MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Mention Comuntzi’s in downtown Morgantown and Coca-Cola and chances are there is a memory to be shared.
The family restaurant, one of 2 in separate locations in Morgantown over the years, sat on High Street for decades landmarked by a mural on the side of the building.
U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito was among the dignitaries who cut the ribbon on a refurbished, brightened Coca-Cola advertisement several stories tall.
“Having an expression for a product yes, but also for a generation is a nice way for many people to see this and remember the old Morgantown but see the new Morgantown too,” she told reporters after a ceremony that included her own personal connection to Comuntzi’s.
Upon his return from WWII, her father Arch Moore, Jr. attended WVU. Capito’s mother, also a WVU student, was asked fix the veteran up with a girl.
The matchmaker ultimately ended up being “the girl”. The elder Shelley and Moore married and often returned to the downtown restaurant with their family in later years.
“My husband who was 14 at the time tells me that we met in Comuntzi’s when we were 14 years old,” recollected the senator. “I know it’s true because he described the dress I had on.”
City, county and state representatives were on hand at the official ribbon cutting of the Coca-Cola mural Monday.
They heard from the soft drink company’s restoration leaders.
“We’ve done several Virginia, West Virginia, east Tennessee and North Carolina really across a lot of the different states where we do business,” explained Bob Bell, Coca-Cola Consolidated Senior Director of Corporate Affairs.
It’s been 125 years since Coca-Cola threw splashes of the red and white signature colors of the beverage company on walls of businesses across the rural south.
Coca-Cola has spent three years restoring dozens of advertising wall murals.
“Young and old get an opportunity to see what was in the past,” Bedell shared. “I love how the sign was referred to as art because it really is.”
Free cokes in the slender glass bottles were handed out Monday. The restaurant that now occupies the former Comuntzi’s, High Street Pasta Company, hosted free lunch following the ribbon cutting.