Most Dangerous Pizza Joint You've Ever Seen ...

quote:

Originally posted by Tony Bad

quote:

Originally posted by wanderingjew

yes, and here it is...

www.cousinvinnysprovidence.com

Looks like a fun place. Is the food any good?

At first glance, I assumed this was a "wannabe" place giving tourists a taste of the "Sopranos." But the events got me. Sing-along with the organist (i.e. piano bar), "top 40s" dancing, and Saturday's big hair and moonwalk night. Sounds like every office party and wedding I've been to in RI in the last five years.

Welcome to "The Land That Time Forgot."

quote:

Originally posted by jvsmom

Just about any place in the North End of Boston, from what I've heard.

We are not THAT bad here in Massachusetts.
Ya'all have been watching too much tv.

Don't know of any place like that in San Antonio unless it's on the west or southside of town.
My dad used to hang out at a place in Buffalo owned by a guy named Eddie Metzger.But it was dangerous for a different reason.I recall my dad saying in order for him to get his top secret clearence for the Air Force,they did a background check. He almost didn't get it.Why,well it had nothing to do with the fact that some of his relatives in Germany had been for Hitler and some against him,but because Eddie's place was a hangout for members of the communist party,which my dad didn't know.However he did get his clearence,guess they figured he had nothing to do with these people,but danger comes in all forms.
Hey now you all make me wonder if the mexican mafia hangs out at some of the places in town.

The most dangerous pizza joint that I have ever seen is one that I was subjected to a few years ago when we had a power outage just before the dinner hour. Every place around us had a long wait (many others in same situation as us). We finally decided that the local Pizza Hut was better than going hungry.

We walked in and found many empty tables. We soon found out why. There was a large group of clueless and "no manners" parents there with the wildest kids I have ever seen. It seems like there was a birthday being celebrated. The salad bar was empty......most of the offerings being on the floor. The tables that this group took up were covered with dirty napkins, chewed on pizza crust ends and endless containers of beverages being spilled by the little darlings. When they were not spilling, they were running around yelling and screaming. In the meantime, the clueless parents were sitting around with their feet up on the chairs across from them, enjoying their pitchers of beer and telling dirty jokes which could be easily overheard by us.

We ate our pizza in grim silence while listening to the yelling and screaming of the kids who were now plastering cake all over the place. This was worse than hell! I have not and will not never darken a Pizza Hut again. I would rather make and eat a peanut butter sandwich by candlelight in my cold house.

P.S. The servers seemed to act like that party was the norm.............I would rather face a gangster!

quote:

Originally posted by Adjudicator
Rick F. could tell everyone a story or two here...

(On second thought:)

Oh, well: it "was in another country; and besides, the wench is dead." So here goes:

I once worked in a pizza joint in Memphis, one in a chain of, I think, sixty-some. Although it was a chain, the food was quite good. We had to buy a lot of stuff from the home office, but we did all the cooking and prep and made the sauces, meatballs, and sausage on site and used top-drawer ingredients. Hardest work I’ve ever done, but I loved it. It was to have been a franchise operation, but the franchise hadn’t yet been sold. I eventually became assistant manager and, when the company-employed manager was fired, the chain put a very competent man in place as manager.

I was offered a position in quality control out of the home office; I went there to discuss it and got all kinds of red flags.

HQ was a desk in the corner of a hot, unsanitary warehouse with an excessive bug population. No rats that I saw: I think the roaches ate them. The head of QC was "Little Tony," the son of "Big Tony." Call it stereotyping if you will, but it bothered me a bit!

Their idea of entertaining a potential mid-level employee was taking me to a topless bar (very daring at that time!) where Little Tony knew the dancers and assured me that I could 'date' one if I wished. I didn't wish.

Then I went on a road trip with Little Tony. We went, I believe, to Atlanta, where Little Tony had a private interview with a waitress and made a couple of recommendations (basically, "Follow the rules, idiot!"); then we returned to Pensacola. And I returned home and to work as a cook at the place.

So far, so good: an entertaining week on somebody else’s tab. I stayed on and soon regained my exalted status as assistant manager. And then the other shoe dropped: I came in one day and the manager (whom I had hired in the first place) was bewildered. Big Tony had called him and announced that Jim was suddenly the owner of the franchise, with no fee to pay. The only change was that we had no more pre-printed order pads and pizza boxes, and the crusts were sometimes moldy. Nothing insurmountable.

And then I came in for work and was told that the Feds had closed the chain (a "misunderstanding over withholding taxes") and temporarily locked all the stores up.

A week later and without two weeks worth of pay I got a call telling me that the store was reopening as an independently owned place and I should come back. I did, but I never, never inquired about my missing check and left as soon as I could find another job.

It may have been my youth and my impressionable imagination, but the whole chain of events, combined with the personalities of the owners, really spooked me!

WTG Rick F.!!!


"You woke up this morning
Got yourself a gun,
Mama always said you'd be
The Chosen One.

She said: You're one in a million
You've got to burn to shine,
But you were born under a bad sign,
With a blue moon in your eyes.

You woke up this morning
All the love has gone,
Your Papa never told you
About right and wrong.

But you're looking good, baby,
I believe you're feeling fine, (shame about it),
Born under a bad sign
With a blue moon in your eyes.

You woke up this morning
The world turned upside down,
Thing's ain't been the same
Since the Blues walked into town.

But you're one in a million
You've got that shotgun shine.
Born under a bad sign,
With a blue moon in your eyes.

When you woke up this morning everything you had was
gone. By half past ten your head was going ding-dong.
Ringing like a bell from your head down to your toes,
like a voice telling you there was something you should
know. Last night you were flying but today you're so low
- ain't it times like these that make you wonder if
you'll ever know the meaning of things as they appear to
the others; wives, mothers, fathers, sisters and
brothers. Don't you wish you didn't function, wish you
didn't think beyond the next paycheck and the next little
drink' Well you do so make up your mind to go on, 'cos
when you woke up this morning everything you had was gone.

When you woke up this morning,
When you woke up this morning,
When you woke up this morning,
Mama said you'd be the Chosen One.

When you woke up this morning,
When you woke up this morning,
When you woke up this morning,
You got yourself a gun."

Any place in North Philadelphia, where, ironically, I first tased pizza as a child. I used to eliver clotes for my father's dry cleaning store, and, at several stops, a slice was my tip.

Great story, Rick. Thanks for sharing. Hope you enjoy your time in the witness protection program.

The part about the sudden "change in ownership" is classic. Growing up in RI it was almost as common as "grease fires."

quote:

Originally posted by Rick F.

quote:

Originally posted by Adjudicator
Rick F. could tell everyone a story or two here...

Then I went on a road trip with Little Tony. We went, I believe, to Atlanta ...

hard to guess where you were from the trunk?

quote:

Originally posted by Rick F.
but I never, never inquired about my missing check

"I know nothing, I didn't see anything, I wasn't there,
and if I was there, I was asleep."

Thanx for posting the story Rick.