THE WISEGUY CAFÉ
Brooklyn eatery joins long list of joints favored by mobsters
The to-die-for hot roast beef sandwich wasn’t the only thing on the menu when the Colombo family hierarchy gathered at Brooklyn’s legendary Brennan and Carr restaurant.
The Daily News has learned the crime family’s top echelon assembled on two separate occasions to discuss mob business inside the 83-year-old eatery last November, much to the surprise of a somewhat amused management.
“That’s interesting,” said veteran Brennan and Carr manager Richie Egan, a smile on his face. “I never even knew.”
Federal investigators, on the other hand, were well aware of the sessions led by Colombo boss Andrew “Mush” Russo. Court documents indicate both meetings were under law enforcement surveillance as the 86-year-old Russo, underboss Benjamin Castellazo, consigliere Ralph DiMatteo and a pair of family capos discussed a change at the top of the family leadership and the ongoing shakedown of a local union.
Like a plate of pasta and a glass of red wine, the mob and New York’s restaurant business remain inextricably linked a full 90 years after Guiseppe “Joe the Boss” Masseria was gunned down inside Coney Island’s Nuova Villa Tammaro on April 15, 1931.
On July 12, 1979, Bonanno boss Carmine Galante ate his last meal on the patio of Joe & Mary’s Italian-American Restaurant in Brooklyn, with a final course of lethal lead. The dead don was famously photographed with his post-lunch cigar still clenched between his teeth.
And just before Christmas 1985, Gambino boss Big Paul Castellano and driver Tommy Billotti parked illegally outside Spark’s Steak House before heading inside for some prime rib with fellow mobsters.
Neither made it to the front door, gunned down by four shooters waiting on orders from new boss John Gotti.
Death is not the only pitfall in public dining. On occasion, the assembled Mafiosi were caught on bugs that no Health Department inspector would ever find.
Back in 2003, veteran Genovese capo John “Buster” Ardito wound up with agita after discovering recording devices tucked beneath tables at two of his favorite New Rochelle restaurants.
And 16 years prior, wiretaps inside the ladies’ room of a Hoboken restaurant captured Gambino family consigliere Bobby Manna discussing a plot to whack both Gambino boss Gotti and his brother Gene.
“We’re gonna be paying for this, you know, for the rest of our lives,” one of the plotters observed during the recorded discussion.
Former Bonanno boss “Big Joey” Massino, a man who liked a good meal, opened his own Queens restaurant: CasaBlanca, where a sign promised “Fine Italian Cuisine” to its patrons. The eatery became a meeting place for the mob, with Bonanno capos among the regulars at the Maspeth business.
Among the menu favorites: Ravioli with scallops and portabella mushrooms.
According to court documents, the Colombo leadership first assembled inside Brennan and Carr in mid-November before returning for a second sitdown on Nov. 19. Russo did not attend the latter meeting, although his designated Colombo family successor Theodore Persico Jr. showed up. And once again, so did the feds. The 58-year-old Skinny Teddy, identified as a family captain in court papers, is a nephew of the late Colombo family boss Carmine “Junior” Persico.
After Gotti’s ascension to the Gambino seat of power, the Dapper Don’s favorite restaurants received a boost from his patronage: The since-shuttered Da Noi on the Upper East Side and the late, lamented Taormino in Little Italy became instant hot spots. He was known for paying in cash, and leaving generous tips.
And the April 7, 1972, mob hit of Colombo family legend “Crazy Joey” Gallo inside Umberto’s Clam House on Mulberry St. lives on in pop culture, featured prominently in director Martin Scorsese’s 2019 film “The Irishman.”
The Brooklyn-born Gallo, killed at age 43 to end a long night celebrating his last birthday, was memorialized by Bob Dylan in a 1976 song with an oblique reference to the site of Joey’s last meal (shrimp, scungilli and clams).
“One day they blew him down in a clam bar in New York,” sang Dylan. “He could see it comin’ through the door as he lifted up his fork ... Joey, Joey. What made them want to blow you away?”