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.
That's quite the appetite you've got there. Be a real shame if someone where to whet it...
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.
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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.
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"
Sounds like several places near here, which are just shitty places to have a restaurant but people keep trying.
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!
Restaurant fronts usually don't last long as fronts because they end up making more money legitimately.
Restaurants famously have a high fail rate, about 80% fail within 5 years so your assertion should be wrong.
But if it starts as a front and is artificially propped for 5 years, then it becomes an institution in the neighborhood and probably brute-forced a few regular customers so it might end up being profitable by accident.
"I was at X lately, kinda okay but damn not a soul."
"Yeah, ate there too. But they need to do something right if they are still around, eh?"
Meanwhile a guy who is responsible for this laundering location feels weirdly proud for no reason
I would very much like to try Lalo Salamanca's cooking. And Gale Boetticher's coffee.
There used to be a water and donut store where I lived. Like, you could bring your water cooler bottles in to fill and get a donut while you're there. But the water purifier was always "out of order" and they got mad if you asked for donuts. They did have donuts though. They weren't very good. It was there for the 5 years I lived there.
"The food is terrible. Definitely a front."
"My soup arrived with a 9mm bullet casing in it. Definitely a front."
"The feds raided the place while I was having a meal. Definitely a front."
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It’s got to be really good, because they have to make enough money to pay the regular bills and the “You’ve got a nice restaurant, be a shame if something happened to it” bill.
and the “You’ve got a nice restaurant, be a shame if something happened to it” bill.
I doubt they run racketeering on their own restaurants