It was an offer he couldn\u2019t refuse.<\/p>\n
One of the Big Apple\u2019s most notorious Mafia hotspots is shedding its wiseguy reputation to become a halal Italian restaurant \u2014 thanks to a former pizza-slinger who bought the business from its cash-strapped owners in December.<\/p>\n
Sheik Ahsan Ali, 29, the new proprietor of Aldo\u2019s Pizzaria and Restaurant in Ozone Park, Queens, celebrated his restaurant\u2019s grand re-opening last week, although without the pork and alcohol that fueled some of the reputed backdoor gambling rings and 14-hour Mafioso lunches there over the past six decades.<\/p>\n
Sheik Ahsan Ali reopens former mob eatery Aldo\u2019s Pizzeria and Restaurant as a halal Italian joint. James Keivom for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a need for change because the demographic is changing,\u201d Ali recently told The Post. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of immigrants, and not everybody is eating because of certain things \u2014 like some folks can\u2019t have alcohol,\u201d said Ali, who spent years working behind Aldo\u2019s counter. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to change with the times.\u201d<\/p>\n
But while everyone is welcome at Ali\u2019s joint, he emphasized that the gangsters who once used Aldo\u2019s as a meeting spot will not be.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the main point: to cater to everybody,\u201d Ali told The Post. James Keivom for NY Post<\/p>\n
Gambino crime-boss Ronald Trucchio \u2014 known as \u201cRonny One Arm\u201d because one of his arms was partly paralyzed \u2014 was a regular and told prosecutors he even took a $72,000 salary from Aldo\u2019s<\/a> before his 2003 racketeering arrest, when Aldo\u2019s was at its original 101 Street location. <\/p>\n Vinny Asaro, who played a role in the 1978 Lufthansa heist that inspired \u201cGoodfellas,\u201d was also known to frequent the joint.<\/p>\n \u201cIt looked like a scene out of a mob movie that went right to video and never made the big screen,\u201d a source said at the time.<\/p>\n Ronald Trucchio, a capo for the Gambino family also known as \u201cRonny One Arm,\u201d was a regular at Aldo\u2019s. William Miller<\/p>\n In recent years, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg investigated possible illegal gambling at the Ozone Park eatery <\/a>and probed whether City Councilman Eric Ulrich gave a government job to one of Aldo\u2019s co-owners under suspicious circumstances.<\/p>\n Ulrich brought Eric Adams to the restaurant, with the then-mayoral candidate then turning it into his unofficial headquarters during his 2020 run. Aldo\u2019s even catered the ex-mayor\u2019s primary-race watch party, according to sources.<\/p>\n Vincent \u2018Vinny\u2019 Asaro, who worked for the Bonanno crime family, was known to hang out at Aldo\u2019s, too. William Farrington<\/p>\n Ali claimed the eatery\u2019s mob connections have long been dead \u2014 as part of a larger dying Big Apple mobster culture. <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI did hear a lot of stories back in the days, but I have never encountered anything, being in this place for the past so many years, their activities or anything like that,\u201d said Ali, whose first shift at Aldo\u2019s was in 2016.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no attachment of those people anymore. I believe the time has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n Aldo\u2019s, which has been an Ozone Park staple for six decades, was once a notorious mobster hangout. James Keivom for NY Post<\/p>\n