their minds dominated the scene, culminating in the Mardi Gras melee of 2001 that ended with 81 arrests. There was a great jazz club and even an outdoor nightclub in the center of the square blasting music. The Rusty Scupper restaurant offered cool drinks overlooking the waterfront and at night the street was filled with street performers, jugglers, magicians and musicians. At that time, Headhouse Square was the place to go. Well, I can’t speak for the hippies, but South Street was my hangout years ago when I used to live at Fourth and Pine streets (I’ve been all over this town). “Where do all the hippies meet? South Street, South Street.”