Mr. Big Shot

I'm a regular at Rao's.

I hope you know what that means. Rao's is not just any Italian restaurant. It's a legendary Italian restaurant in New York's East Harlem where every table is taken every night. Don't even think of trying to get in. You call, nobody answers the phone. You write a letter, your postman wakes up the next morning with the head of his prized racehorse in bed with him.

That last statement is not true. I got carried away. I'll explain why in a minute.

Most people who are regulars at Rao's get a table once a week or once a month. They ask friends to go with them, and no matter what prior arrangement the friends might have, they cancel it and go to Rao's. The seafood salad is that good. As for me, I have a table once every two years. I'm lucky to have that.

One day I went up to owner Frank Pellegrino, who knows me from a story I wrote about Rao's 20 years ago, and said, "I want to be a regular." He said, "What do you want?" I said, "I'll make you an offer you can't refuse."

That last statement is not true. I got carried away again. I'll explain why in a minute.

I said, "How about a table every two years?" I figured that was such a pathetic request he couldn't deny it. He said yes. So once every two years, I get a mysterious call and the date and time of my table is revealed. I always show up.

I was at Rao's a couple of weeks ago. You know who else was there? Gianni Russo, who played Carlo in The Godfather. He's the one who married Connie in the opening wedding scene. Maybe you get a thrill out of seeing somebody like Brad Pitt, but for me, seeing Gianni Russo was better. That's why I haven't been able to stop repeating all those Godfather cliches. Russo is in his sixties now and looks great. He played a pathetic wife-beater in the film, but now he looks like he could break any of the other cast members in half. Of course, most of the other cast members are probably in nursing homes.

Enough of The Godfather. Rao's seafood salad (shrimp, crab, calamari in lemon sauce) is the greatest ever. The cheesecake is good, but not as good as it was in the eighties, when a lady from The Bronx made it. And I miss Jocko, the huge old black dog who went table-to-table, bumming cheesecake from guests. The restaurant has changed. It's like a party now, and it used to be more like a club.

The food isn't unbelievable. It's just good. Rao's is expected to open a branch in Las Vegas, at Caesars Palace, later this year. The food will probably be just as good as it is in Harlem, but the real challenge for Pellegrino will be transferring his unparalleled ambience to Vegas. He's one of the best restaurant hosts in America. We'll see if he can pull it off.

Pellegrino sings, too, accompanying the jukebox. I particularly like it when he sings "I Believe" by The Earls. It's great, although maybe not quite as wonderful as Johnny Fontaine singing to Connie when she married Carlo in one of the great doomed relationships of all time.