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| Crook Turned Cook Angelo |
One was a jolly, short, fat guy - about 5-foot-5 and 400 pounds.
His pal was a good-looking (women might say cute) skinny chap with a hot temper.
Name that pair.
It’s not Laural and Hardy.
Yes, this odd couple was Angelo “Fat Ange” Lutz and “Skinny” Joey Merlino.
When last reported Merlino was in New York copping a plea for running an illegal gambling operation and getting into hot water for parole violations.
But the fat guy took a different path after serving a seven year term in federal prison for gambling and extortion. Fat Ange has parleyed his Mafia notoriety into a successful restaurant in Collingswood, N.J.
The Kitchen Consigliere might be the only “Mafia themed” restaurant anywhere.
Lutz always insisted he was “a cook not a crook.” Unlike his skinny pal, Lutz was not a made member of the local Cosa Nostra. But the FBI had plenty of tapes of Ange running a gambling operation for the mob.
Before his incarceration in 2002, rotund Angelo sought media publicity by sharing his recipes, such as a Merlino favorite, Lutz called “pork chops Joey.” Another original recipe was Chicken Angelo.
Lutz once entered Philadelphia’s infamous Wing Bowl eating contest. He gobbled down a mere 75 chicken wings in 30 minutes while the winner consumed 150 wings.
Lutz portrayed a jolly Saint Nick at Merlino’s Christmas parties for homeless families.
He was memorable in a Mummers parade where his bare upper body was painted a gold color making him a perfect “Golden Buddha.”
Lutz opened his Collingswood restaurant in 2008 and it was an instant success – packed every night. Who doesn’t want to rub elbows with a “real” Mafia gangster? Especially, if the gangster is a talkative roly-poly guy who jokes with customers, hugs the ladies and sits down at your table for a glass of wine.
His restaurant has a big wall mural showing Ange with a bunch of fictitious Mafioso such as Don Corleone and Tony Soprano. Light scones in Lutz’ restaurant look like pistols.
Fat Ange provides a lesson for any notorious gangsters who want to go straight:
Start a business such as tavern or restaurant. Be available to meet and greet customers. They will jam the place for the “thrill” of being with a once- dangerous wise guy.
As Fat Ange explained in an interview: “They (customers) come for me.”