Louie’s will close amid tax charges
Italian eatery has been serving for more than 60 years; owner accused of dodging sales tax
A month after its owner was accused of underpaying taxes to the state, a landmark Italian restaurant in south Allentown will serve its final order of fettuccine Alfredo by the year’s end.
Louie’s Italian Restaurant, at 2071 31st St. SW, will hold its last day of business on Dec. 28, owner Louis Belletieri said.
A retirement celebration, featuring food and drink specials, will be held Dec. 26-28.
“We want our customers to know how much we appreciated them and how much we do appreciate them,” Belletieri said. “We hope they come in and see us before we leave.”
Louie’s, open for lunch and dinner Tuesday through Saturday, was originally known as Gino’s and started by Belletieri’s parents, Louis “Gino” and Susan Belletieri, at 12th and Chew streets in Allentown in 1958.
Today, more than 60 years later, Louis and his children, Christine, Josh and “Little Louie,” operate Louie’s Restaurant
and Louie’s Catering.
The family-style Italian food, including “Mom Belletieri’s famous manicotti” and “Mom’s Way lasagna,” is made using Susan’s time-tested Italian recipes and Louie’s “famous sauce.”
“We were looking for another location, but everything kept
falling apart,” Louis Belletieri said. “… We couldn’t really find anything that really fit what we wanted.”
Louie’s salad dressings and sauces will continue to be sold in select local grocery stores following the restaurant’s closure, he said.
“This is the end of 61 years,” he added. “It’s a happy occasion because I’m 73 years old and I have to slow down, if nothing else. But I’m not retiring. I have things to do, and I’m looking at other situations. But since my family’s not going to be involved anymore, there’s really no reason to continue with Louie’s.”
Louis Belletieri, a former Allentown mayoral candidate, was charged last month with more than 30 counts of felony theft after authorities said he failed to pay more than $89,000 in sales tax to the state.
He is accused of underpaying taxes to the Pennsylvania Revenue Department since September 2014 for sales at Louie’s.
According to a criminal complaint, Belletieri was collecting sales tax from bar and restaurant customers but only remitting the bar portion to the state.
“The Defendant would have known the sales from the bar were a fraction of the total sales of the restaurant and not enough to run his restaurant,” Senior Deputy Tax Auditor Douglas Cachia said in the criminal complaint. Cachia said Belletieri did not turn over records to investigators that are typically kept by a restaurant, and that he was paying some bills “directly from his sales tax account.”
Belletieri reported much higher sales on federal tax returns than he reported on state tax returns, the complaint states.
Reached by phone on Friday, Belletieri said he is “still in negotiations” with authorities and the upcoming closure of Louie’s is unrelated to the charges.
“People seem to feel that that is the reason why [the closure] is happening, and that isn’t,” he said. “That has nothing to do with it. The lease was up. One has nothing to do with the other.”
The 4,113-square-foot, standalone commercial building that Louie’s occupies is available for lease, beginning in January, according to a listing on commercial/industrial real estate firm NAI Summit’s website.