I go to Hemmingways in Seaside Heights a lot year round ever since it opened up back in May 2007. I went to Temptations once as an adult, must have been Summer of 2006? Temptations was mostly before my time, I went there for a teen night or two but for teen nights I usually stuck with the surf club in Ortley Beach. Those were the days man, wearing my Polo Sport cologne and silver chains trying to get a hand job on the beach from girls on a hot July night at the Jersey Shore after a stroll on the boardwalk!!

Ha ha this is very true, especially down the shore. Memories is the sort of place where one night it's mellow, oldies music playing, nothing out of the ordinary...and then you come in the next night and there's the downtown connected guys going after it HARD, and everyone else is watching them!

Fun for those guys when they're basking in the attention. Bad for when you get in a fight with your ex-wife and half of South Philly is watching.

I never made it to Memories, I walked past it: She took me everywhere else though, I'm a North Jersey/Toms River area of the Jersey Shore guy, so being down there around all South Philly people was like discovering another world. I did really like Ventura's Greenhouse Tiki Bar I must say and whenever I go to AC , I try and talk whoever I'm with to join me during the day at the tiki bar at Ventura's whenever I'm there. I still obviously go to AC a lot, but AC is a nothing like Margate. No one from where I come from in Jersey has ever even heard of Margate or even goes to it...

Of course Vig.

The exact name was "Joe Sonkens Gold Coast Restaurant". I was in there only a couple of times . But that was a big hangout for Chicago guys. The NY/NJ guys hung at Hemigways, Top of the Home, Bootsies, Villa Perrone, The Grand Saloon.

And thats just the Hollywood area. We have just scratched the surface. Back in the day during the winter months there were wiseguys everywhere. In North Miami "The Place for Steak" and the "Bonfire" the "Club Top Draw". FT Laud. there was the "Bachelors III" the "Brickyard" and at least a dozen others.

To give you an idea of just how many there were. When I was 15 I bussed tables at a place called "Tre Amici" on US1 in Hollywood. I could ride my bike there.

All of a sudden the placed just closed. Then a few days later there was an article in the paper about how the FBI had bugged the place and was steaking it out. Jimmy Blue Eyes Alo and a bunch of other heavies were all meeting there.

Jimmy had a house in Hollywood since the 1940's.

I got a "whats up" from one of the three Gotti kids at Roosevelt Field mall, this was back when "Growing Up Gotti" was a weekly thing. Thats about it.

Chuck Teemer, host for the Clubs on Rt. 30 in Chester West Virginia, had a home on Tyler St. in Hollywood Fl. He along with Jo Jo Pecora worked for John LaRocca.
Both Chuck and Jo Jo had a residence in Chester to avoid issues with the Federal Government regarding traveling over State lines to promote gambling.

Seen Vincent Palermo "Vinny Ocean" a couple of times at his strip club before it got shut down. Never talked to him or anything.

Oh yeah , I forgot about that, I also walked past wiggles a couple of times. But its obviously under new ownership.

I live in Houston so I guess he was an ex wiseguy? Lol well his place was never really packed down here like I would think wiggles was up there. Southern culture and all don't think many people liked it. I just liked the buffet for lunch.

As a New Jerseyan, I find Southerners to be very fake and hypocrites. Plus there's no Italians, Jews, or any immigrant whites for that matter. It's all "Irish" that's been in America for like ten generations, not like the Irish -Americans we have here in the Northeast...I never liked Southern culture one bit.

Yea , Wiggles was a strip club in Queens that he ran prior to him becoming an informant. I walked past it back then as well like once or twice, and now that I think about it MAY have seen him loitering outside the place on one of those occasions. Its still around and I still drive past it to get to my friends place who lives out that way, buts obviously under new ownership.

Yeah, Margate and Longport really are not that cosmopolitan or well-known outside SP and the Cherry Hill/South Jersey area. For one, people tend to own or to rent the exact same place every summer; and two, there's a suspicion of outsiders in SP that is even stronger down the shore--because at least in the city there might be a reason for a stranger to be talking to you...

As a Southerner I find new jersians very fake & hypocritical. Plus your all fake ethnics of one kind or another. You aren't an Italian or an Irishman, your from fucking new jersey. That's all. Fuck bon jovi & bruce springsteen.

There's only one Irishman here! Drinks on the house.


Happy New Year and all that jazz.

My first time I think I realized things were different for some kids was back in the 90s during the high school wrestling tournaments in NJ they had in Atlantic City me, all my friends n kids from a similar age from other towns would all go to AC to wile out , from age 15 on and it was a complete zoo as no parents and kids hopping from casino hotel to casino hotel with each town having their own parties , tubs filled with ice and beer and everyone going nuts until security closed down that party then on to the next ( best set up was when u and ur boys managed to get a room on same floor as it was more convenient ).

Anyway J Perna made the finals every year in the lower weight class , literally like 120s or under and he lost in the finals every year until his senior year ( kid was a sick wrestler - one of NJ best ever ) and I casually knew him then but my boy was tight with him and I Was either 16 or 17 and we were invited up to what I thought was a little get together as he had his own room I think and was maybe 17 at max , we went up to the top floor or close and this mother F'er had the millionaire big baller suite, I mean some insane shit where the chandelier was the size of a car and all window walls with the sickest view and a ceiling that was probably 20 feet high, spread of food for a king , no bull shit Bush light 30 pack cans in a bathtub but a huge bar w everything . Let's just say that when I became interested in that life as u had a 17 year old kid that weighed under 120 lbs w the Donald Trump room .

Man those wrestling tournaments were the days , AC was totally lawless back then, was 16 with braces and bush light cans in hand doubling down on 12s as I had no idea, kids popping mini thins and passing out , funneling a beer and then to an immediate blunt hit , lol , the 90s were the shit !

Sonkens was also the meeting place on a regular basis for Russ Bufalino, Charlie Imburgia, John LaRocca, Joe Regino, Kelly Mannarino and Ed Sciandra.

Would you want to piss off your girlfriend's father if you knew he was in the mafia?

Paul Castellano had his daughter's partner killed.

And that's just a mob boss.

There are several other similar cases that are escaping me at the moment.

Philadelphians boo Santa. They boo Destiny's Child. They love street thugs.

Go figure.

Correct me if I'm mistaken but the South is W.A.S.P. territory. Far more people of Scottish and English backgrounds. If you are referring to Irish people from the South, you could easily be talking about "Scots Irish". And they aren't really Irish at all in terms of culture.

Would love to hear more about how we're fake and hypocrites.

you leave Springsteen out of this!

Great Post! Yeah I have a buddy a few years older than me who went to Seton Hall with John Perna, they were in the same frat there. I believe Perna was inducted into the Belleville HS Hall of Fame for Wrestling. Those days back in Seton Hall with all the gangsters sons attending were wild too! I was like 13-15 years old at the time.

On a side note, I always wonder and speculate if David Chase based/got the idea for AJ, Carlo, and Pats sons at Rutgers in The Sopranos on the scene in real life at Seton Hall in the late 1990s/early 2000s with the crew of the sons and nephews of Jersey Mafia guys attending there and having a tight little crew together? Just speculation....

I posted this story a ways back, but, I used to have a clothing rack @ the corner of Broad & McKean(Passyunk) of mostly women's apparel like gloria vanderbilt black denim jeans, running suits ,blouses.& shit that madonna was wearing @ the time,,(this was back in 84,85),& 4 a couple weeks I had some nice fuckin' velour men's running suits for $20.00 a pop,nice w/ the pinstripes up the sides of the arms & legs,zip-up jacket style..I did'nt know it then, but real mobster looking shit(remember this is mid-80s),,anyways,some typical south philly chick buys a men's suit from me, & as usual, as I'm wrapping it up 4 her i tell her the boss's policy of exchanges only, no refunds. Next day ,this chick comes back & says it dont fit her brother & she wants her $$ back,I say no refunds,blah,blah,I'm adamant cause i need this job,she gets all loud & shit & says ok ill b back..20 min. later here she comes w/ her brother,some big fuckin'gorilla, back then not much scared me so when he 1rst told me to give his sis back the $$,I explained what a cheap strict jew my boss was, he said "u aint from 'round here is u?,where u from?", I tell him "n.e.philly," he says, "I can tell by that long fa***t hair u got","U know who i work for motherf......,Gimme da fuckin' money now b4 i pull that fuckin' hair out of ur fuckin' head"..well that did it,I gave him the cash as he was about 2 leave, he flipped my whole rack of merchandise out into Mckean st. in a puddle..about 1500.00 worth of shit..as they crossed the street I heard his sister say "u didnt have 2 do that Tory"..when my boss drove up on his rounds he said never fuck w/these people down here,u should have gave up right from the start..we later found out it was Tory Scafidi..I didnt know anything 'bout the mob back then but my boss was following the shit in the papers b-cause of all the violence @ the time..he was into the shit & the dude 50 ft. away from me @ a newstand saw it & knew who it was,he been on that corner for yrs. I lol 'bout it nowdays though!

LMB ...Thanks, I needed that. Great Story!

When I got into this hobby, every time I started 2 see his picture I thought "that IS my close brush w/an asswhoopin'by the scarfo men.

Did your boss comp you for the clothes that got ruined?

Ha ha!....Denny Tsettos and unable to move 3 inches. AND $25 to get in the door.

WTF was I thinking then?

He spun some good music. The music pumped there. Loved the sound factory as well.

Most was salvaged as they were covered in plastic, but he knew it was one of those things,he was cool about it & happy I didnt get my leg busted.

I knew a restaurant manager in Steubenville that fucked a well known mob associate from behind, does that count as a chance encounter? the mob associate disappeared about a year later when it became public knowledge. some sick shit man