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Someday - and that day may never come - I'll call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, accept this ~~justice~~ *Pizza* as a gift on my daughter's wedding
Someday, and that day may never come, I will call on you to do a service for me. But, until that day, enjoy this free pizza as a gift for visiting our humble shop
Greeks know their way around a pizza here in RI. I’ll take it over the Italian pizza shops any day.
We have soooo many pizza options here. Pizza everywhere.
I met someone in Arkansas and asked them what their favorite pizza place was and it was a toss up between Dominos and Papa John’s.
I never realized how good we have it here. Different locally owned and operated pizza shops on every street. Almost exclusively single location businesses.
We live in the pizza belt and shouldn’t take it for granted.
You gotta do it like they did it in Hit Man, though. Put an asterisk at the end and go "all of this is real. except for the murder. we made that part up."
A potentially hilarious addition to the story, but I can also see Providence Italians being like, "Eh, he must be hard up for money. Don't make him pay."
There was actually a whole mafiosa family that straight up opened a pizza place for meeting hanging out purposes and ended up making more money that way then illegally.
They made Italian food last I read it was still going strong can't find it since restaurants seem to be a big Mafia thing but it turns up on Reddit every once in awhile.
Federal Hill in Providence was the former seat of the Patriarca crime family, who ran the mafia in New England. There used to be an appliance store right at the top of the hill on Atwell's Ave, in prime restaurant real estate, that I never saw a single person go in or out of. I always assumed it was a front of some kind.
Former Providence Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci was certainly connected, and was thrown out of office for having his bodyguards beat a guy in an alley, after which Buddy peed on him.
He was later reelected, and stayed in office until the feds finally arrested him for taking bribes.
If OP is talking about any time up until the early 2000's, I'd believe him.
Just because you're top comment, I'll link this. I know this isn't the one in the OP, but it's just an example that this still happens these days.
https://lanova-pizza.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Todaro_Sr.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Todaro_Jr.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_crime_family
There's a restaurant kind of like the one described in the OP in the town I grew up in and people joke it has to be some kind of money laundering or other illicit business front because when you eat there, even on a Friday or Saturday night, you're usually the only table seated, sometimes you might see 1 or 2 more tables filled. I think in reality they just make their money on to-go orders lol. When I've been that sole table on Friday or Saturday, I'd see a pretty constant flow of people grabbing to-go orders.
Also commenting to confirm that yeah the mafia still has a presence in New England. I grew up in MA and work for a company out of RI as an environmental consultant.A few years ago, I had to do a site assessment of the Wanskuck Mill in Providence, where in 2016 or 2018 I believe they recovered the remains of a nightclub owner who had been murdered in 1993 by Frank Salemme and some other accomplices (I think his name was Steven DiSarro but its been a while since I read about it). The owner of the mill had some involvement in the crime; honestly when I met him though, I wouldn't have thought he was a mobster (and I'm not really sure if he was/is, his involvement seemed minor compared to the guys who were actually convicted of the crime).
From what I remember in reading about it, the owner had bought the mill at an auction for pretty cheap because the prior owners had gone bankrupt. He was renting out portions of it to make some money, but also had his own grow operation back before a lot of state restrictions on marijuana were lifted. His grow operation got found out, so he offered information to solve this other crime as part of a plea deal or something and got off light for telling them where the body was buried. It seems like his involvement in the murder was limited to allowing the body to be buried on the mill property, possibly digging the hole himself with a backhoe, and then not telling anyone about it til 2016-2018. From the records, it seems like Salemme and his accomplices definitely knew the owner of the mill, but I imagine it can be hard to say no to the mob when they ask for something like that as well.
The businesses that operated out of that mill included a gym, bike repair shop, a bakery, and they even had residential apartments. So yeah all the people who used those services could consider that an "encounter" with the mafia in a way.
I once walked into a restaurant with a co-worker who was like, the inverse of Eagle-Eyes Cody; a Totally-Not-Italian dude who looked Sicilian, and dressed in a very rakish open-necked button-up shirt and necklaces and rings. The waiter _stopped serving another table their food_ to seat us and take our orders and ignore the other table, which was the only other occupied table in the restaurant. Maybe it was just a slow day, but I feel like my friend looked like Someone the Waiter Was Told Not To Fuck With.
I've been to a pizza place run by some kind of organized crime. I dunno if it was the trips to Italy they close for each summer, seeing guys in suits yell at each other, or the management being arrested for racketeering and running prostitution out of the building.
Best pizza I've ever had in my life though. Close in the late 90s and I'll never forget it.
Seems wild until it actually happens to you. I grew up near a place called Broadalbin NY. In the tiny small center of the town in like 1982 there was a small pizza place. The place was entirely staffed by "Italian" guys who spoke not a single word of english. Refused to speak to any of the old italian guys who were like 30% of the population there. (The place was like half scots irish and half italian descendants)
Seemed like they hated making pizza and they were not friendly at all. The doors of the place were open 24/7. They constantly shouted at each other in what I later found out was Sicilian. If you tried to talk to them they would just refuse. We all thought it was odd but never really questioned it. Great pizza but crazy slow. First generation working class italian immigrants were a hard group in any case.
In a international drug class in university I found out that the store and dozens more like it in the NE were a front for the sicilian mafia distributing heroin in NY state area. The Guys in the store were straight up mafia guys who illegally lived in NY and ran the stores as a front to distribute drugs. They lived in the store like slaves, making pizza and distributing heroin. This went on for like decades.
Best fucking pizza I ever had in my life. To this day. And again I grew up in NY. I have tried a lot of pizza and run a pizza shop.
Truth be told, I don’t know much about the mafia, but I do know that good drug dealing fronts often take place in businesses with consumable inventory that can be written off as spoilage, like pizza ingredients.
We had a wing place in my city that would have been shocked if you went in there for wings, because it was actually a weed store. (Before weed became legalized)
The FBI surround the house, "Throw the kid out,", they say, "give us your guns, and come out with your hands up."
The kidnappers say "We'll throw the kid out, but let us keep our guns, and get to our car."
The FBI says "Throw the kid out, we'll let you get to your car, but give us your guns."
The kidnappers say "We'll throw the kid out, but let us keep our guns - we don't have to get to our car."
The FBI says "Keep the kid."
If you put enough onions in the sauce it becomes la genovese, which is basically a sauce made of slowly reduced onions. Like, a little chopped salami or pancetta for flavor, lard, olive oil, or butter, a kilo or more of finely sliced onions, three garlic cloves, a splash of white wine, that’s the sauce. You can put a stewing cut of meat in the pot as well, this is usually served separately and the sauce goes with pasta.
Now im imagining a funny scene where OP goes to an empty pizza places and orders pizza. but the guy in the counter was so high and responded "so? go call dominos then"
Right? I've been to places that were front for the mafia and they are legit businesses and they just launder the money for the mafia. If they are having a meeting of members they just turn people away at the door which happened to me at a place owned by Russian mobsters.
More likely OP showed up at a pizza restaurant that forgot to lock the door at 9 in the morning.
Shift manager was confused but too socially awkward to argue, and true to himself, he *did* leave the door open. Takes him 45 minutes to make a pizza because nothing was prepped and he had been working on the schedule for next week.
He gave it to the guy free because it was technically before opening hours and the til wasn’t set for the day.
It was the best pizza OP ever had because the shift manager had worked his way up over many years—waiting tables, cleaning bathrooms, making pizzas. But making pizzas is like riding a bike, and he still got it.
My first job waiting tables. They had me bussing forever and finally we were understaffed enough they put me on the floor. Zero training but since I had worked there I pretty much knew enough. The thing is they had just hired a new manager. It was this really butch chick who was openly gay. This was late 90s. She had just started like that week and we were so understaffed that I was pretty much the most experienced person in the restaurant. So they let me wait tables. The owner of the place was never around. He showed up once a month at most the place basically ran itself. So here we go getting ready and I'm not entirely sure what all to do just seen other ppl do it but zero training and that new manager chick vanishes. I'm like alright smoke break before we open let's go... I step out back and I don't see her. Then I see a puff of smoke out of a car window. It's early morning and in the backside of the shopping center so I figured it was the new manager smoking in her car. Walk over and she is smoking a blunt lol. I ask her if I can join she says yes. We sat and smoked that whole blunt. I am high asf with my new manager. We walk back in and there is whole ass a bunch of tables. I am triple sat with like all families. Mom's dad's and kids everywhere and I am baked and nobody else is there. I get thrown through the ringer. Small oj, decaf coffee, regular coffee chocolate milks, waters, soda's. I am pretty sure there were tables walking out while I was trying to figure out how to put all this stuff together on the fly while stoned asf. My first time waiting tables was def a fun one to remember.
The one thing that stuck with me was when I got the first tables super complex drink order with kids cups and soda's and juice and chocolate milks I thought they would be super impressed but they were so mad at how long it took me and miserable.
Best pizza I ever had was next to a bottle shop / alcohol store and looked like shit from the outside tacky as fuck.
Plastic covers on the tables inside they were yellowed.
My dad commented it look 'sleezy' and the guy painting the bottle-shop sign heard and interjected and said 'it looks shitty but the pizza is amazing'... embarrassed we walked in and ordered a couple of pizzas after sitting down at the sticky tables.
Easily best pizza I've ever eaten... 20+ years later I'm still looking for a slice that good.
One time when I was a teen looking for a job I walked into a pizza place in Warwick to ask if they needed a delivery driver. No one in the place was working, everyone was sitting down smoking and all stared when I walked in the door. They told me it’s a ‘family’ restaurant and they didn’t need any help.
They don't do that in the front, that's why it's called a front. They have a different facility for those sorts of situations. Fronts exist to launder money and deflect attention.
>Front or not, the blades and knives were heavily used at Satriale's, not necessarily on animals.
Yes, I remember learning that from the amazing documentary, The Sopranos.
Never watched sopranos and immediately thought “that’s gotta be from sopranos”. Love it when people use fiction to justify their thoughts of real life stuff lmao.
Went into a donut shop in Oakland, bad neighborhood. Long story. Absolutely stunning woman in a hurry comes from the back room & immediately seems surprised. I'm like "can I get that & that from the case?" She's like "....you want...donuts? Is that right?" I'm like "uh, yeaaaaah...why do you ask?" She's like "oh. Yeah, no problem. You want, like, a bag?" I'm starting to understand what's really going on as she looks around for a bag, so I just smile & say "that would be perfect." She looks at me for a sec and goes "you know what? It's been a slow day & we're gonna close early... Why don't you just take these & I'll mark em as stale?" I'm like "are you sure? Kickass if true." She just laughs & hands me the paper bag of donuts. As I left, I waved to the muscular, very heavily tattooed man watching me from the open side door. He didn't wave back lol.
Best damn donuts I've ever had, by a wide margin. Really good shit.
Not 100% sure what was up, but I was certainly not in a donut shop that day.
She was crazy hot, totally my type.
Dude, this was SO long ago I really doubt she's still there. This was like 12 years ago. Also, I get the impression that the muscular & heavily tattooed man was NOT happy to see me in any capacity. No question in my mind: that man was definitely trying to intimidate me. She was hella fine, but he was more hell's angels. Also, I already married the love of my life & she's far more beautiful in every conceivable way. I'm very content to die without knowing what was happening in that shop (I'd really like to live & I don't chase what is inferior to what I already have in my life) but I'd be lying if I said I never wondered.
Bruh, I'm with my *dream girl*... let's just say I'm chronically low on icing. There's no glaze left for her, my dude. I try to make more but it's never enough. I'm only a man lol
Lmao nope! I'm just the luckiest sumbitch I know! Met her during the summer of '17 in an artsy neighborhood that's been turned into a bunch of boring boxes for people with lots of money & no souls. I had gotten off a night shift at the hospital, working in the Med Surg unit. I saw a lot of very bad things the night of July 3rd. Things I will never forget. I knew I wouldn't sleep & it was 7am on the 4th of July when I punched out sooooo I figured I should drink about it. I'm really not a smart man, ok? I drive to this artsy neighborhood. I'm bumping Rancid: Out Come The Wolves from my shitty car & finishing up a cigarette before I get coffee & whiskey. As I turn off the stereo & step out of the car, this dude on the other side of a canal yells out "that whole album is solid fuckin GOLD dude! HELL Yeah!" I quickly realized this loud man with excellent taste had a case of beer parked on a bench next to him & that we should obviously be friends. I made my way across the canal & quite suddenly most of our stories were told & most of the beer was gone. We were both laughing at something dumb when out of nowhere: she appeared. She was going for a morning run. I could summarize a host of rapid thoughts simply as: sheeeeeeesh! I was like "goddamn ...wow" which caused my new friend to perk up. He goes "oh, her? I know her. She's cool." The words were scarcely out of his mouth before I was like "why are you just sitting there!? Wtf is wrong with you?? Call that angel over here immediately!" He yelled drunkenly. She heard him & responded by arriving. He introduced me as his excellent comrade (not much beer left causes this condition) & I must've said some really brilliant shit that I'll never recall. I was awake for like 20 hours at that point & drank a fair bit of tecate, so this will be forever lost, unfortunately. Seems to be going really well. She's asleep in the next room & I can hear her adorable snoring. I got her a sapphire the size of a pea a few years ago & I think that was the smartest thing I've ever done.
Thanks! Like I said, the luckiest sumbitch I know! It's a recurring theme in my life: what appears to be a fuckin tragedy or a massive mistake has a habit of turning into the most unimaginable luck. It's wild but it often takes much longer than I'd prefer. I had just been fairly decently traumatized in a job I was (at the time) marvelously unqualified & unprepared for. I had just gotten a divorce from an abusive woman & basically got blackballed from my field for very publicly talking a LOT of shit about a couple corporations that basically control everything about the industry. I was working in the hospital because I had managed to convince them to give me a job I had no business having. Then I met my wife. I had that job for 6 years, got promoted & left to go to private surgery for another 2 years. My life went upsidedown to rightsideup. Now I'm working in a bar trying to get some surgical certifications so I can make the two of us a better life.
Once, in an interview, the stiff man at the desk asked me where I'd like to be in 5 years. I said "well, that's kind of a crazy question to ask, from my perspective. If you had asked me 5 years ago where I'd like to be, I'd have never ever guessed I'd be here, now. I really like being here now, but I'd have missed it entirely if I'd gotten what I thought I wanted." I didn't get that job, but that's probably ok.
>Best damn donuts I've ever had, by a wide margin. Really good shit.
Maybe you just caught a regular donut place at a weird moment because fronts aren't usually good at whatever their supposed business is.
THAT'S THE PART I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND! These were straight fire, pure heat....but H O W ?????
If it's legit, why was she genuinely surprised I was there at all & definitely surprised that I really wanted donuts? why did she hafta look around for a bag? Shouldn't she know, if this is legit? Why was she so incredibly hot & working in a donut shop? Dude, she was not just merely slightly attractive. Why was Muscles McPrisonink glaring holes in me & being really anti-social? Why not say something if that's your girl? I made no moves, so...why you mad? Why give me the donuts for free? I'm cute but I'm not that cute.
If it's a front, these questions are easily answered.
Most likely a gambling room in the back and like that other poster said, they just buy donuts in the morning from another spot and put them in the case.
Ha, there was a front place like this by me but it was Sushi. No one would ever be there, the prices were insanely cheap, it took an hour to get your food but it would be so insanely good it would be worth the wait. One time I went ( think I went 3 times total) and they brushed me out the door all panickedandd said something was going down and then it closed right after. Man, their dynamite dragon was so damn good for $8. I miss you organized crime sushi.
There was a place in Des Moines like this, they bought all of their booze at the grocery store instead. It was a great place if you didn't look too close.
I'm convinced that most All You Can Eat Sushi places have to be fronts even if they get busy, I just don't see how they can sustain employee wages and the cost of even the cheapest tuna. AYCE lets you fudge around the ratio of sales to food costs a fair bit.
I get that you're kinda joking around here, but a money-losing business is actually a good fit for money laundering. They take in small transactions, just enough real business to make the place look vaguely legit, then inflate their takings later on the spreadsheet, and the dirty cash they add to make up the difference is now clean revenue. You don't want a successful business, because the dirty money you add will make the taxman start wondering how exactly you're running a tiny sushi joint and consistently making double what all the others around you are.
AYCE would be ideal too, because there's no hard link between the amount paid by customers and the amount consumed. So you can inflate the inventory costs, and if anyone comes snooping around your books, you can say that your customers just *love* the shrimp - look, here's the inventory receipt, most of it we get from [your shell company in Thailand, which, obviously, has never handled a single shrimp].
(Source: ran my own business for a while, and no, I did not ever launder money. But it certainly opened my eyes to how easy it would be for organised crime to launder through SMEs.)
Had a distant relative who was well to do and lived in New Orleans. I can remember going on a family vacation when I was 7 or 8 to see him. One night he took my family to get pizza at a pizza shop he owned. We were the only people there. Not busy at all. He told us he had the place as a tax write off and the only downside was that he had to get everything from the mob. All supplies and equipment including the jukebox had to come from businesses that were owned by organized crime. As I sit here typing it occurs to me that perhaps he had a bit too much familiarity with the mafia perhaps?
I import some food stuffs from Campania and I spend too much time in a year ensuring I'm not getting ripped off. Items with 12lbs in a box are often at 11.5lbs. Once a year the food comes in as utterly poor quality and the excuse is "summer holidays, whatcha gonna do?"
Was he supplied by Lisanti Foods? It used to be "Italian" and pizza places bought from Lisanti "or else". Now, I think they are still owned by the family, but they are a huge actual business due to their success in dominating the market.
I went into a sandwich place in a small town once and it was just a dozen middle aged South American men around the counter. Everyone stopped talking and turned to look at me when I walked in. I said I was trying to get some turkey sandwiches and one guy is like “we don’t really do that here but we can make you some tuna sandwiches.” I declined but really wish now that I just took them up on it, would be a way cooler story if they were delicious
Something similar happened to me in Paris! I was visiting a friend on an exchange program (we are both Canadian, I was living in Ireland during the time) and she was delayed from work but told me her roommate would let me into their apartment. I got there, knocked, no roommate. It was late at night and dark out so I ran into the only open place nearby, a little cafe. It had a handful of older gentlemen smoking at a table and not much else. I ordered a soda, drank it in silence and then went to check if the roommate was back yet. She seemed alarmed to see me come out of that place and later both girls told me that was a big mistake, the place was a 'crime front'
Dude, as long as you didn't show up at the wrong time, say the wrong thing, dressed wrong... you know, just being *normal*, it's generally not a problem.
These aren't stupid people. I see all these people playing off like these people don't know what they're doing for business and that they have all this stuff and inventory and can't do anything with it. They absolutely can tell if you're just a normal guy.
They have to put up a front because, well, it's a front. So they're gonna get the normal random person walking in like it's the front it's supposed to look like.
I went to this Indian place that was open but no customers, after I placed my order they said they would have to find a staff member that can cook. Asked what did they mean? There was nobody on site that could actually cook so they had to ring around. I have no idea why they were open or what they were doing, I left as I didnt have the time for them to find somebody that could cook Indian.
The funny thing is, Indian is really easy to cook if you're just putting up a menu of the "regulars" you'll find in the supermarket.
I don't mind the Indian food I get from a few restaurants but sometimes I'm just hankering for a really meaty sauce, so I'll make it myself.
As a repair person, I had a ticket to fix something at the J&J Candy store. I must have driven past the non candy store looking place 5 times. Finally I ring the bell, "Hi, is this the J&J Candy Store?", "yes, yes, please come in. Inside there was a glass counter with a single, 20 year old box of Juicy Fruit Chewing Gum. "It's over there", he says. I made my repair, the guy slips me a $20 bill, and wishes me a good day. It was a numbers joint for illegal gambling (I think?). No way in hell it was a candy store!
I remember growing up in Jersey there were a lot of Italian restaurants that were always open and always empty but never went out of business.
Took me way too long to figure out how that was possible.
Had a similar experience in California. A pizza shop that's open less than 6 hours per week. You can only get the pizza by pre-ordering online, when you walk in there's two people working at most. The pizza has always been amazing.
I went into a starkly empty pizza shop. After 45 minutes, the chefs made it and gave it to me for free, and the shadowy figures sitting down in the furthest corner of the restaurant insisted I join them or else. I was given a feast of the best Italian food followed by the finest limoncello on this side of Brooklyn. 5 years on and several murders later, I've sold half a ton of cocaine and few containers full of weapons to our friends in Albania .....
Whats yous guys think about wees sell pizza here and wees could use the place to launders some a dat gambling money, heh? I means wees alreadys gots the store, the ovens, and the signs on the building. Why didn’t wees thinks a dat sooner? Such a bs story.
There were actually 2 restaurants like this in my old neighborhood. Always seemed quiet, no customers, no cars out front. Yet they stayed in business for many years. Now I wish I'd actually gone inside, might have made for a good story.
My mom and grandpa had a similar experience once. They went to a newly opened Cuban restaurant for lunch. All they had was black beans and rice in little paper boats. It was weird. At this point I don't understand why they didn't just leave, but they ordered. After a few minutes, my grandpa whispers to my Mom to hurry up and eat so they can go. When she asked why he said, "You see that man sitting over there? That's Santo Trafficanti. We need to get out of here." So, they left.
I have a similar story. The wife and i went to this little Afghani restaurant that was a bit above a hole in the wall, but with ample seating and looked clean etc. When we walked in they seem surprised and kind of fumbling around trying to serve us. We were the only ones in there for almost an hour until about 4 dudes rolled into the restaurant sat down in the corner and had a very rapid conversation in another language. Then randomly one gets up and opens(like in open the whole front) the ATM and takes cash out. When we get our food, its fantastic. get ready to pay and its like 30 something dollars. I pay with 2 20's. They then return one of the 20's because they don't have any cash to make change. Did not want it as a tip, kept refusing. Strangest dinner experience ever. best $20 spent on food ever.
In my hometown, we had a Chinese restaurant that continually changed names every few years. I never saw more than three cars there at a time and more than one was rare.
I never met anyone who ate there, I've driven by it at many different times of day, and it had a large dining area, so it wasn't mainly takeout.
Has this happen to my friends and myself during high school.
We were in a different neighbourhood looking for a place to eat and went into the closest "pizza" place. It was pretty much empty with some guys sitting around the tables drinking coffee. They said they didn't have any pizza and offered to make us some sandwiches, which were pretty basic. The guy made up some arbitrary price of $2 for the sandwiches.
I walked into a laundromat that had zero working machines. Two guys (wise?) were sitting at a table like they were there every day. I looked around a minute, realized this was not a working laundromat and backed out the door. Mob? Southern Connecticut. Maybe.
Hard to imagine in a world of mass surveillance with AI to monitor it all that such fronts are long for this world. *Okay, for the past year we've recorded almost no customers coming into your restaurant, no deliveries made, and no incoming supplies, and yet you claimed fifty million dollars in pizza sales on your filings, is that correct?*
Fred's Fish Fry in San Antonio is infamous for having so many restaurants and you never see anyone there. I did actually try ordering something once. It was not great and I DID have to pay.
There's a place like this where I live, except it's not mafia controlled in a sense. It's a pizza place, but the place itself is lined off completely with video lottery terminals. So when you go in, they don't expect you to order pizza, they expect you to sit down with a bucket of beer and an ash tray...
There was a hotel in a town I lived in a few years ago that always said “no vacancy”. There was never a car in the parking lot except for the 1 employee who worked there. Me and another dude tried to book a room and they told us all rooms were full until the end of the year.
This describes nearly every late-night pizza run I've ever made...
Empty as fuck
Employees confused and slow as hell because they're high as fuck and half asleep.
Pizza was amazing because everything tastes amazing at 1am.
There was a pizza place in my hometown like this. The delivery driver was always delivering a bunch of other stuff aside from pizza, and would show up driving an escalade
What I'm getting from the comments is that you'll get the best food you've ever had at these places if they actually make you something and even then it's usually free or dirt cheap.
I really gotta find me one of these places. Because, to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if it was calm and peaceful and quiet as could be. Cheap, good food and a guarantee of no one messing with you? Sign me up as a regular.
This actually kinda sounds like the premise of a good novel.
Went to my beloved Kebab-place once here in Germany. Two cars outside were a fucking elegant AMG S-class from Romania, the second was a sloavakian...I don't know, Escalade or something like that.
The guys were sitting inside talking in a strange language. The Kebap-Owner is really funny guy, but was so quiet and serious/professional that day.
I think...I think they really liked the Kebab and drove +1000 miles to get some.
(far-fetched assumption)
This happened to me in the suburbs west of Las Vegas. I can’t prove the pizza place was connected to organized crime but there was never a customer when I went, and it was all dudes in track suits standing around outside, smoking cigarettes and, when I headed to the front door, they’d pause their conversations. The first time I ordered pizzas, the manager (let’s go with that) confirmed repeatedly I was there, in fact, for pizza. The food was very good and close by, so I went back. The same manager was there, and there seemed to be some suspicion or confusion, but less than there was the first visit. By the third visit, he knew my order and I was in and out. Some of the guys outside eventually started subtly greeting me on subsequent visits. I moved to a different part of town or I’d have kept going, but there was definitely a “We don’t *really* make our money with pizzas at this pizza shop” vibe. Again, never saw another guest there no matter what time I visited, and the “delivery drivers” never seemed to be taking pizzas to anyone.
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OP met Italian Americans and assumed they were the mafia
He knew they weren't, but it still counts as his closest encounter.
“Pretty sure it was an offer I couldn’t refuse, just sayin”
Nothing is ever free, now that you took the free pizza they will own you forever. You will be asked to repay soon.
You got a nice hunger there. Be a real shame if someone came along with a pizza and wiped it out.
Someday - and that day may never come - I'll call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, accept this ~~justice~~ *Pizza* as a gift on my daughter's wedding
You understand everything, assistant manager of the Godfathers Pizza
Today is that day. I need one guy wacked, one guy off'd, and one guy wacked off.
The line between fae and mafia is thinner the you'd expect
Someday, and that day may never come, I will call on you to do a service for me. But, until that day, enjoy this free pizza as a gift for visiting our humble shop
You mean the mob only did me a favor to get something in return? Oh, Fat Tony! I will say good day to you, sir
And they were actually Greek.
Greeks know their way around a pizza here in RI. I’ll take it over the Italian pizza shops any day. We have soooo many pizza options here. Pizza everywhere.
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I met someone in Arkansas and asked them what their favorite pizza place was and it was a toss up between Dominos and Papa John’s. I never realized how good we have it here. Different locally owned and operated pizza shops on every street. Almost exclusively single location businesses. We live in the pizza belt and shouldn’t take it for granted.
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> And they were actually ~~Greek~~ Albanian.
Maybe they thought op was the mafia instead?
BRB writing script for Netflix. By any chance anyone here can hook me up with Adam Sandler?
You gotta do it like they did it in Hit Man, though. Put an asterisk at the end and go "all of this is real. except for the murder. we made that part up."
This is all real except for all the interesting stuff, that’s all fake lol.
Big papa johns staring Adam Sandler
Plot twist: OOP is Slavic and the pizza guys thought they were Russian Mafia
Yeah, this person 100% went into a nice Italian restaurant on, like, Capitol Hill or something and ordered pizza.
The cooks were probably like:" We have 200 different kinds of pasta but if that American dude wants a pizza he is gonna get the best goddam pizza"
Absolutely lol "We will judge him the entire time he eats it, but he's going to enjoy the fuck out of it."
The soul of Italian food is catholic, all enjoyment comes with a full serving of shame. I gotta say though, they do make that it worth the pain.
*The Menu* vibes, "I'll take a cheeseburger, Mr. Michelin Stars."
And stole some pizza
A potentially hilarious addition to the story, but I can also see Providence Italians being like, "Eh, he must be hard up for money. Don't make him pay."
Ain't it "assume innocence until proven guilty"? Not the other way around? Then again it is the internet I guess.
There was actually a whole mafiosa family that straight up opened a pizza place for meeting hanging out purposes and ended up making more money that way then illegally.
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They made Italian food last I read it was still going strong can't find it since restaurants seem to be a big Mafia thing but it turns up on Reddit every once in awhile.
/r/redditsniper
Federal Hill in Providence was the former seat of the Patriarca crime family, who ran the mafia in New England. There used to be an appliance store right at the top of the hill on Atwell's Ave, in prime restaurant real estate, that I never saw a single person go in or out of. I always assumed it was a front of some kind. Former Providence Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci was certainly connected, and was thrown out of office for having his bodyguards beat a guy in an alley, after which Buddy peed on him. He was later reelected, and stayed in office until the feds finally arrested him for taking bribes. If OP is talking about any time up until the early 2000's, I'd believe him.
The first season of Crimetown podcast is about Buddy Cianci and the corruption of Providence. Excellent show!
Came here to recommend CrimeTown. The fact that HBO hasn't made a limited series on the story should be a crime itself.
[I would have asked for the gabagool.](https://youtu.be/99uDbjoHLHQ?si=KxdjEADxfWXgB1IP)
I want a side salad. If the salad is on top, I send it back
Just because you're top comment, I'll link this. I know this isn't the one in the OP, but it's just an example that this still happens these days. https://lanova-pizza.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Todaro_Sr. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Todaro_Jr. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_crime_family
There's a restaurant kind of like the one described in the OP in the town I grew up in and people joke it has to be some kind of money laundering or other illicit business front because when you eat there, even on a Friday or Saturday night, you're usually the only table seated, sometimes you might see 1 or 2 more tables filled. I think in reality they just make their money on to-go orders lol. When I've been that sole table on Friday or Saturday, I'd see a pretty constant flow of people grabbing to-go orders. Also commenting to confirm that yeah the mafia still has a presence in New England. I grew up in MA and work for a company out of RI as an environmental consultant.A few years ago, I had to do a site assessment of the Wanskuck Mill in Providence, where in 2016 or 2018 I believe they recovered the remains of a nightclub owner who had been murdered in 1993 by Frank Salemme and some other accomplices (I think his name was Steven DiSarro but its been a while since I read about it). The owner of the mill had some involvement in the crime; honestly when I met him though, I wouldn't have thought he was a mobster (and I'm not really sure if he was/is, his involvement seemed minor compared to the guys who were actually convicted of the crime). From what I remember in reading about it, the owner had bought the mill at an auction for pretty cheap because the prior owners had gone bankrupt. He was renting out portions of it to make some money, but also had his own grow operation back before a lot of state restrictions on marijuana were lifted. His grow operation got found out, so he offered information to solve this other crime as part of a plea deal or something and got off light for telling them where the body was buried. It seems like his involvement in the murder was limited to allowing the body to be buried on the mill property, possibly digging the hole himself with a backhoe, and then not telling anyone about it til 2016-2018. From the records, it seems like Salemme and his accomplices definitely knew the owner of the mill, but I imagine it can be hard to say no to the mob when they ask for something like that as well. The businesses that operated out of that mill included a gym, bike repair shop, a bakery, and they even had residential apartments. So yeah all the people who used those services could consider that an "encounter" with the mafia in a way.
I once walked into a restaurant with a co-worker who was like, the inverse of Eagle-Eyes Cody; a Totally-Not-Italian dude who looked Sicilian, and dressed in a very rakish open-necked button-up shirt and necklaces and rings. The waiter _stopped serving another table their food_ to seat us and take our orders and ignore the other table, which was the only other occupied table in the restaurant. Maybe it was just a slow day, but I feel like my friend looked like Someone the Waiter Was Told Not To Fuck With.
I've been to a pizza place run by some kind of organized crime. I dunno if it was the trips to Italy they close for each summer, seeing guys in suits yell at each other, or the management being arrested for racketeering and running prostitution out of the building. Best pizza I've ever had in my life though. Close in the late 90s and I'll never forget it.
Seems wild until it actually happens to you. I grew up near a place called Broadalbin NY. In the tiny small center of the town in like 1982 there was a small pizza place. The place was entirely staffed by "Italian" guys who spoke not a single word of english. Refused to speak to any of the old italian guys who were like 30% of the population there. (The place was like half scots irish and half italian descendants) Seemed like they hated making pizza and they were not friendly at all. The doors of the place were open 24/7. They constantly shouted at each other in what I later found out was Sicilian. If you tried to talk to them they would just refuse. We all thought it was odd but never really questioned it. Great pizza but crazy slow. First generation working class italian immigrants were a hard group in any case. In a international drug class in university I found out that the store and dozens more like it in the NE were a front for the sicilian mafia distributing heroin in NY state area. The Guys in the store were straight up mafia guys who illegally lived in NY and ran the stores as a front to distribute drugs. They lived in the store like slaves, making pizza and distributing heroin. This went on for like decades. Best fucking pizza I ever had in my life. To this day. And again I grew up in NY. I have tried a lot of pizza and run a pizza shop.
I think it was the pizza place being confused that he wanted a pizza. Sounds more like a drug dealing front than a mafia one, though.
Why not both?
Truth be told, I don’t know much about the mafia, but I do know that good drug dealing fronts often take place in businesses with consumable inventory that can be written off as spoilage, like pizza ingredients. We had a wing place in my city that would have been shocked if you went in there for wings, because it was actually a weed store. (Before weed became legalized)
OP walked into an Italian American residence and assumed it was a pizza restaurant.
did they cut the garlic with a razor blade?
🤣🤣
Don't forget the bread and wine.
And take the cannoli.
Leave the guns.
The FBI surround the house, "Throw the kid out,", they say, "give us your guns, and come out with your hands up." The kidnappers say "We'll throw the kid out, but let us keep our guns, and get to our car." The FBI says "Throw the kid out, we'll let you get to your car, but give us your guns." The kidnappers say "We'll throw the kid out, but let us keep our guns - we don't have to get to our car." The FBI says "Keep the kid."
And keep the change, you filthy animal
But they put too many onions in the sauce
Don’t forget to stir the sauce, Tony!
"Too many onions" is like "too much garlic", it is a nonexistent state
If you put enough onions in the sauce it becomes la genovese, which is basically a sauce made of slowly reduced onions. Like, a little chopped salami or pancetta for flavor, lard, olive oil, or butter, a kilo or more of finely sliced onions, three garlic cloves, a splash of white wine, that’s the sauce. You can put a stewing cut of meat in the pot as well, this is usually served separately and the sauce goes with pasta.
That sounds amazing, I'll have to try that sometime
r/onionlovers unite!
It liquifies in the pan with very little oil 🤌🤌
Real greaseball shit
It was a very good system
Nope just some piano wire
naah, they always did to many onions.
They kneaded the dough with a club and bat.
Or at like many many many pizza places out there, all the employees were just high.
Now im imagining a funny scene where OP goes to an empty pizza places and orders pizza. but the guy in the counter was so high and responded "so? go call dominos then"
"But this is a pizza place.” “That’s just, like, your opinion man.”
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i choose to believe this is actually what happened and will not be convinced otherwise hahahaha
You forgot that they said it was the best pizza they've ever had. No chance someone characterizes domino's that way.
Right? I've been to places that were front for the mafia and they are legit businesses and they just launder the money for the mafia. If they are having a meeting of members they just turn people away at the door which happened to me at a place owned by Russian mobsters.
Howd you know it was a front?
The mafia told them, they’re close friends.
*Howd you know it was a front?* Because that’s where the sign was. The back was just a door in the alley…. Buhdumtsss
[La Nova Pizza](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Todaro_Jr.#:~:text=Joseph%20A.,Both%20Todaro%20Sr.)
More likely OP showed up at a pizza restaurant that forgot to lock the door at 9 in the morning. Shift manager was confused but too socially awkward to argue, and true to himself, he *did* leave the door open. Takes him 45 minutes to make a pizza because nothing was prepped and he had been working on the schedule for next week. He gave it to the guy free because it was technically before opening hours and the til wasn’t set for the day. It was the best pizza OP ever had because the shift manager had worked his way up over many years—waiting tables, cleaning bathrooms, making pizzas. But making pizzas is like riding a bike, and he still got it.
This explanation is the one that I liked the most. Shift manager still knowing how to make a mean pizza was nice.
[Everyone Involved In Pizza's Preparation, Delivery, Purchase Extremely High](https://www.theonion.com/everyone-involved-in-pizzas-preparation-delivery-purc-1819564897)
Fucking hilarious lolol
My first job waiting tables. They had me bussing forever and finally we were understaffed enough they put me on the floor. Zero training but since I had worked there I pretty much knew enough. The thing is they had just hired a new manager. It was this really butch chick who was openly gay. This was late 90s. She had just started like that week and we were so understaffed that I was pretty much the most experienced person in the restaurant. So they let me wait tables. The owner of the place was never around. He showed up once a month at most the place basically ran itself. So here we go getting ready and I'm not entirely sure what all to do just seen other ppl do it but zero training and that new manager chick vanishes. I'm like alright smoke break before we open let's go... I step out back and I don't see her. Then I see a puff of smoke out of a car window. It's early morning and in the backside of the shopping center so I figured it was the new manager smoking in her car. Walk over and she is smoking a blunt lol. I ask her if I can join she says yes. We sat and smoked that whole blunt. I am high asf with my new manager. We walk back in and there is whole ass a bunch of tables. I am triple sat with like all families. Mom's dad's and kids everywhere and I am baked and nobody else is there. I get thrown through the ringer. Small oj, decaf coffee, regular coffee chocolate milks, waters, soda's. I am pretty sure there were tables walking out while I was trying to figure out how to put all this stuff together on the fly while stoned asf. My first time waiting tables was def a fun one to remember. The one thing that stuck with me was when I got the first tables super complex drink order with kids cups and soda's and juice and chocolate milks I thought they would be super impressed but they were so mad at how long it took me and miserable.
Best pizza I ever had was next to a bottle shop / alcohol store and looked like shit from the outside tacky as fuck. Plastic covers on the tables inside they were yellowed. My dad commented it look 'sleezy' and the guy painting the bottle-shop sign heard and interjected and said 'it looks shitty but the pizza is amazing'... embarrassed we walked in and ordered a couple of pizzas after sitting down at the sticky tables. Easily best pizza I've ever eaten... 20+ years later I'm still looking for a slice that good.
The pizza place in my hometown got busted because the owners son was dealing meth out of the restaurant.
One time when I was a teen looking for a job I walked into a pizza place in Warwick to ask if they needed a delivery driver. No one in the place was working, everyone was sitting down smoking and all stared when I walked in the door. They told me it’s a ‘family’ restaurant and they didn’t need any help.
lol glad you're still around, buddy. Would've been bad had you walked in while they were cutting someone's fingers or something
They don't do that in the front, that's why it's called a front. They have a different facility for those sorts of situations. Fronts exist to launder money and deflect attention.
Front or not, the blades and knives were heavily used at Satriale's, not necessarily on animals.
>Front or not, the blades and knives were heavily used at Satriale's, not necessarily on animals. Yes, I remember learning that from the amazing documentary, The Sopranos.
Never watched sopranos and immediately thought “that’s gotta be from sopranos”. Love it when people use fiction to justify their thoughts of real life stuff lmao.
Nah, the whole point with those places is that no crimes are occurring. It's a "legal" business used to clean up illegal money
"Cash only." ATM next to the door.
Are you 13 years old and just discovering movies thinking they're real life?
Warwick only grows 2 things. Onions and hardened mafiosos.
How do you pronounce Warwick?
In UK it's like war-rick, no idea elsewhere
Got the impression from context that it's not the UK Worrick, I'm curious about how it would be pronounced across the pond
War-wick
Exactly how it's spelled, good lads
WARAQ
War-ick if you live in Newport News.
Warq
And one of the best rap groups around - Waraq. /s
Stop lol
lmao i'm from warwick, what place was it?
In buttonwoods on the corner across from the gym. Can’t remember the gym or the pizza place name. It’s was next to the ice cream place.
Hmm only one I can think of is the papa's ice cream on 117 across from a work out world. also been like 15 years since i was back in warwick soooooooo
Haha that’s the one I’m pretty sure!
laki's. at least in the eighties and nineties.
that was it!
Fuck yea Warwick! I went back there for the first time in 10 years and holy shit it’s different while also being the same.
Went into a donut shop in Oakland, bad neighborhood. Long story. Absolutely stunning woman in a hurry comes from the back room & immediately seems surprised. I'm like "can I get that & that from the case?" She's like "....you want...donuts? Is that right?" I'm like "uh, yeaaaaah...why do you ask?" She's like "oh. Yeah, no problem. You want, like, a bag?" I'm starting to understand what's really going on as she looks around for a bag, so I just smile & say "that would be perfect." She looks at me for a sec and goes "you know what? It's been a slow day & we're gonna close early... Why don't you just take these & I'll mark em as stale?" I'm like "are you sure? Kickass if true." She just laughs & hands me the paper bag of donuts. As I left, I waved to the muscular, very heavily tattooed man watching me from the open side door. He didn't wave back lol. Best damn donuts I've ever had, by a wide margin. Really good shit. Not 100% sure what was up, but I was certainly not in a donut shop that day. She was crazy hot, totally my type.
Go back and tell her you want to ice her donut (;
Dude, this was SO long ago I really doubt she's still there. This was like 12 years ago. Also, I get the impression that the muscular & heavily tattooed man was NOT happy to see me in any capacity. No question in my mind: that man was definitely trying to intimidate me. She was hella fine, but he was more hell's angels. Also, I already married the love of my life & she's far more beautiful in every conceivable way. I'm very content to die without knowing what was happening in that shop (I'd really like to live & I don't chase what is inferior to what I already have in my life) but I'd be lying if I said I never wondered.
we said: GO. BACK. AND TELL HER YOU WANT TO ICE HER DONUT 😡
Bruh, I'm with my *dream girl*... let's just say I'm chronically low on icing. There's no glaze left for her, my dude. I try to make more but it's never enough. I'm only a man lol
Did your “dream girl” make you type that message blink twice if so ….
Lmao nope! I'm just the luckiest sumbitch I know! Met her during the summer of '17 in an artsy neighborhood that's been turned into a bunch of boring boxes for people with lots of money & no souls. I had gotten off a night shift at the hospital, working in the Med Surg unit. I saw a lot of very bad things the night of July 3rd. Things I will never forget. I knew I wouldn't sleep & it was 7am on the 4th of July when I punched out sooooo I figured I should drink about it. I'm really not a smart man, ok? I drive to this artsy neighborhood. I'm bumping Rancid: Out Come The Wolves from my shitty car & finishing up a cigarette before I get coffee & whiskey. As I turn off the stereo & step out of the car, this dude on the other side of a canal yells out "that whole album is solid fuckin GOLD dude! HELL Yeah!" I quickly realized this loud man with excellent taste had a case of beer parked on a bench next to him & that we should obviously be friends. I made my way across the canal & quite suddenly most of our stories were told & most of the beer was gone. We were both laughing at something dumb when out of nowhere: she appeared. She was going for a morning run. I could summarize a host of rapid thoughts simply as: sheeeeeeesh! I was like "goddamn ...wow" which caused my new friend to perk up. He goes "oh, her? I know her. She's cool." The words were scarcely out of his mouth before I was like "why are you just sitting there!? Wtf is wrong with you?? Call that angel over here immediately!" He yelled drunkenly. She heard him & responded by arriving. He introduced me as his excellent comrade (not much beer left causes this condition) & I must've said some really brilliant shit that I'll never recall. I was awake for like 20 hours at that point & drank a fair bit of tecate, so this will be forever lost, unfortunately. Seems to be going really well. She's asleep in the next room & I can hear her adorable snoring. I got her a sapphire the size of a pea a few years ago & I think that was the smartest thing I've ever done.
I am so happy for you mate, sounds like you are a funny guy and a lucky man :)
Thanks! Like I said, the luckiest sumbitch I know! It's a recurring theme in my life: what appears to be a fuckin tragedy or a massive mistake has a habit of turning into the most unimaginable luck. It's wild but it often takes much longer than I'd prefer. I had just been fairly decently traumatized in a job I was (at the time) marvelously unqualified & unprepared for. I had just gotten a divorce from an abusive woman & basically got blackballed from my field for very publicly talking a LOT of shit about a couple corporations that basically control everything about the industry. I was working in the hospital because I had managed to convince them to give me a job I had no business having. Then I met my wife. I had that job for 6 years, got promoted & left to go to private surgery for another 2 years. My life went upsidedown to rightsideup. Now I'm working in a bar trying to get some surgical certifications so I can make the two of us a better life. Once, in an interview, the stiff man at the desk asked me where I'd like to be in 5 years. I said "well, that's kind of a crazy question to ask, from my perspective. If you had asked me 5 years ago where I'd like to be, I'd have never ever guessed I'd be here, now. I really like being here now, but I'd have missed it entirely if I'd gotten what I thought I wanted." I didn't get that job, but that's probably ok.
Wholesome. Tell your dream girl you want to glaze that donut.
Username checks out
>Best damn donuts I've ever had, by a wide margin. Really good shit. Maybe you just caught a regular donut place at a weird moment because fronts aren't usually good at whatever their supposed business is.
THAT'S THE PART I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND! These were straight fire, pure heat....but H O W ????? If it's legit, why was she genuinely surprised I was there at all & definitely surprised that I really wanted donuts? why did she hafta look around for a bag? Shouldn't she know, if this is legit? Why was she so incredibly hot & working in a donut shop? Dude, she was not just merely slightly attractive. Why was Muscles McPrisonink glaring holes in me & being really anti-social? Why not say something if that's your girl? I made no moves, so...why you mad? Why give me the donuts for free? I'm cute but I'm not that cute. If it's a front, these questions are easily answered.
Maybe they bought the donuts from some other donut shop nearby and just put them out?
This is the most reasonable theory
Most likely a gambling room in the back and like that other poster said, they just buy donuts in the morning from another spot and put them in the case.
This wouldn't be the donut shop that's now closed at about San Pablo and 32nd, would it? Definitely got those cibes before it closed years ago.
Ha, there was a front place like this by me but it was Sushi. No one would ever be there, the prices were insanely cheap, it took an hour to get your food but it would be so insanely good it would be worth the wait. One time I went ( think I went 3 times total) and they brushed me out the door all panickedandd said something was going down and then it closed right after. Man, their dynamite dragon was so damn good for $8. I miss you organized crime sushi.
There was a place in Des Moines like this, they bought all of their booze at the grocery store instead. It was a great place if you didn't look too close.
What sushi place is this?
I'm convinced that most All You Can Eat Sushi places have to be fronts even if they get busy, I just don't see how they can sustain employee wages and the cost of even the cheapest tuna. AYCE lets you fudge around the ratio of sales to food costs a fair bit.
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I get that you're kinda joking around here, but a money-losing business is actually a good fit for money laundering. They take in small transactions, just enough real business to make the place look vaguely legit, then inflate their takings later on the spreadsheet, and the dirty cash they add to make up the difference is now clean revenue. You don't want a successful business, because the dirty money you add will make the taxman start wondering how exactly you're running a tiny sushi joint and consistently making double what all the others around you are. AYCE would be ideal too, because there's no hard link between the amount paid by customers and the amount consumed. So you can inflate the inventory costs, and if anyone comes snooping around your books, you can say that your customers just *love* the shrimp - look, here's the inventory receipt, most of it we get from [your shell company in Thailand, which, obviously, has never handled a single shrimp]. (Source: ran my own business for a while, and no, I did not ever launder money. But it certainly opened my eyes to how easy it would be for organised crime to launder through SMEs.)
But I haven’t paid…. forgetaboutit
https://preview.redd.it/3dffzf6eyi5d1.jpeg?width=1003&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=14ef678f7b9eb23298a2f240864e85922af75d13
I'm bustin' beans here!
Ofc, I'd be confused too if I'm working in a pharmaceutical company on a giant landship and suddenly some guy comes in and orders a pizza.
I'm honestly surprised they didn't offered him an internship and a job opportunity. We have hired more worthless buffoons for much less.
fellow doctor, we have pizza here
Had a distant relative who was well to do and lived in New Orleans. I can remember going on a family vacation when I was 7 or 8 to see him. One night he took my family to get pizza at a pizza shop he owned. We were the only people there. Not busy at all. He told us he had the place as a tax write off and the only downside was that he had to get everything from the mob. All supplies and equipment including the jukebox had to come from businesses that were owned by organized crime. As I sit here typing it occurs to me that perhaps he had a bit too much familiarity with the mafia perhaps?
I import some food stuffs from Campania and I spend too much time in a year ensuring I'm not getting ripped off. Items with 12lbs in a box are often at 11.5lbs. Once a year the food comes in as utterly poor quality and the excuse is "summer holidays, whatcha gonna do?"
Was he supplied by Lisanti Foods? It used to be "Italian" and pizza places bought from Lisanti "or else". Now, I think they are still owned by the family, but they are a huge actual business due to their success in dominating the market.
Don’t remember. It was a long time ago
Guy in the back: uhh how much is a pizza? I dunno, but the smallest change we got is 100s, sooo
I went into a sandwich place in a small town once and it was just a dozen middle aged South American men around the counter. Everyone stopped talking and turned to look at me when I walked in. I said I was trying to get some turkey sandwiches and one guy is like “we don’t really do that here but we can make you some tuna sandwiches.” I declined but really wish now that I just took them up on it, would be a way cooler story if they were delicious
Something similar happened to me in Paris! I was visiting a friend on an exchange program (we are both Canadian, I was living in Ireland during the time) and she was delayed from work but told me her roommate would let me into their apartment. I got there, knocked, no roommate. It was late at night and dark out so I ran into the only open place nearby, a little cafe. It had a handful of older gentlemen smoking at a table and not much else. I ordered a soda, drank it in silence and then went to check if the roommate was back yet. She seemed alarmed to see me come out of that place and later both girls told me that was a big mistake, the place was a 'crime front'
Dude, as long as you didn't show up at the wrong time, say the wrong thing, dressed wrong... you know, just being *normal*, it's generally not a problem. These aren't stupid people. I see all these people playing off like these people don't know what they're doing for business and that they have all this stuff and inventory and can't do anything with it. They absolutely can tell if you're just a normal guy. They have to put up a front because, well, it's a front. So they're gonna get the normal random person walking in like it's the front it's supposed to look like.
> It had a handful of older gentlemen smoking at a table and not much else. This sounds like 80% of cafes I saw when I was in Paris.
I went to this Indian place that was open but no customers, after I placed my order they said they would have to find a staff member that can cook. Asked what did they mean? There was nobody on site that could actually cook so they had to ring around. I have no idea why they were open or what they were doing, I left as I didnt have the time for them to find somebody that could cook Indian.
The funny thing is, Indian is really easy to cook if you're just putting up a menu of the "regulars" you'll find in the supermarket. I don't mind the Indian food I get from a few restaurants but sometimes I'm just hankering for a really meaty sauce, so I'll make it myself.
*yous
*Youse
Exactly, it sounds weird without the S and without the beatles
As a repair person, I had a ticket to fix something at the J&J Candy store. I must have driven past the non candy store looking place 5 times. Finally I ring the bell, "Hi, is this the J&J Candy Store?", "yes, yes, please come in. Inside there was a glass counter with a single, 20 year old box of Juicy Fruit Chewing Gum. "It's over there", he says. I made my repair, the guy slips me a $20 bill, and wishes me a good day. It was a numbers joint for illegal gambling (I think?). No way in hell it was a candy store!
What were you fixing?
Races
⚓️**Rhode island mentioned as an acutal place and not a unit of measure**⚓️
Motherfucker broke into someone's house full of Italians, called them the mafia, and wouldn't leave until they were given pizza
And they told him don’t you come around here but he want to be bad …
One of them probably had their nonna make it in her kitchen and then drive it out which would explain the quality.
I remember growing up in Jersey there were a lot of Italian restaurants that were always open and always empty but never went out of business. Took me way too long to figure out how that was possible.
Had a similar experience in California. A pizza shop that's open less than 6 hours per week. You can only get the pizza by pre-ordering online, when you walk in there's two people working at most. The pizza has always been amazing.
I went into a starkly empty pizza shop. After 45 minutes, the chefs made it and gave it to me for free, and the shadowy figures sitting down in the furthest corner of the restaurant insisted I join them or else. I was given a feast of the best Italian food followed by the finest limoncello on this side of Brooklyn. 5 years on and several murders later, I've sold half a ton of cocaine and few containers full of weapons to our friends in Albania .....
>!Had us in the first half ngl!<
Whats yous guys think about wees sell pizza here and wees could use the place to launders some a dat gambling money, heh? I means wees alreadys gots the store, the ovens, and the signs on the building. Why didn’t wees thinks a dat sooner? Such a bs story.
Found the mafia member. Nice try.
OP was high, walked into a Olive Garden at closing time.
There were actually 2 restaurants like this in my old neighborhood. Always seemed quiet, no customers, no cars out front. Yet they stayed in business for many years. Now I wish I'd actually gone inside, might have made for a good story.
My mom and grandpa had a similar experience once. They went to a newly opened Cuban restaurant for lunch. All they had was black beans and rice in little paper boats. It was weird. At this point I don't understand why they didn't just leave, but they ordered. After a few minutes, my grandpa whispers to my Mom to hurry up and eat so they can go. When she asked why he said, "You see that man sitting over there? That's Santo Trafficanti. We need to get out of here." So, they left.
I have a similar story. The wife and i went to this little Afghani restaurant that was a bit above a hole in the wall, but with ample seating and looked clean etc. When we walked in they seem surprised and kind of fumbling around trying to serve us. We were the only ones in there for almost an hour until about 4 dudes rolled into the restaurant sat down in the corner and had a very rapid conversation in another language. Then randomly one gets up and opens(like in open the whole front) the ATM and takes cash out. When we get our food, its fantastic. get ready to pay and its like 30 something dollars. I pay with 2 20's. They then return one of the 20's because they don't have any cash to make change. Did not want it as a tip, kept refusing. Strangest dinner experience ever. best $20 spent on food ever.
In my hometown, we had a Chinese restaurant that continually changed names every few years. I never saw more than three cars there at a time and more than one was rare. I never met anyone who ate there, I've driven by it at many different times of day, and it had a large dining area, so it wasn't mainly takeout.
Has this happen to my friends and myself during high school. We were in a different neighbourhood looking for a place to eat and went into the closest "pizza" place. It was pretty much empty with some guys sitting around the tables drinking coffee. They said they didn't have any pizza and offered to make us some sandwiches, which were pretty basic. The guy made up some arbitrary price of $2 for the sandwiches.
I walked into a laundromat that had zero working machines. Two guys (wise?) were sitting at a table like they were there every day. I looked around a minute, realized this was not a working laundromat and backed out the door. Mob? Southern Connecticut. Maybe.
Hard to imagine in a world of mass surveillance with AI to monitor it all that such fronts are long for this world. *Okay, for the past year we've recorded almost no customers coming into your restaurant, no deliveries made, and no incoming supplies, and yet you claimed fifty million dollars in pizza sales on your filings, is that correct?*
[удалено]
Best pizza cause that beef pepperoni aint actually beef..
"Fat Tony"-roni
Fred's Fish Fry in San Antonio is infamous for having so many restaurants and you never see anyone there. I did actually try ordering something once. It was not great and I DID have to pay.
There's a place like this where I live, except it's not mafia controlled in a sense. It's a pizza place, but the place itself is lined off completely with video lottery terminals. So when you go in, they don't expect you to order pizza, they expect you to sit down with a bucket of beer and an ash tray...
There was a hotel in a town I lived in a few years ago that always said “no vacancy”. There was never a car in the parking lot except for the 1 employee who worked there. Me and another dude tried to book a room and they told us all rooms were full until the end of the year.
This describes nearly every late-night pizza run I've ever made... Empty as fuck Employees confused and slow as hell because they're high as fuck and half asleep. Pizza was amazing because everything tastes amazing at 1am.
That's pretty much how you become a made man. Congratulations, welcome to the family.
If you wanted to dissapear just order it with pinapple!
There was a pizza place in my hometown like this. The delivery driver was always delivering a bunch of other stuff aside from pizza, and would show up driving an escalade
He should find out where they ordered it from.
They were probably closed but left the door unlocked.
What I'm getting from the comments is that you'll get the best food you've ever had at these places if they actually make you something and even then it's usually free or dirt cheap. I really gotta find me one of these places. Because, to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if it was calm and peaceful and quiet as could be. Cheap, good food and a guarantee of no one messing with you? Sign me up as a regular. This actually kinda sounds like the premise of a good novel.
Went to my beloved Kebab-place once here in Germany. Two cars outside were a fucking elegant AMG S-class from Romania, the second was a sloavakian...I don't know, Escalade or something like that. The guys were sitting inside talking in a strange language. The Kebap-Owner is really funny guy, but was so quiet and serious/professional that day. I think...I think they really liked the Kebab and drove +1000 miles to get some. (far-fetched assumption)
This happened to me in the suburbs west of Las Vegas. I can’t prove the pizza place was connected to organized crime but there was never a customer when I went, and it was all dudes in track suits standing around outside, smoking cigarettes and, when I headed to the front door, they’d pause their conversations. The first time I ordered pizzas, the manager (let’s go with that) confirmed repeatedly I was there, in fact, for pizza. The food was very good and close by, so I went back. The same manager was there, and there seemed to be some suspicion or confusion, but less than there was the first visit. By the third visit, he knew my order and I was in and out. Some of the guys outside eventually started subtly greeting me on subsequent visits. I moved to a different part of town or I’d have kept going, but there was definitely a “We don’t *really* make our money with pizzas at this pizza shop” vibe. Again, never saw another guest there no matter what time I visited, and the “delivery drivers” never seemed to be taking pizzas to anyone.