POTTSVILLE -- A nearly 100-year-old business in Schuylkill County is now closed.
Dozens turned out for one last meal at the Coney Island restaurant on Centre Street in Pottsville Sunday.
Many also came to say good-bye to owner Ray Westcoat.
Some people hoped to convince him to keep the business open.
Westcoat was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support.
“I've shed a lot of tears this week. So have a lot of other people. The last three days have been unbelievable,” said Westcoat. People have come here. I've had people that are hardly even able to come out and had their son-in-law or their daughter or their son bring them down here.”
News of the closing disappointed some longtime customers.
“Ray threw me out a few times when I was a teenager,” remembered Dave Zvorsky of Brockton. “We'd get radical sometimes, he'd chase us out and let us back in.”
“I am an old lady and I've been coming here since I was a young lady,” said Pearl Murphy of Tremont. “I used to come here all the time. They are nice people.”
The owner blames the state of the economy for his business in Schuylkill County closing.