Did you ask the handsome husky guido for a date?

I think the only mobster I ever saw in person was Anthony Scotto at his daughter's restaurant around 2001-2005. He was apparently shelved by that time anyway.

I didn't really know him, and didn't know at the time that he was connected, but I used to see Frank Langano in the diner he later got killed outside of. I remember thinking that he was a sharp dresser kind of like John Gotti, but thought nothing of it. I thought he was just another Italian American gentleman that moved down from the city. (That should have been a clue, most owners/managers of diners in NJ are Greek, not Italian) He seemed like a very normal guy. Apparently he was managing the place himself, he used to work the cash register and everything. Whatever his crimes, he did seem to work hard at legitimate business.

Wait a second, a diner in Jersey not owned by Greeks!?! Now that's shocking and unique....

I live in NYC Manhattan for many years during the 70s-80s in the area NoHo so I hung around Little Italy, Lower East Side, Greenwich Village.
I used to walk bu the Ravenite daily but did not really know it was there but there was always wiseguys on the block because their was another social club around the corner on Spring Street also at Mott and Broome there was the Latineers Social Club. in about 1983 or 84 my girlfriend was across the street from Ravenite shopping in a Batik store so I go out front to smoke a cig, Im standing there and there is an ancient goodfella staring at the corner just staring and there is another dude like an Irishman standing next to me and from across the street comes a good looking husky Guido and he starts talkin to the Irish guy I caught a word by accident here and there , so the Guido leaves and the Irishman stays and the Guido comes back to talk to Irish again, well the Guido was John Gotti, he was running messages from Uncle Neil in the Ravenite.
I saw Gotti a bunch of times around the city before and after his infamy, Little Italy was thick with goodfellas back in the day.
Im gonna shut up but I would love tto hear anyone's stories.

Hey Uncle Vig!

One of the very first places I ever worked was Hemmingways. I started working there in 1980 and there were lines out the door every weekend. Big "Tino" was the doorman.

Boy was that a "hangout". The place was always crawling with gangsters in the 1980's. There were also what we used to call "half a wiseguy's", you know, wannabees with the white tie and black suit and the pinky rings who talked all kinds of shit but were connected to nobody. Just bullshit artists.

Its been my experience that the really heavy guys didn't swagger quite so much.

The owner was a crazy Russian guy named George Young. Every night when I'd walk in he'd say hello to me between long snorts. This guy was doing so much coke he couldn't say three words without his brains falling out of his nostrills.

The place was a hot spot for years, until it finally closed sometime in the mid 90's.

Funny story......My uncle was a carpenter and he did some re modeling when it became a gay place called "ManKind".

He told me that the new owners wanted some walls taken out upstairs where the office was. When they started chopping into the walls they found bags of this sticky yellow stuff. And off duty cop told them it was bags of coke that were probably hidden in those walls 10 or 15 years ago. The Florida humidity just got to them and ruined all of it.

Hollywood was a swinging place back then. Loaded with late night clubs and lots of gangsters during the winter months.....

Thanks for bringing up good old Hemminways.

Sal

Hemmingways was a night club called Temptations since the late 70's, very early 80's and owned by an italian guy names Eugene up until late 90's or early 2000 when he sold to the current owner.
I was at Temps a lot back in the day and you would of been hard pressed to see hotter girls than the one's at temps.
I eat at hemmingways and they have decent food.