The games are on, the music is perfect and the food is terrific, which is why we keep coming back to Kooper’s North in Mays Chapel. And, of course, the gumbo! On the final day of “A Cup Of Soup Or Bowl,” we reconvened with our favorite two-time cancer survivor Terry Beck, who tells his journey and support of LLS and many other charities via the “Burger Of The Month” in Timonium and Fell’s Point.
Terry Beck, general manager of Kooper’s North, discussed his tenure at the restaurant, starting in 2012, and his transition from the mortgage business. He highlighted the restaurant’s signature gumbo, developed by Guy Fieri, and its popularity. Beck shared his personal story of being a two-time leukemia survivor, diagnosed in 2012 and 2020, and his treatment at GBMC. He also mentioned the “Burger of the Month” initiative, where each month’s burger benefits a chosen charity, raising funds for various causes. Beck also touched on upcoming events, including live music and the new menu launch.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Cooper’s North, cancer survivor, gumbo story, burger of the month, leukemia diagnosis, GBMC treatment, Patrick’s involvement, St Patrick’s Day, crab cake tour, Ukrainian red ale, Valentine’s Day, live music, Ravens connection, Orioles season, Super Bowl predictions
SPEAKERS
Speaker 1, Terry Beck, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 house of Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We are positively Kooper stabber, where Terry Beck’s trying to rip my set apart here before it’s all over. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery, the magic eight ball. We have had at least one $2 winner here today. Kooper’s north I don’t know if we’ve had I think when people win 100 bucks, they don’t tell me about it. They just run out the side door and go cash it. Cash it, because they’re afraid that maybe I gave him the wrong ticket. I had ticket number 53 here for Terry is, Are you the general manager? Am I getting that right? Oh, make sure I get the well, not a title guy. I mean, Luke and I don’t have titles. We’re just guys. But how long you’ve been the general manager? Kooper North here
Terry Beck 00:38
probably ran the last six years. I originally opened this location in 2012 I started working in the Fells Point location in September of 2009 after I left the mortgage business after 30 years.
Nestor Aparicio 00:54
Why? Well, not nine was a terrible at the time. Yeah,
Terry Beck 00:58
everything was crashing, and I just needed a change at that point. And you know, Patrick and me go way back. We, like bros. We were both best men in each other’s weddings. You reached out to me and gave me the opportunity to come aboard, working for him and Katie. And you know, one of the best decisions I’ve made, well,
Nestor Aparicio 01:19
you eat a lot of gumbo. I mean, I’ll tell you that right now. So I was in here, like, three, four years ago with my wife. I think we came in for St Patrick’s Day, for Dr Lou’s brisket. And, you know, I’ve known Patrick forever, and I we haven’t done a lot of business over years as sponsors and all the things we’ve done, but seeing his growth was launching Woody’s and the truck and the Chow Hound, and then I did the crab cake tour, and he participated with the Chow Hound truck, with heavy seas, with hue. When the Russian war started in Ukraine, we were supporting the Ukrainian brewery over there brewing a beer red a red ale, Ukrainian red ale. And Patrick came out, Samantha came out, did show and we did the crab cake thing, and then I came in to visit with you, just as a customer, and when I was buying brisket, and you recognize me, and your cancer survivor will get to that in a minute, my wife was with me, and you’re like, I gotta get you some of this gumbo. So you came back and you just like, you give me crack. You know when you give me this gumbo. And today, I’ll be honest, I didn’t want to be here with you today. I had a flight to New Orleans today. You had a flight on Wednesday night. And this is why we didn’t put the show together real early. Because I was like, I don’t want jinx the Ravens Monday and Tuesday. I had set I was going to do cost us on Monday. Was going to fade these on Tuesday. And like, if the Ravens go to the Super Bowl, Luke and I are going to get out on Wednesday. And even if I don’t go to the game, I’m going to run wild. He had a seat at the game. We went, so we’re going to do it. And I thought to myself, the only thing that there’s a second chance like in the lottery, is that I could be here eating your gumbo if I can’t go to New Orleans. So today I’m here. I’m going to have a big bowl of gumbo with Luke in this last segment. Greg Landry is going to come by today. Leonard Raskin is going to be here. I don’t think Leonard’s ever had your gumbo. He’s in for real. I mean, what’s the story with your gumbo? Because I want to talk about that, because I think it’s one of the great things
Terry Beck 03:10
ever, right? Well, you know, it was Guy ferry from the restaurant, Triple D. Triple D diners, drive ins, drive in size. Hold
Nestor Aparicio 03:20
on. This isn’t a diner, right? This is not a drive in. Well, he
Terry Beck 03:24
originally, this is not a die. He originally had that with Patrick at our Solange Irish pub, right next to Cooper’s call
Nestor Aparicio 03:32
to die. But it’s not right. Burst was a dive, yes, right? It died by me. Die bar, yeah,
Terry Beck 03:39
right. But you know, So Patrick, pretty much, you know, if you’ve been in New Orleans before, you know how the Gumbo is. That’s a place to have gumbo. Well, our gumbo was right up there.
Nestor Aparicio 03:52
I don’t know whose recipe. Stole, borrow, begged. I don’t know what it is. Secret recipe, if you’ve never had the gumbo at Cooper’s north, come out here and get it, or go downtown and get it, try it,
Terry Beck 04:04
and it’s a heaping bowl, whatever you think you’re getting enough, or two, right? Or normal bowls, the size of a normal soup bowl, and our gumbo bowl is twice. Can
Nestor Aparicio 04:15
I lodge a complaint with management here? Formally fire away you don’t put enough rice in it for me? Yeah. I just need, I always have to order a second rice, because it’s just, it’s so much gumbo that I just had the rice when the four ounce cup. I mean, well, I just want a little more rice. I’m willing to pay a Bucha. All you gotta do is ask forever. That’s my only if that’s the only thing I’m complaining about, it’s just a little more rice. With my gumbo, I’m a pretty good customer. You have a story to tell here to please well, when my wife was here, this is the way cancer people are. My wife never talks about her cancer. She talks about everybody else’s. So when somebody else is sick, or there’s a child or anything like that, my wife spent enough time in cancer that she I love talking about it anymore. It’s not that we don’t want to do things for. There goes my here. I try to do as much as I can do for everybody, but we’re a little cried out, and we lived through it all. And I know you had your own journey. And I just want to give you whatever you want to say to talk about it, but it’s turned into burger of the month. In some cases, it’s turned into a beautiful thing you do to give back. So I want to give a chance to talk about back
Terry Beck 05:18
in 2012 I’m a two time cancer survivor with leukemia, hairy cell leukemia, it’s a very rare form of leukemia, and like I said, I’ve been treated two different times. I was originally diagnosed in 2012 and it’s funny the way it all, you know, went down, you know, who, how do you get leukemia, right? But I was working in Fells Point at the time, as an athlete, my whole life, I was having a hard time catching my breath just taking a walk up the flight of stairs. And then through friends, they noticed a pale color of, you know, I was getting real, real light skin and pale. So I went to the doctors, and within five minutes after blood work, they diagnosed it with leukemia, and it luckily. Thank God, I went through chemo, went into remission real quick. Where were you treated? At GBMC. Alright, Gary. Gary Cohn, head of oncology, good people at GBMC, local. And then I was in remission for eight years, and then it returned in 2020
Nestor Aparicio 06:20
and I got treated again. And knock on wood, I’m back in remission. Yes, eating gumbo, 100% so it’s a good thing. Thank God. Well, yeah, and I know you do a lot of work, and you do. I had your burger of the month. Here it was onion, the Dippy French dip friendship, French
06:35
to burger. I’ll be
Nestor Aparicio 06:37
honest, because I’m always honest. Last month’s was my favorite, the one you did with the bacon and the candy jam, the jam, bacon jam, right? Oh my God, it was on the Texas Toast. That was That November. That was December. It was December. That was Patrick’s burger. It was December’s burger. Patrick burger. Man, that was a good burger, right? I told you she put that
Terry Beck 06:55
one on Megan’s burger. Is actually being added the Sully burger. Megan’s our bar manager here at Coopers north. She’s been with us a long time. Her burger each month. What we do here at Coopers each manager picks a charity that we reach out to, and we name a burger on the behalf of the donation. And for every burger we sell that month, we donate $1 for every burger. So I just made $1 Right, right? So Megan’s burger, the Sully burger. It’s a smash burger, double patty. It’s old school burger with chopped onions, American cheese and special sauce. But it sells amazing. Customers. All loved it. Our new new new menus kicking off, actually this coming Monday, with a lot of nice new couple entrees, appetizers. So I’m looking forward to that. We got valentine’s day next week too. Yeah, yes, absolutely. And then music wise tonight we have sky, sky King playing from eight to 11 tomorrow night. We have Maddie Blum next week.
Nestor Aparicio 08:05
She plays a lot here, right? Yes, absolutely. Well, you guys have really become a music place, and I think that speaks to Patrick a little bit in the New Orleans thing and some music. And I’ve been here many nights. I’m literally standing in the area where bands play,
Terry Beck 08:20
you had or big bands playing the dining room. But when it’s a solo or duo, we usually have them at the bar.
Nestor Aparicio 08:24
You had a big show here, like two months ago, you brought a band in. Who’d you bring in? You band used to play samples. Used to play that in Max’s on Broadway. Many, many years ago,
Terry Beck 08:35
they were very big during the 90s. They’ve been here a few times over the years. Next weekend, Valentine’s day, Friday night. I’m really excited to hear Barry Prosser. He’s bringing Rob Fahey with him. Facebook friends of mine. Hey, Barry. Hey Rob, and Rob’s playing here for the first time at Cooper. So I’m really excited to have our customers see him live. He goes, what night is that Friday night. Yeah, he’ll be singing in the dining room with Rob. Oh man, eight to 11 next week. I
Nestor Aparicio 09:06
want to come sing some songs of Rob. I saw Rob with Keith Brewer. They put a thing together a couple months ago. Now, Keith Brewer, from the ravens, did my documentary. He’s the documentarian in my thing. And it’s funny like this is you’re the third person here today to mention one member of the Ravens band, because Stan stock, all of Stan stock was started by the Ravens. So the band, the ravens, not the not the football team, the Ravens. So there is a Ravens connection. So you got a Ravens connection here. Sounds good. The great Rob Fauci 19. Terry Beck is here. He is the general manager of all things Cooper’s north. We’re up here in beautiful maze, chapel, Timonium, plenty of free parking. You got the Starbucks out in the parking lot now you got the grounds. This is a really cool little local this local businesses in this plaza, writing, even Chinese place here came in from from Fells Point for many. Years ago, right?
Terry Beck 10:00
So the tenants of here have been here from day one. It’s been a little bit of a turnover over the years, but majority of the businesses have been here. You know?
Nestor Aparicio 10:10
Well, when I’m here, it feels cheersy. I wind up people I saw the last time. Wind up here. I think you’ve kept your staff together for a long time. I usually see you. You’re here two out of three times, I would say that St Patrick’s Day is one of my favorites, because you guys make this corned beef.
Terry Beck 10:26
Dr Lou’s special corned beef. Now,
Nestor Aparicio 10:29
you only put that off for a couple days, right? I mean, that’s like, well,
Terry Beck 10:32
we usually run it for a week, the week of St Patrick’s Day. Once you run it
Nestor Aparicio 10:36
for a month. I mean, since you take it’s like eggnog, you take it away from me, you know, like, if I come in to get that burger I got two months ago, I can’t get it anymore, right? No, oh, come on,
Terry Beck 10:49
possibly bring it back. It
Nestor Aparicio 10:50
was so good I almost came back, like on december 29 it was a December burger. My wife and I came before Christmas. She was away during Christmas, and one night I was hankering, hankering, and I didn’t come up. And now I’m sitting here a month later, and I’m like, have to wait for next December. You know, again, you do things for LLS Correct? Who give me your your where your heart is, for your charity? It
Speaker 1 11:13
was Rhea Falcon, but absolutely, she tried to
Nestor Aparicio 11:17
recruit me as a visionary. I told her, I didn’t. I didn’t see that clearly, and
Terry Beck 11:20
she reached out and sent Melissa Zimmerman. She was supposed to be in tonight to see us, but whenever children came down with the flu, you know, don’t touch me. Stay away. All right, she’ll be back in on Monday. I’m just so they’ve been very great over the years, reaching out to both, both of us in the past, for a great foundation and cause. Well, you’re only
Nestor Aparicio 11:47
five years removed, man, so it’s still real. I mean, you had two very separated battles, but feeling good, yeah, feeling great. Nothing you can’t do. Nope. All your buddies here sit at the end of the bar when I’m in here, giving you a hard time. I want to get some gumbo. Luke, if you had the gumbo here, Greg, if you had the gumbo here, you’ll have to try Chris, if you had the gumbo here, he has had the gumbo here. No no gumbo. All right. Well, I’m gonna make sure we get some gumbo together here before, so you’re not gonna run
Terry Beck 12:14
out. Make sure to give you some extra prices time.
Nestor Aparicio 12:18
What I really need is a smaller bowl of gumbo. That’s really what I need. You don’t something. You don’t bring me enough rice. You bring me too much gumbo.
Speaker 1 12:27
I think that’s what it is for a cup and not the bowl. Your thing
Nestor Aparicio 12:31
for me here, though, is the black and ahi tuna wrap. And I got turned on. I did the show downtown when Fleet Week was here. You guys were doing your oyster thing down there, Patrick and I set it up. I did the show from downtown. And I said this, because everybody’s running around setting up the oyster festival that weekend, remembers big thing going on and the Fleet Week thing. And I wasn’t always, was that that was an oyster? Was an oyster? I’m trying to think of what it was. It was, it was a June is that possible? Was Fleet Week? Fleet Week was down there, and she said, get the black and ahi tuna wrap. It’s good. No, it’s way better than good. I mean, I need to get it like a little bit medium, medium, you know. But that is, that is my favorite thing on your menu. And that big tortilla
Speaker 1 13:14
wrap thing, it’s one of our old school
Nestor Aparicio 13:18
what’s your best seller? Burgers, burgers,
Terry Beck 13:20
the chicken Sammy is a popular I had that too blackened, right? But Salmon Teriyaki is never had a popular item. But I’m taking that taco, tacos, burgers, fajitas. Everybody you know, forget that we have delicious crab cakes as well. Pizza, all American boy. This is
Nestor Aparicio 13:42
the crab cake tour. But I don’t feel my I’m feeling gumbo here today, New Orleans Super Bowl. Who’s winning the game? What do you
Terry Beck 13:48
got? I’m actually rooting for the Eagles, but no one does that. You know?
Nestor Aparicio 13:58
I don’t see the cheese losing. Do we hate the chief so much, and we’re going to root for
Terry Beck 14:01
the ego. Really, I do. It’s getting old, but you’re losing
Nestor Aparicio 14:05
bets because of this. The officials screwing you up. What are they? I’m not worried about.
Terry Beck 14:08
I just want to see a good game with not controversial calls too.
Nestor Aparicio 14:14
I like it that. It’s funny to me. I have attended that Commissioner’s press conference for all these years now that the people in there because they let the bar still bloggers and they get chippy about the officiating that the NFL this weekend to say are, how can our officiating possibly be rigged? And there’s never a bar that I walk into and by the way, I love you, but I think you’re crazy when you start talking to me about fixed officials, like all of you. Well,
Terry Beck 14:37
now they’re now they’re talking about doing electronic marking, marking. COVID
Nestor Aparicio 14:41
here thinks that the NFL is fixed. If you do, I’m telling you, they don’t know what. They can’t fix anything they did. It’s in competency. It’s not fixing. I think you know, Luke’s nodding his head. He wants piece of this now, not often I take him off the mic. So all right, no. Right? We got the Orioles season. So we’re all good. We’re all into that, right? We’re good with that. Absolutely. I’m not going down the Justin Tucker road. I’m not going down to Ronnie Stanley road. I’m not going that. I’m not doing anything. I’m just, it’s baseball season, World Series. No, see, see, nobody believes this is I’m looking for true. Believe
Terry Beck 15:20
got a lot of young talent. It should be a very exciting year again, for the birds. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 15:24
look younger, talks a ball, but this is the truth. If they had signed Corbin burns, if they had signed Santander, we would all look at it and say, Well, you spent money on our own guys, but did you make the team better? Right? I mean, even if they had signed those guys, we would not be confident that they’re the best team. We’d say they’re good enough. I don’t know. We’re gonna find out. 41 year old pitcher. We got a Japanese pitcher we never heard, never seen before. So all these things are good to talk about, but then the game start, and that’s when it really gets fun. So we’re six weeks out on National City, right? Looks looking a little pale. I gotta get him down to Sarasota. We’re here in New Orleans, dude, if I would have known that it was 80 degrees today in New Orleans, I’m lying, because I’m happy to be eating your gumbo, but I would have preferred to been in New Orleans knowing it 80 degrees, because I’ve been in New Orleans when it hadn’t been nice for the Super Bowl, when I’m wearing a winter jacket and stuff like that. I saw these people filing into the honors last night with Lamar. Got screwed out of the MVP, right? I think he did, right? That’s when he lets you. Yeah, I want to let you get your support. Your sports thing going here. And I saw everybody was, like, in dresses and short sleeve shirts out on the street. I had to reach my app. I’m like, never 80 degrees in New Orleans when I’m there, except when a hurricane blew in. It was 100
Terry Beck 16:34
ago. Was wet in the 60s, when the Ravens were there in 2012 still nice. It was
Nestor Aparicio 16:39
jacket, though it wasn’t like summary. It felt summary to me. So all right, all you Eagles fans, don’t climb up and down greased poles. Just celebrate. Don’t if it involves fire, don’t be involved in it after the after the game, after they were kind of ethic, the Eagles have a chance to win. I’m picking the chiefs, but Eagles run the ball. Play a little defense. We shall see. We shall see, all right. Terry back, the general man, you gotta drop them. You gotta just drop it. Go ahead. I want you to drop the mic. Go ahead. You were, you were trying Go ahead. You wanna drop it, drop it, drop the mic. Here, just like, just like this. Yeah, he did drop my equipment. It’s all working. I forgive you. Here we go. Just, just bring me extra rice. You owe me extra rice, my gumbo. Here we go. Terry Beck, dropping the mic. There it is. All right, Cooper’s north. I am Nestor, you forgot your lottery ticket. Come on here. You got your get your magic game. Usually my guest hang around, but he’s got to go back and make me gumbo, is what he’s got to do. I am Nestor. We are here at Cooper’s north. I’ve lost management here, but I do have the magic gate balls, our friends at wise markets also making this happen. I’ve got a bunch of bags of stuff for the Maryland Food Bank. We’re collecting. It is a cup of soup or bowl. I will become the official charity here in the coming segments, because I’m sharing the mic with friends like Greg Landry, Luke Jones is here. Lena Raskin is going to be by a little later on. So at some point we’re going to commence the talking about baseball season, because it’s the only hope we got. We’re.
