'Wopburger' to stay on menu

James B. Meadow, Rocky Mountain News

Monday, May 21, 2007

In what might be called political correctness v. menu tradition, round 2, the Blue Parrot restaurant in Louisville has decided not to rename the 88-year-old item it has always called a wopburger.

"We've had so many people coming in and calling us, telling us 'I can't believe you're changing the name. Please don't change the name,'" said Joan Riggins, who owns the restaurant with her father, Joseph Colacci and her brother Richard Colacci.

Riggins says her family knows that "when certain words are used a certain way, they can be derogatory in context."

"But that was never meant to be that way with us," she said. "We used the word to mean 'Italian.' It was a name we used without any meaning as a term of a endearment."

Questions about the burger's name surfaced earlier this month after some people complained.

Initially, there was concern that the Boulder Valley School District — which has an ongoing order with the Blue Parrot's sauce manufacturing arm — would consider canceling its $20,880 annual arrangement as a way to express disapproval over the use of a term that many consider an ethnic slur.

However, according to district spokesman Briggs Gamblin, "I've gotten no direction that we're going to change our working arrangement with them."

Gamblin added that, "At this point we have expressed our concern and the concern of one of the parents in the district," but indicated that no further action is anticipated.

The arrangement, which Gamblin said was not a contract but a "purchase order with a guaranteed annual price," is slated to run through July 31.

"We plan to go forward and negotiate the price as we do every year," said Gamblin.