By Richard Hartley-parkinson 14 June 2012

New York mafia families close to starting mob war over pizza sauce recipe Colombos say was stolen from the Bonannos


A family's pizza recipe almost lead to gangland war, a court heard, after a new outlet opened that offered near identical food to another takeaway.
Francis Guerra, a Colombo mafia family associate in New York, is on trial for extortion after demanding payment from a rival pizzeria that he said had stolen a recipe from popular L&B in Brooklyn.

Anthony Russo, a former Colombo mafia boss, told a jury in Brooklyn that he became angry after learning that a member of the Bonanno crime family had taken one of his recipes.
It is alleged that Eugene Lombardo took the cooking method from L&B Spumoni Gardens then used it at his new restaurant, The Square, in Staten Island.
L&B is very protective over its products which are considered to be among the best in New York City, according to New York Daily News.
Russo said 'It's a famous pizzeria. Their pizza, their Spumoni, their ices.'
He added that 'they put the sauce on top of the cheese' when asked by Assistant Brooklyn U.S. attorney Nicole Argentieri asked what made them so special.

Brooklyn Federal Court heard that Guerra caught Lombardo, whose sons worked at L&B, in the basement of the pizzeria looking at flour supplies, according to the New York Daily News.

Russo said: 'He was angry, he wanted to hurt [Eu]gene.'
Russo went to Staten Island to confront Lombardo over the copying of the recipe.
When he arrived there with Guerra and Frank Iannaci they saw a sign that advertised their products as 'L&B style pizza'.
Russo told the court: 'Gene came out and (Guerra) started yelling at him. He told him he's a "piece of s***, a s***bag, robbed my family, I’ll break your head",' Russo said.
There were fears that the confrontation could have turned nasty after Iannaci slapped Lombardo.
However, the rivals decided to sit down and discuss the problem at a Panera Bread in Staten Island.
The meeting was called by Bonanno soldier Anthony Calabrese and it was there that the Colombos demanded a share in the restaurant or a $75,000 payment for stealing the recipe.
Eventually Lombardo agreed to pay $4,000 - Guerra received $2,000, Calabrese got $1,500, and $500 went to their consigliere - to the Colombos after Calabrese pointed out that it would be impossible to try sauce from every pizzeria in New York.
'I told Frank to take the offer. It was ridiculous to go any further with it, just accept the money and move on, Rosso said.
Yelp.com has various recommendations for The Square which compare it to L&B.
One user wrote: 'Oh man, oh man is this pizza good! I've been to L&B's plenty of times and I can tell you that this pizza is better! I had a few slices left over from a box and popped it into the freezer. A week later and they tasted just as good!'
Another said: 'So obviously L&B still has the best square slice hands down, the place is a great alternative for those Staten Islanders who can't make it over the bridge.'

Whats L&B?

It's a pizza place in Bensonhurst/Coney Island. It has, IMO, the best Sicilian pizza I've ever had!

My kids love that place spumoni Garden I never ate there.

The best scilian I ever had was in in a place called Armando's on east 16 street and kings highway under the l train. It is long gone moved to New Yersey some place.

My favorite Italian restraunt is Gargiulo's on coney island.

You wanna see a war over recipes?!?... You should see it when the Neapolitan side and the Sicilian side of my families go at it!

Is it gravy or is it sauce?

Does putting the sauce on top of the cheese rather then under it really make that much difference?

Surprisingly so. Their rationale is putting a layer of cheese on top of the dough prevents the sauce from making the dough too soggy. The cheese acts like a layer through which the sauce won't run.

Shit, I'm hungry now.

The only time for me of having to put sauce over the cheese was only when there wasn't enough sauce under the cheese. It never tasted as good to me.

Funny story I have a grandson living in Berlin, Germany. I go there often to see him.

The Italian food places their suck. The sauce is terrible. There are also a lot of Turkish restraunts in Berlin. They have a terrific tomatoe soup there. I love it it tastes just like Ma's gravy believe it or not.

So I buy lasagna from the Italian place scrape of their crap sauce and put the Turkish soup over it and you got something.

Incidently I took an apartment in Berlin 2 houses from where my daughter lives with my grandson over looking the canal. I am going to spend the spring and summers there to get to know my grandson better.

The plan was to go in May but I got a hole in the bottom of my foot that won't heal because of my diabetis. So I have to get over that first had it for 8 months now.

I mentioned this to a friend of mine about the sauce over the cheese at L&B's and he told me how in Trenton they've been doing that for many years. They call it a Trenton Style Tomato Pie and told me he loved them. He highly suggested to me that the next time i'm in the Trenton area i should check out DeLorenzo's Pizza and DeLorenzo's Tomato Pies. They're brothers competing against each other. Also a place in Trenton called Papa's Tomato Pies.

All the times i've been to Trenton and i never knew about them so i want to check them out for myself. They're supposed to be really good.

Here's a couple sites that talks about these Trenton style Tomato Pies and the DeLorenzo's.

http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/20...delorenzos.html

http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/20...trenton-nj.html

Didn't Gargiulo's get wiped out by Sandy?

I always start my pizza sauce with a can of peeled tomatoes. I mash them with a potato masher, then add my spices, wine and some tomato paste to thicken it a bit. The shreds of tomato left after mashing give the pizza a nicer consistency than with just plain tomato sauce.

I have a little trick for preventing the crust from getting soggy and for making sure that it's crispy in my home oven, which doesn't get hotter than 500 degrees. I heat my pizza stone for an hour at 500. Then I roll out the dough,put it on the stone and let it bake for 4-5 minutes while I grate the cheese and cut the pepperoni. That hardens the surface of the crust. Then I pull out the stone, put on the sauce and ingredients, and put the stone back in the oven till the pizza's done.

Pretty much so, at least for the time being. Interviews with the owners on the local news shows reported there was five feet of water in the dining room alone - and everything in their basement was completely destroyed.

However, they were vowing to rebuild and repair. Haven't heard anything lately as far as progress, but it was apparent that it was going to a long job.


Signor V.


Edit: I just checked their website and it appears to be business as usual. Their calendar still lists upcoming events, and there is no mention whatsoever of the storm.

Gargiulo's was way overrated and not worth a visit. Much, much better (back in the day) was Carolina's (a few blocks away).

Its a very nice post about pizza and its place. i found this post unique and useful. Thanks everyone for commenting on this topic. keep it up.

It's sauce. Gravy is for 3rd generation know nothings!

Yes, it's sauce!

By the way, I am loathe to buy a pizza. Despite the fact that my wife is a Mississippi/Texas white women, she did learn to make pizza from my mother. She learned well. However, because she seldom will do anything (and I mean anything) for me anymore, from time to time I am forced to buy a pizza.

Which do ya'll consider the best national pizza chain for pizza? I think Papa John's is pretty good.

Sounds like you have bigger problems than pizza.

I haven't had Pizza Hut or Domino's in a long time, but I had a leftover slice of Papa John's this past winter. I thought it didn't have much taste, but that might have something to do with it being a day old.

A few weeks ago I picked up a pizza at Little Ceasar's that was pretty good, and it was only $5 and I didn't have to wait.

None of the national chains are worth a damn as far as I'm concerned. They all taste like cardboard covered with ketchup.

It's sauce, gravy is the brown stuff people put on turkey and meat loaf.

One of the great pleasures of eating my mother's pizza was being able to get up the next morning and eat the slices that were left. It was just as good as the night before, maybe better.

I've tried Ceasar's and its not too bad. But they all use simply too much cheese. That's why I ask for light cheese.

Lately I prefer just a light bit of tomato sauce but with sliced tomatoes with the fresh mozarella in a wood oven thin crust pizza.
I hate the thick sauce you get at chain places, and Oli, I must say I am shocked...SHOCKED you would like Little Caesar's or Papa Johns. That stuff is poison.

Well, give me some leeway when defining "like". They're better than other bought pizza, but that's not saying much. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

I like Rague's pizza sauce the best. Nothing can beat that IMO.

Grotto does come very close though.

However I just hate those sauces that put extra stuff in them like tomato chunks and pepperoni. I love pepperoni but to have mixed in a sauce doesn't go well. The pepperoni gets very old and smelly fast and it ruins the sauce.

Put chunky or any tomato bits in sauce is yuck. Reminds me of the time I went to this pizza restaurant. They put them in the sauce. I had to pick them out and put them on a separate plate. I picked out so much that the plate was completely covered.

One time my sister squeezed tomatoes out on her pizza. Yuck gross.