Woman linked to ex-mobster opening restaurant
Eatery follows collapse of Rascal Flatts chain
The woman who fronted a failed chain of Rascal Flatts restaurants for her Mafia turncoat boyfriend is planning a new Italian eatery in Phoenix.
Tawny Costa is marketing her latest venture, Parma Italian Roots, a year after she was involved in the collapse of more than a dozen of the countrythemed restaurants nationwide.
The planned opening follows this year’s closure of three restaurants and the collapse of another venture operated by Costa.
The new restaurant is set to capitalize on the success of the first Parma Italian Roots, which Costa launched in Scottsdale last year. But even before the doors open, questions revolve around Costa, her relationship with Frank Capri and the trail of wrecked businesses they have left from coast to coast.
Capri was a “made man” in New York City’s Lucchese crime family when he flipped to become a government witness in the 1990s.
An Arizona Republic investigation documented how the mobster got a new identity through the Federal Witness Protection Program and moved to Arizona, where he built himself up as a real estate mogul and restaurateur.
Capri’s restaurant career is built on failures. He is known for the epic collapse of a nationwide chain of Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill, which went under in 2015 amid allegations of fraud and theft.
He was also behind the financial ruin of 19 Rascal Flatts restaurant projects, which Costa said he set up in her name and secretly ran.
Only one restaurant was opened, according to a 2019 Republic investigation. Developers paid cash up-front to build out other restaurants, and Capri pressed his associates to squeeze them for more. Audiotapes of phone calls obtained by The Republic captured Capri directing the operation. Money meant to pay for construction went directly to Capri and Costa, audiotapes, text messages and interviews showed.
Capri and his companies were sued dozens of times over Toby Keith projects, with courts issuing millions of dollars in judgments. Rascal Flatts developers in at least four cities filed lawsuits against Costa’s company and won evictions or hundreds of thousands of dollars in judgments.
Capri maintains stories about his Mafia past were “false and defamatory” but has offered no proof to support his claims. In a 2017 letter to The Republic, he denied pocketing development money and described the Toby Keith closures as nothing “other than the product of a business failure.”
Costa is the mother of two of Capri’s children. She has told different stories about their relationship at different times.
Between them, Capri and Costa have orchestrated the failure of 63 restaurant projects since 2013 that either closed after opening, were left unfinished or never started; 39 under Capri and 24 under Costa’s name, according to a Republic tally.
Their business strategy appeared to evolve in 2019 from nationwide chains of celebrity-themed eateries to individual restaurants and bars.
Costa’s latest dining casualty was Double Standard Kitchenetta in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter. The 5-yearold restaurant closed in November.
She also pulled the plug in 2019 on Blasted Barley after four years. The bar on Tempe’s Mill Avenue was the subject of at least one lawsuit from a vendor who said he was not paid in 2018. Neither Costa nor Capri answered the notice of claim, court records show.
Those closures follow another Double Standard project that fell apart in downtown Atlanta this year, records and interviews show.
The celebrity chef who helped put
Double Standard on foodie maps broke with Capri and Costa last year. He accused Costa of serving as Capri’s shill in the restaurant business.
“I gave three years of my life to that (man),” chef Chris Gentile told The Republic. “I made him an insanely successful restaurant over there in north Scottsdale. And I left him with a ... gold mine and I got zero dollars. I got screwed out of my partnership. I should have taken him to court, but I just wanted … to move on with my life.”
Gentile said he left Parma last year after a dispute with Capri that almost got physical.
Capri called the shots on management, finances, construction and development at Costa’s restaurants, Gentile said. Among them are Parma, the ill-fated Kitchenettas in San Diego and Atlanta, the Rascal Flatts chain and a restaurant called Finn McCool’s in Boston.
Gentile is now head chef at Avant inside the iconic Rancho Bernardo Inn near San Diego. Gentile said he set off Capri by asking for money that had been deducted from his paycheck as part of a partnership agreement.
Costa told The Republic in a Dec. 5 interview that Gentile was fired “for what he did,” without specifying any cause. She said she is the “sole owner” of Parma and Capri is not involved in the dayto-day operation of the restaurant.
Questioned about her relationship with Capri, Costa abruptly ended the recorded interview. The reporter told police Costa snatched the reporter’s cellphones off a table, then pushed and elbowed her, before fleeing the restaurant. The incident remains under investigation. The phones have not been returned.
The Republic later attempted to contact Costa by phone and text. She did not respond. Capri hung up when reached by phone.
Chef: Ex-mobster ran eateries
Costa’s name might be on business records and corporation filings, but Gentile said Capri runs her restaurants from top to bottom.
Gentile, 29, said Capri regularly tapped him to set up kitchens at Costa’s restaurants, offering him cash bonuses and living expenses and dangling a partnership as part of the lure.
“I did all of his kitchens,” Gentile said. “And usually it was on a bonus structure. So, if I went out there and it took me a month to set it up, he’d give me an extra $5-$10,000 to do it.”
That included the first and only Rascal Flatts restaurant, which opened in Stamford, Connecticut, in August 2017. Gentile called it a disaster — in concept and execution.
Gentile questioned Capri on the location and said he doubted the band’s fan base was big enough to sustain it. Capri told him it didn’t matter.
“What’s the fun?” Gentile said. “It’s not a drinking band. It’s like a Disney Channel country music band. I think it’s the worst idea I’ve ever heard. He was like, just do me a favor, go out there, set up the kitchen, hire the staff.”
The restaurant opened before construction was completed, Gentile said.
“The freaking … there was a pizza oven that was supposed to be put in,” Gentile said. “There is a $60,000-$70,000 pizza oven sitting there in a room.”
Capri showed a similar lack of attention to project details in Atlanta, Gentile said.
Once again, Costa’s name was on business records for the restaurant. But Gentile said Capri was the driving force behind the project — and the one who drove it into the ground.
“The way he was doing Atlanta … he was trying to cut corners,” Gentile said. “He had no idea of the cost of the investment. It was a $4-$5 million build-out, and he was trying to do it for cheaper and cheaper and cheaper.”
Developers signed a deal with Costa’s Double Standard Kitchenetta for an Italian concept restaurant called Iselle Kitchen and Bar, records and interviews show.
Iselle was supposed to be a key tenant at Colony Square, a $160 million residential and entertainment complex anchored by twin office towers and a hotel at 14th and Peachtree streets in midtown.
The deal, however, hinged on Gentile serving as the face of the restaurant. In promotions, he touted a stylized menu and a down-home vibe with his father, a local jazz pianist, providing entertainment.
After Gentile pulled out, the developer terminated Double Standard’s lease at Colony Square. North American Properties announced in May it had cut ties with Costa’s company and had signed a lease with another restaurant.
Gentile said when North American Properties discovered he had quit, Capri and Costa tried to get the developer to go with a new chef. The developer wanted no part of it. “That’s how it ended,” Gentile said. “They were like, ‘Absolutely not.’ And that was that.”
Before cutting off the Dec. 5 interview, Costa said plans for the Atlanta restaurant were yet to be determined and she wanted to focus on Arizona.
‘Stars in my eyes’
Costa said San Diego’s Double Standard Kitchenetta shuttered because its lease expired and she plans to reopen a version of the restaurant.
Gentile and another employee said before the closure, vendors weren’t paid and employees had to fight for checks as the restaurant struggled to stay open.
Double Standard employee Dalia Gallego said in a Nov. 19 email, “DSK closed without any notice and left all purveyors and employees unpaid.”
The claim mirrors allegations by contractors and employees at restaurants operated by Capri and Costa across the country since 2013. Workers claimed in lawsuits that Capri and Costa promised payments for construction jobs that never materialized. Employees said they arrived for work to find doors locked.
In the midst of the Atlanta expansion in 2018, Gentile said he threatened to bow out of Double Standard, and Capri gave him cash to stay. “I gave my notice, and the last couple of days, of course, he came in with a $10,000 bonus, cash,” Gentile said.
That was the bait. Gentile said the hook was partnership.
“(Capri) offered me sweat equity into the company on a weird basis,” Gentile said.
“Basically he gave me a raise, 2 grand a month on my salary. A pretty hefty raise. But all that ... would go into the company as a partnership. I never saw it.”
Gentile acknowledged he should have seen past Capri’s promises. But he said Capri was telling him exactly what he wanted to hear: co-ownership; calling the shots from concept to opening, menu to entertainment, kitchen to bar.
“To be honest with you, I saw stars in my eyes,” Gentile said. “I saw this being like such an amazing location and me growing (with) partial ownership of the restaurant. So I kind of like put the rest of it in the back of my head, which was really stupid of me. But you live and learn, I guess.”
Who is the face of Parma Italian Roots?
Gentile wasn’t just Capri and Costa’s employee. He was their houseguest. He said he lived at their north Scottsdale home near Grayhawk Golf Club for more than a year.
Gentile said he was initially told he would be the face of Parma when the Scottsdale restaurant opened in 2018.
“The whole idea of Parma was that they wouldn’t have anything to do with it,” he said. “I would be listed as the ownership, basically to hide them from the public so the restaurant would be successful.”
Parma started out as a beer and burger joint called the Grayhawk Beer Company. It opened under Costa’s name in 2017 shortly before The Republic documented Capri’s role as a federal witness and mob turncoat.
Gentile said Capri came to him about opening a new restaurant and disguising the ownership.
“I said, ‘Hey, you’ve got that stupid burger joint up there. It’s the biggest waste of time I’ve ever seen. It’s a good location. Let’s reopen it as an Italian restaurant,’” Gentile said. “Basically, he gave me a budget of $60,000 … So I reopened as Parma.”
Success came fast. The restaurant, like others under Gentile’s stewardship, won praise from critics and diners alike.
“They were pulling in 8 grand a week from that restaurant, that little tiny Parma,” he said. “We were looking to do almost $3.5-$4 million (a year) out of that tiny little place.”
He said the more acclaim the restaurant received, the more Costa wanted to claim credit.
“It became successful, so she was like, ‘I pay the bills, I’m the face of this restaurant. I’m going to be here every day,’ ” Gentile said.
Gentile said ownership for Costa and Capri turned into social drinking and free meals.
“She was ... playing hostess while she was drinking wine. It was just a mess,” Gentile said. “They just want to come in and eat. I mean, we had $1,000 to $2,000 in comps for him and her to come in and eat there every (expletive) week.”
Gentile said he had no idea Capri and Costa were attempting to open a new Parma.
A series of failures
Capri and Costa are known in the restaurant business — for driving restaurants out of business.
A Republic investigation found Capri’s Phoenix companies built 20
Toby Keith restaurants beginning in 2009 and announced plans to build 20 more that never opened.
In lawsuits, developers claimed Capri stiffed contractors, broke lease agreements and took millions of dollars meant to pay for construction.
By 2017, judges in cities across the country ordered him or his companies to pay at least $65 million in civil judgments. It is unclear how many judgments were paid or settled.
Only one of Capri’s Toby Keith restaurants, near Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, continued operating. It closed for good in January, after Costa took over operations.
In March, Costa admitted Capri and a business partner set up and secretly ran Rascal Flatts restaurant projects in her name. In texts to The Republic, Costa said Capri manipulated her into putting her name on corporation and business records for restaurants from Hawaii to Florida.
She claimed she was inexperienced and naive.
Costa was one of two managers listed on corporation filings for RF Restaurants, the Las Vegas-based company that owned and operated the restaurant projects.
RF Restaurants filed paperwork for as many as 19 locations across the country.
Developers paid millions to lure RF Restaurants to malls. They offered up-front cash to offset construction costs in exchange for signing long-term leases. They got vacant buildings, incomplete projects and lawsuits.
The Stamford Rascal Flatts closed in August 2018. Developers there accused RF Restaurants of failing to pay more than $1.1 million in rent. Lawsuits followed the shutdown of RF Restaurants’ projects in Pittsburgh; Gainesville, Florida; and Hollywood, California. Projects in other cities fell behind schedule and collapsed.
Capri’s name does not appear on corporate documents tied to the Rascal
Capri was born Frank Gioia Jr., a third-generation mobster. Mafia historians call him one of the most important government witnesses ever to testify against the mob.
The Republic in 2017 documented Capri’s transition from gangster to witness to businessman.
His cooperation with law enforcement led to the conviction of more than 70 Mafia figures in the 1990s and 2000s. He helped clear several unsolved murders, including the shooting of an offduty police officer.
Gioia became a “made man” in 1991 and has testified about his past as a murderer, drug dealer, gun runner, arsonist, loan shark and enforcer.
In exchange for his cooperation, federal prosecutors rewarded Gioia with a new identity. He emerged in Phoenix in the early 2000s as a luxury home developer.
When the bottom fell out of the housing market in 2008, Capri positioned himself as a commercial developer. He started small, soliciting mall owners in Chandler and Mesa with a chain of indoor playgrounds.
Those early projects proved to be Capri’s template for the Toby Keith failures. He offered mall owners long-term leases in exchange for up-front cash, then walked away, court documents show.
Toby Keith has refused to discuss his relationship with Capri. The singer had no ownership interest in the restaurants; he only collected money on naming rights.
Capri has refused comment on his involvement in Rascal Flatts or any of Costa’s other restaurants.
The FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice have declined to answer questions about Capri.
Costa muddies ties
Costa has explained her relationship with Capri differently depending on the circumstances.
She has been involved with him for years and has acknowledged he is the father of her two children, ages 3 and 5.
Their current relationship is unclear. In the Dec. 5 interview, she said she did not “not know him.” She said he “loves the food” at Scottsdale’s Parma.
In 2018, she claimed she didn’t know about Capri’s Mafia past and denied being his girlfriend.
“While they at one point in time had a personal relationship … Ms. Costa is and was not Mr. Capri’s girlfriend,” a lawyer representing Costa wrote in a Jan. 24, 2018, letter to The Republic.
The letter was sent at the same time Costa was involved in the development of Rascal Flatts restaurants. It sought to remove her name from stories involving Capri. Not just because of her business interests, but because of her charity work.
Audio recordings and text messages underscored Costa’s involvement in the Rascal Flatts projects. In one recording, Capri said developers should call Costa if they have questions: “They’ve got Tawny’s number. Tell them to call us.”
In 2017, Costa initiated calls to The Republic posing as other people to gather information for Capri. She later acknowledged the ruse and described herself as Capri’s girlfriend and his facilitator.
Costa has similarly given various explanations of her ownership roles in the restaurants. In publications and in interviews, she has described herself as the owner of restaurants, including Parma.
When questions have arisen over closures and lawsuits involving those restaurants, Costa has said she is only a manager or a member of the controlling limited liability company.
For instance, corporation paperwork shows Parma is controlled by DSK II, (Double Standard Kitchenetta) LLC.
DSK II is listed as the “owner” of Parma with the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control. The Phoenix City Council will discuss approval of the liquor license at a Jan. 8 hearing.
State records show Costa is not the owner of DSK II but rather the sole member and manager of the company.
Costa is also the only member and manager of a Delaware company called East Coast Entertainment LLC, which lists Parma’s address in the 3600 block of East Indian School Road as its principal mailing address.
Both companies were established in October.
Costa identified herself as Parma’s owner in the Dec. 5 interview. She said the restaurant was scheduled for a full opening in January.