by Thomas Fitzgerald, The Philadelphia Inquirer
BOCA RATON, Fla. – A woman took Jospeh Merlino’s hand and towed him across the marble floor to her friends, who fussed over him, cooing.
“The veal parmiagana! Fabulous!” somebody else told the maitre d’ of the hot new Italian restaurant in South Florida that bears the family name. He had stopped to ask how they liked everything. “Loved the cheesecake, ” a woman said, “Is that your mother’s recipe?”
And so it went on a drizzly Friday night in the land of perpetual valet parking as the reputed former boss of the Philadelphia mob darted around the room, greeting diners. Merlino hugged. He kissed. He shook hands, laying his hand on a shoulder, leaning in close to talk. It went on hour after hour.
The restaurant opened this month, built around recipes his mother, Rita, cooked when the man known as “Skinny Joey ” now 52, was growing up in Point Breeze.
Would Merlino be willing to share one of them, perhaps for his favorite, crab gravy?
“I went to jail for not telling,” he quipped. “I’m not giving up a recipe. I’m not telling.”
Rest is here
