Tropical Bungalow celebrates 2 years of connecting kids, customers

When visitors at Tropical Bungalow pick up their burgers, fries and ice cream, the employees who serve them are getting more than just a paycheck. At least, that’s owner Sydney Papinchak’s goal.

The restaurant along Route 30 in Hempfield has been home to 12 employees. For most of them, working at Tropical Bungalow was their first job.

Cameron Konopka, 16, started working September 2022, two months after the drive-in’s reopening. She heard about the job from a friend, and said she’s made even more friends while working there.

“When I first started working there, I didn’t talk at all,” Konopka said. “Even outside of work, I’m so much more social than when I first started.”

Papinchak takes pride in her young servers’ growth.

“I’ve seen them grow so much over the past two years, and they sent so many kids off to college and they still comeback and visit,” Papinchak said. “I always wanted to have an opportunity for the youth to work.”

Papinchak was even younger than her servers when she first started working at Tropical Bungalow. At the time, the restaurant belonged to her dad, Tom Papinchak.

“I was just a few months old, handing ice cream cones out whenever they had the Tropical Bungalow in (Westmoreland Mall),” she said.

Tropical Bungalow first started in the 1990s when Tom Papinchak opened restaurants in locations across Johnstown, Ohio and Pittsburgh.

The latest iteration of the family business is under the direction of Sydney, who, in addition to bringing on teenage staffers, has built a connection with a local school to promote literacy.

“I was looking for an opportunity for me to make a difference in the world, and kind of start my own path in the entrepreneurial space,” Papinchak said. “And it’s like, what better way than Tropical Bungalow?”

Papinchak said that when she first started planning to reopen, there were almost no issues.

“I definitely feel like I’m on a God-guided path,” she said. “It was kind of like we made the decision, and my family supported me along the way, and everything just kind of fell into place.”

The literacy program, Bungalow Buddy, is in partnership with Christ the Divine Teacher school in Latrobe.

Papinchak said that the school holds a special place in her heart.

“I struggled with learning to read,” she said. “It just felt like a good school to kind of start and see how the program would work.”

With the Bungalow Buddy program, students who meet reading goals receive a coupon for a free kids meal at Tropical Bungalow. Because so many children were able to improve their literacy, Tropical Bungalow hosted an ice cream social for the 100 students enrolled in the program.

“It is just a restaurant,” Papinchak said. “But the joy and the small victories is why we’re here.”

She stayed true to the original Tropical Bungalow’s “island” theme, basing both the design of the diner and its menu items on beachy aesthetics.

The drive-in serves fresh cut fries, smashburgers made with fresh beef cooked in-house, custard, milkshakes, sundaes and desserts, and 10 different smoothie flavors. Chili also is available in the colder months.

Customers can order at the drive-thru, at the window, or place pickup orders for online.

Papinchak said she values face-to-face customer service, and is proud that Tropical Bungalow’s business model encourages servers to connect with customers.

“Whenever you’re in the restaurant and hospitality business, it doesn’t really matter what type of food you’re serving,” Papinchak said. “That memory of being able to connect with people and positively impact their day … is worth all the trouble that happens sometimes.”