Ah, the Valbella basement tapes
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Readers with memories that can stretch back to the late 80s or 90s will recall that Valbella replaced the Gas Light (?) and, a week before reopening under new management, burned down — there was a reason for that, so read on. In any event, it did eventually get up and running, with one peculiarity: on weekend nights, the side road off the Post Road was jammed with huge limos bearing NY plates. Two, even three friends of mine whose veracity was unquestioned told me the same story: the basement was supposedly “reserved”, but they’d independently snuck down the stairs to see what was going on, and it was, literally, a mob scene: huge men, all wearing gold necklaces and finger jewelry, dyed-blonde bimbos with pneumatic breasts, and bodyguards along the wall. Brooklyn meets Greenwich.
Many years later the FBI busted a huge Mafia ring down in the city, and released some great details about Valbella. Turns out, the poor owner was the victim not only of the Mafia but also, and worse, the Albanians (a friend and neighbor of mine, a Brit who spend several decades working for FIAT in Italy said that the Albanians make their Italian counterparts look like defanged pussycats). I forget which group burned down his restaurant, but they both took turns extorting him. The Albanians hung him by his heels in that very same basement and beat him until he agreed to pay tribute, the Italians demanded free meals.
The FBI released a hilarious wiretap of the mafioso boss, confined in a prison hospital, yelling at his troops because while he was getting prison food and no money, his guidos were content with stuffing their faces with Valbella meatballs and letting the friggin’ Albanians collect the cash. Which I suppose illustrated my neighbor’s assessment of the two groups’ natures perfectly.
Anyway, that was long ago, and presumably, the competing mobs have gone elsewhere and left the poor owner alone. Still, the illegal basement dining room does seem to have lingered on.
