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L&B Spumoni Gardens At Center Of Mob Pizza War
By
Jamie Feldmar
Published Aug 24, 2011
Modified Aug 24, 2011
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By
Jamie Feldmar
Published Aug 24, 2011
Modified Aug 24, 2011
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A bail hearing for a Colombo mobster accused of assaulting his rival in Staten Island turned into something of a food fight yesterday, with dueling pizzerias at the center of the battle.
Francis Guerra is charged with attacking Eugene Lombardo outside of Lombardo's Staten Island pizzeria, The Square. The reason? Lombardo's slices tasted too much like the ones at L&B Spumoni Gardens, the famed Bensonhurst pizzeria that just so happens to be owned by Guerra's in-laws. Pizza blog Slice calls L&B "A rite of passage in the form of pizza," and it regularly makes best-of pizza lists across the city.
As it turns out, Lombardo's sons worked at L&B before coming to The Square, and he told a PI working for Guerra he knew the owners of L&B "weren't happy" with the alleged pizza infringement. But he denied being attacked by Colombo mafiosos or paying them off, telling the Daily News, "This is no secret recipe. There's no patents on pizza."
Or are there? Last year, an Ohio pizzeria owner sued an ex-employee, alleging that that the staffer "stole" his family recipes, and earlier this year, Le Cirque was rumored to be suspiciously scoping Artichoke Basille's pizza. Pizzaiolos: be careful with those things.
Tagged
bensonhurst
l&b spumoni gardens
mafia
mob
pizza
recipe
staten island
the square
Jamie Feldmar
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