Made or not made? I hear he is. He isn't. The restaurant is a crock of shit. It's great. I know some of the older New York Italians prefer to go elsewhere. The joint is famous, you cant argue about that. What made it famous, who is Frank Pellegrino really?

Frank made? That's the funniest fucking thing I've heard in 2015 .

He's not even a real Rao by blood. He wormed his way in there through his Aunt. Ronnie Straci is the guy with the brains and business smarts there. Frank was still tending bar when he fell ass backwards into his acting career. I've been there a couple of times and the food is no better than at joints like Bamonte's in Brooklyn or Domenick's in the Bronx, except you can walk right into those places without any of the pretense.

My family lived in East Harlem for years. Pleasant Avenue, between 117th and 118th, to be exact. My grandparents were among the last Italian born residents on the block when they passed away (late '80s and early '90s). I spent half my life visiting that neighborhood, and take it from me, most of the neighborhood people preferred Andy's Colonial Tavern (now closed) to Rao's. Not that Rao's is "bad," mind you. It's just EXTREMELY overrated.

Frank a made guy. I'm still busting a gut laughing .

I didn't realize he played the FBI chief in Soprano's as well as some other roles on TV.


To answer your other question...


Yes he is made... made for TV .

PB, thank you. You were just the man to clear this up for me. Word of mouth was he is/was connected to the Genovese's? But made? Yeah, had my doubts. I just don't get why this place has all the buzz. Come to my house. I'll make you a better Italian dinner than you'll get at Rao's. lol

Never. If anything he has a very informal tie to the Luccheses. He was always running to Bowat for one thing or another.

I am an older half italian guy that likes to go to Rao's I don't go often enough.

I like going because I have fun there. I only have the meat ball and the lemon chicken there. I like them again italian food is like art. What art people like is subjective. I like my wife's food better but I like their meatballs and the lemon chicken as well. I don't eat anything else there.

I lived in Harlem as a kid. I like to go back there because once a Harlem boy always a harlem boy. Unless you make yourself believe that you are beyond that part of your life later on like my brother Ralphie

I like to sing even though I can't sing well. Frank likes to sing professional singers go their and start singing. The people who work there are fun people.

It's a fun place I would go their even if the food sucked and it doesn't suck.

Friends of mine from Harlem like to go back and talk about when we were kids. My friend Johnny, genie boy from a Hun 9, Lou from a Hun 7. We talk about those days as kids. Frank know these guys and a lot of other guys. We even talk about guys who are dead now. We talk about the women we fucked there when their husbands were at work.

When I go there time stops for me I am a kid again. When I go there and Frank is there we compare suits He makes us laugh and we tell stories about what we did as kids.

Finally got an invite to go in Nov 2014

Getting in took a long long time

It was expensive but I thought the good was very good

I pretty much went with the meatballs and they were great

A table of 3 cost us about $800 all in

If you go I would suggest you try and do it on business

Remember Las Vegas also has a Raos in the Venetian

Angelo's of Mulberry St. for me ;-)

Raos's sucks is overrated.

I used to frequent Angelo's. However, after the way i saw the owner carry himself on that nj house wives show, i have a hard time goin back.
If PB gets me a table, i will go to Rao's.

Try Belmont Tavern on Bloomfield Ave Bellville NJ

Very inexpensive and incredible pork chops

I haven't been to the Bronx places PB mentions but

The Tavern is probably pretty similiar, cash only , 50+ year history ,

Simple menu , good portions , real old skool etc.

The shrimp are actually named after Beeps in philly NJ faction

As an app id recommend shrimp beeps and pot cheese cavetelli

And jumbaylaya pork chops for entree ( it's off menu )

Also American Bistro on Washington Abe in nutley . Huge portions and fabulous food and this is where Nicky skins wore a wire in the philly / Gambino meet .
Great food.

In NY go to Bianca's on bleeker street , it's a secret gem in NY . I'd be very happy to hear if anyone knows this place as they know their shit

I'm sure we've discussed Bianca's before, DB. Great food. But as an aside, one bedroom condos on the far end of Bleecker are going for two million today. On the fucking Bowery! The old timers who lived in those cold water flats have to be spinning in their graves. I can barely believe it myself, and real estate is my life today.

That's why I always laugh when out-of-town posters want to know if there are still Italians living down there. My stock answer is, Only if they get off the boat with a million in cash. But if you have a million, why leave Italy in the first place?

And that's why there aren't many Italians living on the Lower East Side today. But that's enough sociology for today. You guys know I get verbal diarrhea when I talk about the gentrification of New York City .

PB : Any where in the tristate it makes me sick. No wonder the west side wanted Jersey so bad...

I used to go to the belmont tavern quite often. The past 10-15 years it has been commercialized. However, the food is still good. An no, you wont find a bunch of mobsters hanging out there. You would have back in the 80's and before.

No argument here. It's over for the blue collar family in the NY-NJ-CT area. All to make room for a bunch of ragheads who hate us anyway, not to mention the fucking hipsters and yuppies.


They got it, didn't they?

I was up at wood stock NY not to long ago and the hipsters are all over the place.There are many Italians that ran for the hills and now the hipsters are there.

Well I must say I knew of all people you went there , call it a hunch

Regardless it is still the 1 place where you can get a great meal for $25 or under

And the food is still excellent , more northern style coking but I still swear

They have the best tiramisu in the city , to die for, plus good

Wine list for $20 and under . Not many places like that left , if you know

Any in manhatten please let me know , it took me 5 years to find a place like that

Where a girl thinks she is getting treated to a top notch Italian restaurant , just

Don't show her the bill . I do remember that other good place in the village that

Had that special green pasta that was outrageous , even Bill Clinton would go but I

Forgot the name but man was that pasta good. Could of eaten 3 bowls worth


I read an article recently that stated Manhatten real estate was the most stable investment

In the history of investments lol, and I must say it's pretty accurate . If you don't have a

million dont even bother and a million we are only talking an avg 1 bedroom.

There was 1 small time period after that terrible day that did enable some to get

In at a somewhat reasonable price , especially Williamsburg where people made a fortune

I was just to young with my $40k salary right after college at Wells Fargo lol but boy I wish

I figured a way to get in.

A $500k place then is probably $3-$4M today.

Regardless one positive of the manhatten real estate is it kept a lot of

Sons of the guys you know out of the family business and on the straight and narrow .

Got to say I'm very impressed you know about Bianca , I know guys working in NY 30 years that had no clue about it and marveled at it's quality and price once I brought them there . Then again you do pretty much have an NYC history in your head , at some point when everyone has moved on a book could be in your future and ironically it would be a success

True Belmont but the place sure does have it's regulars

Now my good friend bartended at bellanapoli in Bloomfield

Very good food , the owner had some connects going back 4-5 years . In fact it's a place like this ( whether I was right or wrong ) that cemented in mind CN couldn't function as good as it did without restaurants that served as a way to make connections , meet people , start books , work the garbage and vending angle , skim tips ( which absurdly does happen and is a money maker at a good joint ) and even loan small amounts of $, but who knows I could be very wrong .

A lot of Westside went there back then . It would make sense too as they had a piece of joeys back then which was near by and a cash king at one point , like the old joeys in ortley beach .

Same with tiki back in the day , Westside printed cash with that place , now this is going back 5+ years , no idea who handles things now but again that real estate and bar is a gold mine , millions on both fronts . I still go there and somedays they had to bring in hundred of thousands . Funny enough Mondays were and are the best days and only a connected joint figures out a way to turn a Monday into an industry day ( or strippers) and clean a few hundy thou every Monday lol , not too mention the 40 tvs that only play sports lol

Il Mulino on West Third, right off Sullivan. It's like ten feet from Gigante's old club. I've eaten there a lot. But they got too big for themselves now. Vegas, Miami, Uptown, Downtown. They're practically a chain. But at one time the original was one of the three or four best Italian restaurants in the entire City.

Pb
Sent you a pm...

DB
I used to go to Joeys when it was on Vanhoughten ave before it moved to allwood road. I went to bella napali whem it was closer to rt 3 on the bloomfield clifton border back in 1991.
I also loved casa dante back in the day. Laco's is still good from what i hear.

Table of 3 800$??? I'm cool wouldn't even think once about that

I don't see it.

Ah yeah thanks PB a lot , now I can sleep !

To say nothing of the location in the Ritz Carlton in Puerto Rico....

NJ has a large Italian population, so there was no problem finding a decent Italian restaurant when we lived there. Our favorite was Nanina's in the Park in Belleville (Newark suburb). Great food, world-beating wine list.

My favorite places have always been Parkside and F and J Pine, long before I knew of any mob connections with any restaraunt... my parents would take me there after a day at at the bronx zoo when we were kids.

On a much smaller scale... Trattoria 35 on Bell Blvd has good affordable italian food. It's nothing too special, but I like it there.

And I have never been to Rao's in the city.... but I have at Cesars Palace... does that count? : )

Have you been reading my posts, Shamm?

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbthr...true#Post824802

Ha, no I missed that one...

I haven't been in a few years... I need to go back.