Nothing Helps N.Y. Restaurants Like the Mob : Brush With Gangsters Proves as Valuable as a Great Chef or Ambience

The Bankers and Brokers Ristorante became one of Larry Branch’s regular lunch spots when he discovered it had three features he cherishes in an Italian eatery: a creditable pasta, a solid wine list and a history entangled with the Mafia.

“The fact there’s a mob shooting connected with the place does sort of add excitement,” Branch, a Wall Street currency trader, said after a recent lunch at the lower Manhattan restaurant. “You feel like you’re in the middle of it all.”

He was referring to the 1986 attack on John O’Connor, a union official who was plugged in the buttocks by gunmen in a dispute over control of the restaurant. These days, as prosecutors try to put the accused wrongdoers behind bars, the restaurant is getting publicity that has drawn other customers as well.

Indeed, a brush with the Mafia can be as valuable as a great chef or a unique ambience in New York’s impossibly competitive restaurant market. In a city fascinated with the Cosa Nostra, almost nothing packs them in like word that mobsters are habitues, or better yet, that there’s been a shooting on the premises.

Good for Business

The top-rated Sparks Steakhouse has drawn even bigger crowds than usual since Gambino family boss Paul (Big Paul) Castellano was gunned down in front of its doors in 1985. The slaying of mob bagman Irwin (Fat Man) Schiff in 1987 helped business at Bravo Sergio on the Upper East Side, and some restaurateurs wonder if Umberto’s Clam House could have even survived without the 1972 slaying of Joseph (Crazy Joey) Gallo that made it a must-see for Mafia mavens.

These days, a long list of tony Manhattan restaurants seem to benefit from the visits of alleged top mob boss John Gotti, the “Dapper Don” whose peregrinations draw nearly as much attention in New York as those of real estate tycoon Donald J. Trump.

“It’s sad but true that shootings are good for the restaurant business,” said Tim Zagat, publisher of the Zagat Survey restaurant guides. “It’s more publicity than a restaurant would ever get through reviews; it’s worth millions.”

Though they may be reluctant to admit it, many of these restaurants may be particularly grateful for the added patronage just now, as overexpansion and Wall Street’s slump have sent the Manhattan restaurant trade into a nose-dive.

New Yorkers’ imaginations have long been inflamed by mob rub-outs, real and fictional. In his “Billy Bathgate,” novelist E. L. Doctorow chronicled the cafe killing of 1920s gangster Dutch Schultz; one of the most famous scenes in the film “The Godfather” is a Corleone family slaying of a corrupt police officer and a mob rival at an old-style Italian neighborhood restaurant.

Of course, many people are turned off by crime and criminals, and would avoid restaurants that have been the site of violence. But, as Zagat points out, “even if 80% of the public is turned off, the 20% that’s intrigued is enough to fill up all the seats in your restaurant for a long time.”

The Castellano murder put Sparks Steakhouse in headlines across the country for weeks. Allegedly directed by Gotti in his bid for control of the Gambino crime family, the killers met Big Paul with a fusillade of bullets as he prepared to step into his long black limousine.

Pat Cella, who owns Sparks with his brother Mike, did media interviews for much of the following day on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, all the while deploring the idea that anyone would be drawn to his restaurant by the tragedy. “Sparks never had many empty seats and, if anything, that (episode) made it more crowded,” Cella said recently.

“It had an unbelievable effect on his business,” said David Liederman, owner of nearby Chez Louis restaurant, with unconcealed envy.

Picture in Tabloids

Likewise, the crowds flocked to Bravo Sergio after a gunman in a dark suit shot the 400-pound Schiff in the back of the head as he sat with a blond companion after a meal of veal rollatini. Schiff was little known at the time, but his picture was plastered across the New York tabloids for weeks as they chronicled the life and many loves of the “Ton Juan.”

“Bravo Sergio would have dropped totally out of sight without the shooting, because they had no claim to great cuisine,” Zagat said.

Restaurant owner Mario Lazzinnaro, who authorities have alleged has ties to organized crime, did not return calls to his Brooklyn construction company seeking comment.

Bankers and Brokers Restaurant made its way into history after the development of Battery Park City, the sleek new financial and residential center at the southern tip of Manhattan. Plans for the development hugely increased the property’s value, and set off a battle for its control.

O’Connor, connected with one rival faction, was allegedly shot on Gotti’s orders in retaliation for vandalizing the restaurant. Prosecutors have alleged that the restaurant has mob ties.

‘Hasn’t Hurt’ Business

In a phone interview, a woman who gave her name as Rosemarie and identified herself as the restaurant’s manager said the shooting “definitely hasn’t hurt” business. Then she hung up.

A brush with the mob evidently doesn’t have to be violent to benefit a restaurant.

The Second Ave. Deli, widely held to be one of the city’s best Jewish delicatessens, has attracted wide notice as the place where both Gotti and Castellano bought their sandwiches and cold cuts.

The New York Post once carried a picture of a muscled Gotti associate carrying a “Second Ave. Deli” shopping bag as he trailed behind the alleged mob boss.

“I only wish that if they had to shoot my customer, they would have done it in front of my place,” joked Abe Lebewohl, the deli’s owner. “These places like Umberto’s Clam House become like tourist attractions.”

As Gotti’s celebrity has grown (he made the cover of People magazine earlier this year), his visits to New York restaurants are closely followed in local papers. On a partial list of his favorites are: Taormina, SPQR, Caffe Biondo, La Camelia, Sistina, Regine’s, San Domenico, and Teresa Mimmo’s.

One restaurateur, who asked not to be identified, said owners “all want some--but definitely not too much” publicity from the visit of mob bigs. “You don’t want the world to think they’re the only celebrities who come by,” he said.

Diners’ fascination with the mob is reflected in the Zagat New York City Restaurant Survey, which rates restaurants every year by soliciting the opinion of scores of regular restaurant-goers.

In their rating of Sparks, the Zagat volunteers often make comments that allude to Castellano’s demise: “a real ‘mob’ scene,” “a ‘family’ restaurant,” “the special of the day is, ‘Duck!’,” “ask for a bulletproof booth.”

Curiously, even the appearance of a mob connection can sometimes be enough to draw crowds of New Yorkers. One of Manhattan’s trendiest restaurants, Rao’s, is an old-style, storefront establishment that law enforcement sources say has no mob connections.

But the restaurant stands in East Harlem on an immaculate block that is surrounded on all sides by burned out buildings--suggesting to the casual onlooker that the area has some kind of Mafia protection. That may be one reason Rao’s is one of the toughest places in New York to get a reservation.

“Even if it has no mob tie whatsoever, a place like this can have the aura that will attract people,” said Edward Giuliano, chief restaurant critic for the Gault Millau Best of New York travel guide.

In Giuliano’s view, diners seek out such an atmosphere because it “recalls a romanticized, earlier America . . . You may have heard the story of Joey Gallo’s shooting 50 times, but you still want to go down there yourself, to see where it took place.”

Whatever the source of the attraction, some New York restaurateurs are evidently grateful to the reputed mobsters for any boost their presence may give the establishment.

Sparks owner Cella remembers Castellano as “a fine gentleman.” Lebewohl of Second Ave. Deli agrees, saying moreover that he’s never had a problem of any kind with the alleged mobsters set.

“As far as I’m concerned, they’re nice people,” Lebewohl said. “They sit, they eat, they pay, they leave--and there’s no screaming.”

N.Y. RESTAURANTS AND THE MOB: A LONG HISTORY

Year: 1987 Restaurant: Bravo Sergio Incident: Mob bagman Irwin (Fat Man) Schiff gunned down as he dines with a girlfriend Year: 1986 Restaurant: Bankers & Brokers Ristorante Incident: Union official John O’Connor shot in the buttocks, allegedly at orders of Gambino boss John Gotti Year: 1985 Restaurant: Sparks Steakhouse Incident: Gambino boss Paul Castellano killed in front of the restaurant as steps into his limousine Year: 1979 Restaurant: John & Mary’s Restaurant Incident: Three masked men kill Bonnano family leader Carmine Galante as he smokes an after-lunch cigar Year: 1972 Restaurant: Umberto’s Clam House Incident: Joseph (Crazy Joey) Gallo, a maverick leader of the Colombo family, killed in a shoot-out Year: 1972 Restaurant: Neapolitan Noodle Incident: Las Vegas mob “hit man” mistakenly kills four meat wholesalers