Bamontes- Brooklyn, New York this New years eve...

Ok so we all know its hard to believe anyones real life experiences on here when it comes to meeting wise guys. We all also know Bamontes has been a connected (if not more) hangout over the many years. Well here is my experience on 12-31-2011

Just to give you a little background, I live in Kansas. Never been to NYC and obviously am fascinated with LCN. Well, the Friday before New years ever me and my girlfriend are sitting in Kansas drinking some wine and vodka when she says "hey, lets go visit my sister in New York". So we booked 2 tickets for the next day and ta-da, I am in NYC.

Ive never been but as I said her sis lives there, she works at a bar called the night of joy in Brooklyn. As we are leaving (we are with a few other local friends of hers) we are walking down Withner (sp) street I think and this guy says "hey, if you wanna see the mafia go in there" ( he has been with me all of 5 hours and knew I wasnt leaving until I laid eyes on someone acutally connected)

So we all decide to go in there, the joint is packed. Mind you this is around 2:00 am and everyone is kind of just drinking and dancing. I see they have curtains seperating the front from the back so being the idiot from Kansas, I walk right back through the curtains.

Now, before we go any further, I like to drink, alot. People frequently tell others from Kansas that we have screws loose, I tend to think most people have them loose in general but whatever. My point is that I was shitfaced.

Soooo, I open the curtains and see rows of empty tables, scan the room and in the table in the very back were 5 guys sitting there playing cards. I thought oh shit, If I dont confirm this with myself ill walk away always wondering. I know enough to know that at worse ill catch a beating but prob not even that. I also know really just what to say. So I stumble right up to them and say very drunkely in my best tourist voice "excuse me fellas, but are you in the mafia"

Their reaction was nothing but a look of get the fuck out of here before you catch a beating. As I said, I knew if they gave me any other answer than that I would have been wrong. Not saying anything other than giving me the "your gonna catch a beating look" was all I needed.

so on the way out about a 55 year old blonde (total guess, hell she could have been 25 but she had the "big ange" look from Mob wives, you know really really shitty) So she grabs me and my GF and says "dont go back there anymore" and starts trying to dance with us to keep us busy. We just left cause I was a little scared.

So long story short (sorry for the long post) Bamontes has always been a LCN hangout and is to this very day, I experienced it first hand.

The end, I am back in Kansas now, alive.

LOL I enjoyed your story

i was also in williamsburg for new years at union pool and at the richardson

Thanks man, Sadly enough it was the coolest thing that has ever happened to me to date. Her sister lives in Manhattan, I was just blown away at what that city has to offer, I mean blown away. I mean New York in general.

yeah the city will do that to out of towners, glad you enjoyed good old NYC

lol, that was a good read. Thanks for sharing. Usually I can't read through a post that long without twitching unless I pop a pill, but that was alllllright. Spoken like a true tourist, but alright, nonetheless.

As an aside, people keep mentioning "Big Ange". Who is that? Anyone have a picture and what is this running joke about her?

Carmela she has Mick Jaggers lips and looks like a man IMO. She may be kin to Angelo Ruggerio. She is on Mob Wives.

TL, DR.

No seriously, cool story.

Thanks Ronnie. I really should watch a couple episodes of this show.

If you like hearing very foul mouth women and fights you will like it.

Cool story Jvanley

DO NOT WATCH MOBWIVES. IT WILL MAKE YOU STUPIDER.

EDIT: Stupider? I obviously watched Mob Wives once.

must be why I was stupid today

Well, the foul mouth I can relate to. I try to tone it down for the board here, though. lmao.

I've caught some of the clips that guys have put up, but never really watched the actual show in it's entirety. I just see people talking about this Big Ange lately with reference to the show, so I was curious. The other women I've seen bits and pieces of.

I got in a real throw down brawl with Alicia Garofalo once. Anyone know her? You know how us women are. lol

Did you beat her? PICS or it didnt happen.

is she kin to Manny?

I got ya pics right here. Nah, this was like 10 years or so ago, outside my brother-in-law's restaurant.

Her husband was Eddie Jr. That's all I know.

Srsly, hope you beat her ass. If its the one Im thinking of, she's bitchy as hell.

EDIT: Pics would have been totally hot but. JUST SAYEN, JUST SAYEN !!1!

I believe they are both in jail or on bail.

It was bad while it lasted, but I can't say I beat her ass, no. My husband picked me up and put me back in the restaurant because her friend kept saying, "I'm calling the cops, I'm calling the cops." I did, however, pick up one of those aluminum garbage cans and throw it at her. Unfortunately, I missed and hit the parking meter.
She was a real bitch from day one. She came in the restaurant every Friday night.

http://fivefamiliesnyc.blogspot.com/2012/01/mob-wives-who-is-big-ang.html

i got pics and a quick vid of her on there

she is the niece of late Genovese Capo Salvatore “Sally Dogs” Lombardi

Thanks Dapper Don. Ok, I see about the lips now. lol

lol

i would DEF never want to piss her off or mess with her thats for sure

she looks pretty good here she is

http://fivefamiliesnyc.blogspot.com/2011/10/colombo-mob-wife-granted-separate-trial.html

http://fivefamiliesnyc.blogspot.com/2011/07/brooklyn-mob-wife-alicia-dimichele.html

she goes by dimichele but its def her

Yep, that's her!!

Sorry to de-rail thread, JV.

That's her Dapper. Her and hubby did some wrong with their trucking company. Sorry too Jv.

Pills Pills Pills! Agreed a good read..I'm glad you didnt get your ass kicked.

Yeah that one pic on your site of her showing her huge lips she looks like drag queen.

I probably should keep any other comments about her to myself lol

Cute story, jvanley. I'm glad you enjoyed our fair city, but I can't say I'm ever gonna visit Kansas .

I just want to point out that the Bamontes are as straight as an arrow as a family. They've been in business for like five generations, and they still work twelve hours a day. That takes a tremendous work ethic. Picking up a gun does not.

I used to represent the funeral directors at D'Arienzo Funeral Home, which is just around the corner on Skillman Avenue. Whenever I'd have business there, I'd have lunch at Bamonte's. As a matter of fact, I think I've posted about it in the food threads on this site.

And yes, wiseguys have always frequented the place. But so have cops and politicians. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly eats there twice a week. I've personally seen him there a few times. My point is, you never would have gotten hurt in that place, JV. Never. So now maybe you can sleep tonight .

I enjoyed your story, Jvanley.
The neighborhood in and around Withers Street in Brooklyn has always been Bonanno territory. Just around the corner, practcally, at 296 North 8th steet was Joseph Bonanno´s social club, the Abraham Lincoln Independent Political Club.
But of course, this was in the 1930´s and 1940s.

Today Williamsburg is very artsy and full of hipsters, writers and foodies. They've "gentrified" it to the point of being very expensive to live in, by New York City outer borough standards. It's getting comparable to Manhattan in price.

There hasn't been a large Italian population there in quite some time, but there are still a few pockets. The Hasidic Jews have also called Williamsburg home for quite some time.

Yeah. Would you say that the Williamsburg section today is like SoHo in the 1960s and 1970s?

That's exactly what it reminds me of. And I have to tell you, as a New Yorker for over fifty years, it really bugs me that people can't afford to live in the neighborhoods they grew up in because some yutz writer from Oklahoma or Ohio made good. I know that's not politically correct, but that's how every lifelong New Yorker feels. You watch, they're gonna do it to Harlem next. And where are those poor people going to go?

And Soho today has become so expensive that unless you're wealthy---yes wealthy---you just can't live there. A 400 square foot studio apartment in a Soho will run you two grand a month American dollars. Easily.

Sad.
But maybe you should buy some property in Harlem as soon as the yuppies starts comming...

That's gotta be the best damn name I've ever heard for a wiseguy hang out

kin of too late its been happening to Harlem the last like 5 years(slowed because of financial crisis) but you see the hipsters moving in and the high rents as well

Thanks for the compliments guys and no need to apologize about derailing the thread. Hell, any thread making fun of Big Ange is just as good as any story I could ever tell.

I have been reading quite a bit about Bamonte's since my "encounter" if you will. I noticed that the scene from the Sopranos where Gerry gets whacked with Sil looks an awful lot like the exact back room I was in and maybe even the same table they were sitting at- no kidding.

Does anyone know if this scene was filed in the back dining area there? Honestly, I was to shitfaced to remember exactly what it looked like. All I can remember is the name of the joint and the 5 guys playing rummy at the table.

Oh and of course the raping me and my GF almost got by big ange...

pizzaboy - how is the food at bamontes? is it worth making a trip from the city down there for?

I think the food is great, TT. But the menu IS a bit dated. It's the food we grew up on as Italian Americans in the '60s and '70s: Everything from stuffed artichokes to tripe to 'scarola and beans. Plus all the usual old school Italian American dishes. It's very comparable to places in the Bronx like Dominick's or Frankie and Johnnie's, or the old Andy's Colonial in East Harlem (no longer there).

So if you're one of those eclectic, hipster, "foodie" types, with the shaved head like Moby and the Tina Fey glasses, you'll be more apt to criticize the place for it's outdated menu (which is really ironic, considering that those very same people have recently invaded East Williamsburg). But if you're an unpretentious Italian American guy who grew up in one of the Five Boroughs---and I suspect that you are---you'll love it .

Thanks! That's the stuff I like and the stuff I grew up on too. I'm a NY'er but not Italian (100% Irish) but got tons of married-in Italian relatives and been around 'em my whole life. I definitely prefer the checkered table cloth, real establishment type joints, over some flash in the pan trend restaurant.

Honestly though I think some of the places upstate in Utica, Syracuse and Rochester that I've been to give a lotta places down here a serious serious run for their money.

Speaking of East Harlem have you ever been to Piatto D'Oro? It's on 109th and 1st. That place is great you should check it out sometime