Hop's At The Paddock Gives New Luster to Landmark Restaurant

One-by-one in recent years, family-run restaurants in the Lehigh Valley have closed and their delicious dishes have disappeared.

In Fogelsville, for instance, Shankweiler’s and its chicken and waffles folded. In Allentown, Walps’ shut its doors and its shoo-fly pie was swatted out. And when the Village Inn in South Whitehall closed, the apple tarts went with them.

What would be next to face extinction?

Paddock pizza. 

The Paddock claimed to be the first restaurant to serve pizza in the Lehigh Valley. But, located on West Columbia Street in South Whitehall since 1957, it was beginning to lose its luster.

Then last month it found new ownership and a new family, the Hoppys, who already restored another landmark, the Hops Fogelsville Hotel on Main Street in the village. Its claims to fame are casadias and wings.

Co-owners Scott Hoppy and his parents, Bryon and Carol Hoppy, said they didn’t want to see Paddock pizza sliced one last time.

“When my mom and dad moved here from central Pennsylvania, with him working for Bethlehem Steel, The Paddock became their favorite place to go for pizza. I grew up going there on Friday nights,” said Hoppy, 37.

“Mr. [former Owner Jack]  Kloiber saw the instant fascination with pizza. He built The Paddock. It was state of the art. Unfortunately, we’ve all seen it deteriorate over the years.''

Already having bought and turned around Hops Fogelsville Inn, circa 1798, they decided to save the Lehigh Valley’s popular Italian food in the newly-named Hop’s at The Paddock. 

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Employment is expected to be between 35 and 40 people, Hoppy said.

The late Kloiber started the business in 1948 at a nearby property and moved it to its present location nine years later. The family had been its owners ever since, with sons Richard and Greg Kloiber putting it up for sale in 2010. Valerie Koehler, granddaughter of the founder, did much of the work preparing for the transition, Hoppy said.

“There’s been sickness in our family, so we were happy to sell it to such good Lehigh Valley people,“ Koehler said. “I’m very happy and very excited. It’s good to see the parking lot filled up again.”

Hoppy, a native of Schnecksville, also grew up in the restaurant business. His grandfather owned a pub in Shamokin, and he worked at Rookies in Allentown while in college, befriending U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, one of three brothers who started the business.

So the restaurant took a new name on April 5 with the same handmade thin-crust pizza with sauce and cheese.

Hoppy said it will soon include some of Hops Fogelsville Inn’s items such as Buffalo wings, seafood and steak. It will use Fogelsville’s recipe for cheese steaks. Beer on tap has been increased from six to 24 with 100 bottle brands. Wing and prime rib nights are likely to mirror those in Fogelsville.

“The pizza is great and the owner is good,’’ said John Halat of Breinigsville, who enjoyed a recent Friday dinner at Hop’s at The Paddock with his wife, Janet. “We enjoyed Prime Rib Night in Fogelsville last night, and now we’re here for pizza tonight.”

Hoppy said changes were made to upgrade kitchen equipment and the entire inside -- the bar, the dining room, the banquet room -- will be remodeled. "Obviously the parking lot needs to be fixed," he said. "Eventually we’ll do the outside of the building. That will probably be the last thing.

“I’m looking for a place where all people and all genders can go to enjoy themselves.’’

And savor the historic pizza.