Mafia War Almost Breaks Out Because of Sauce Recipe

New Yorkers take their pizza seriously. You can eat a slice of pepperoni pizza at 100 different pizza places and get 100 different tastes.

A lot of it is in the sauce, so it is understandable why a ruckus could be created when one pizzeria accuses a rival of stealing its pizza sauce recipe.

The Colombo mafia, which was associated with L&B Spumoni Gardens in Brooklyn, accused Eugene Lombardo of the Bonanno crime family of stealing one of its sauce recipes.

Lombardo has a restaurant of his own in Staten Island called The Square where the Colombos believed their sauce was being used. Only during a sit-down at Panera Bread were these two sides able to come to terms, but not before some serious tension.

According to court testimony, the story went as follows:

Lombardo’s sons worked at L&B and associate Frank Guerra said he saw Lombardo’s sons eyeing some of the flour supplies in the basement. Former Colombo crime boss Anthony Russo was alerted as he, Guerra and Colombo member Frank Iannaci went to the rival Square restaurant to confront them of their wrongdoings. Upon arrival, there was a sign on the front window of The Square that read, “L&B style pizza” which had to have pushed the three over the edge.

After a heated argument, people being called, “pieces of s–t” and Lombardo being slapped in the face by Iannaci, the two rival sides decided to further discuss the matter at a Staten Island Panera Bread. Some money changed hands ($4,000 to the Colombos) and nobody got hurt.

It is not unusual to see meetings held at Panera Bread, but there might never be that much tension surrounding a bowl of clam chowder again.

[Thx Daily Mail]