In Japan, some Yakuza gangs opened a restaurant as a front for their crimes. In recent years, it’s become harder to operate as a criminal organization and a lot of families just gave up doing crime and now run their restaurants full time.
In Denver, there used to be a food court (on the lower level of Republic Plaza, for any interested locals) that had a Japanese place and a Chinese place. The Chinese place had a line that would stretch around most of the food court, where the Japanese place had almost no customers. The owner of the Japanese place would just stand there and glower at the line.
I’m guessing the Chinese place probably served a few hundred people during a typical lunch rush, where the Japanese place might have served like 3 or 4. I’m still convinced there’s no way the Japanese place was able to stay open that long without being some sort of front. Why the Yakuza would have a front in Denver is beyond me, but I don’t see how they could’ve stayed open otherwise.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0196216/
Woody Allen made a movie about this. Rents a bakery as part of a plan to tunnel into a nearby bank.
I would 100% eat mob restaurant italian food.
Did you ever see some of the places Tony Soprano ate at? The man didn’t get to be his size by skipping a free capicola sandwich.
In Good Fellas the food they made in prison looked better than the food I make at home.
I live across the street from a place I can’t imagine being anything other than a front. Their food is terrible, limited menu, they have events often where only a couple people show up, the lot is big and in a prime location, often VERY expensive cars are parked there, and it isn’t uncommon to see unmarked vans at the loading dock. Like I joke a lot about places being fronts, but this one I legit believe couldn’t be anything else
There’s a restaurant space near me that shares a building with a coin laundry, this space has different restaurants cycle in and out at least once a year. I never see anyone eating there, and everything about the interior screams “minimum required to stay open”
Coin laundry places are a great way to launder money.
Pun very much intended.
But also it’s true. All cash, no way to track customers.
Thats the origin of the term: https://oxfordre.com/criminology/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264079-e-708
Just go to any major fast food joint. You’ll find all sorts of crimes being committed openly. OSHA violations, wage theft, wage slavery, and so much more!