Among countless pages in New York City’s history book, two have fascinated and attracted folks from East Coast to West: world-class steakhouses and the mob. Meat-eating mafiosos (and everyday foodies) have been chowing down at Sparks Steak House in Midtown Manhattan for decades. Beyond its dry-aged steaks, the restaurant remains particularly iconic due to its linkage to the hit of Constantino Paul “Big Paulie” Castellano: the boss of the Gambinos, one of the Five Families of NYC, who was revered as the “boss of bosses.”
On December 16, 1985, Castellano was shot six times while exiting his limo in front of Sparks Steak House. At 5:30 p.m., Castellano was arriving for an early dinner — which makes this hit of a Don even more scandalous. It was conducted in public, in the daytime, near Christmas. Don Castellano’s four assassins were themselves “donned” in long trench coats and large furry Russian hats. Meanwhile, John Gotti (the notorious mafioso who ordered the hit) was seated in a Lincoln sedan parked across the street, overseeing the military-style mission’s success from behind tinted windows.
Gotti was himself a member of the Gambino crime family. Per the lore, the final straw was 70-year old Castellano’s refusal to participate in the narcotics trade; Gotti was dealing smack. Following the infamous Sparks Steak House hit, Gotti rose to fill the family’s newly-empty leadership position. NYC’s food scene has also seen other public mob hits, such as Joe Gallo’s assassination at Umberto’s Clam House in Manhattan’s Little Italy.
Sparks Steak House is the historic site of Paul Castellano’s 1985 assassination
Perhaps befitting Castellano’s culinary palate (his parents immigrated from Sicily), Sparks Steak House began in the Italian Old Country. Mike and Pasquale (Pat) Cetta immigrated to America from Sant’Angelo dei Lombardi in the early 1930s. Their father Rocco was a career butcher, and imparted knowledge of the business onto his sons, as well as participating in home winemaking. A lifetime of gastronomic tradition inspired Sparks Steak House’s current renown for aged beef and world-class winemaking. In 1966, Mike and Pat purchased Sparks Pub from Don Sparks on East 18th Street; in 1977, the steakhouse relocated to its current, larger location on East 46th Street near Third Avenue. It was at this second location that the hit on Castellano took place.
Today, Sparks Steak House’s official Instagram account boasts over 12,000 followers. Upholding New York City’s longstanding tradition of steakhouse prowess, the menu serves up elevated seafood-centric appetizers from shrimp cocktail to oysters on the half shell, as well as Italian classics like prosciutto with melon. Meaty entrees range from extra thick veal chops to medallions of beef with mushrooms and Bordelaise sauce. Elsewhere, fans of mob history can also still grab a drink at the Green Mill Bar in Chicago, a regular watering hole for Al Capone. Bamonte’s, Brooklyn’s oldest continually operating Italian restaurant, also has historic ties to the mob (but has never been the site of a hit).
