Dante's Ristorante was packed on Saturday night. Downstairs, there was a benefit for an injured cop. About half of Niagara County's finest were there, including James Galie and Patrick Hennigan of the Niagara Falls Police Department and Tony Berak of the sheriff's department.
Upstairs, there was an interesting crowd that included former Laborers Local 91 officer Pat Ciccorelli, power attorney Paul Grenga and my publisher, Bruce Battaglia.
Although the joint was packed to the gills, there was a certain sadness. It was kind of like a wake, because Saturday night was the last night that Dante's would be open to the public.
This newspaper was born at Dante's. Danny Cipollitti, who ran the joint, was our first major investor and his beautiful wife, Donna, has been an officer in the company. Because of their participation, we managed to lure other investors, often over the osso buco or bruschetta the place did so well.
Danny was maybe more enthusiastic about the startup of the Reporter than Bruce or I, despite the friction it sometimes caused with his longtime pal, Art Elia.
Over the years, I had more than a couple cocktails there with Art. "Come on, lay off my sister," he would laugh.
Last week, Frank Bifulco -- "Butchie Bifocals" is the name the Feds hung on him -- got sent up on some screwy arson charge. He's an old man, and now he's looking at 10 years in Attica. I met him a couple of times at Dante's. He always had a big Cubano between his teeth and, regardless of who he is or was, he respectfully obeyed the "No Cigars" order posted on the restaurant's mirror and would step outside from time to time to take a puff.
Danny put that sign up because Patty Harrigan, his Girl Friday, who can hostess-cook-bartend-manage with the best they've ever seen in New York City, can't stand cigar smoke.
Frank Bifulco wasn't the only interesting person I met at Dante's, as Danny has an abiding interest in politics. There was state Sen. George Maziarz, state Assemblywoman Francine DelMonte, state Sen. Byron Brown, Sheriff Tom Beilein, Niagara County District Attorney Matt Murphy, the entire Niagara Falls delegation to the county legislature and every City Councilman or mayoral hopeful past and present, along with current and former party chairmen Frank Soda, Nick Forster, Henry Wojtaszek and John Long.
There were serious men from the Mohawk Warrior Society, and movers and shakers of the Seneca and Tuscarora nations. Police officers, detectives, lieutenants and captains from every agency you can think of.
And the lawyers. And judges. You would have thought the place was some kind of adjunct of the courthouse for all the lawyers and judges you met in there.
They came partly because Danny cut his own steaks, and you couldn't get a better one in town. Likewise, he ground his own sausage. The veal was to die for and the manicotti melted in your mouth.
But they came too because it was a place where cops could talk to gangsters and Republicans could talk to Democrats. Where everything was strictly off the record, even if you were talking to a newspapaperman.
Still, you could get more stories out of Dante's Ristorante than you ever could poking around at City Hall.
An evening at Dante's was less like going to a restaurant than it was like going to your favorite uncle's house and getting to hang around with all his cool friends.
In the end, though, it wasn't enough. The location, at 29th and Pine, was maybe a part of the problem, because to get there from downtown you had to drive right past Fortuna's and the Como. The whole "Little Italy" concept, on which the city and state spent millions of dollars, never really worked out. Attempting to divert tourists -- who really just want to see the falls or gamble -- out onto Pine Avenue now seems an idea that was doomed from the start.
It was funny seeing all those people in there Saturday night, because if there had been that many people in there every night, there wouldn't have been a problem.
The common refrain you heard from everybody was, "Where are we going to go now?"
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | April 22 2003 |