Don Peppe Scores Manhattan Location, Entourage Cameo

Don Peppe, a 47 year-old staple in Ozone Park, is expanding to Manhattan, the Post reports. The owners hope to open a high-end version of the family-style red sauce eatery and are looking around the Gansevoort Hotel in the Meatpacking District. More intriguingly, they're getting a major cameo on the HBO show Entourage. In a plot line next season, Turtle will attempt to open a location of the restaurant in Los Angeles. And because they don't already have enough random sport star cameos, he'll do it with the help of the Knicks' Amar'e Stoudemire and the Yankees' Mark Teixeira. The show's creator Doug Ellin is also in talks with Carmelo Anthony and Alex Rodriguez.

For those who aren't familiar with Don Peppe, it apparently has a lot of Queens regulars, "including Bonnano crime family consigliere Anthony "Fat Tony" Rabito, who was later banned from eating there and several other old-school Italian spots by probation officers after serving 2½ years in prison for gambling, extortion and racketeering." Ellin says he'd be happy to invest in the MePa location.
· Eatery adds Manhattan, TV [NYP]
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