• John’s of 12th Street - We begin in the East Village at a historic New York “red sauce joint” frequented by Lucky Luciano and many others. Multiple films have been created at the restaurant, including “Boardwalk Empire,” “Sopranos,” “Get Gotti,” and more. This is where, in 1931, Luciano created the mafia Commission. The HBO series “Boardwalk Empire” was filmed here, as well as “Sopranos,” “Get Gotti,” and the upcoming documentary “After Goodfellas,” featuring one of our tour guides. John’s of 12th was established in March 1908 by John Pucciatti, who immigrated from Umbria, Italy, to the present-day East Village, a thriving Italian American community centered around 1st Avenue. The current owner, Lowell Fein, now owns the restaurant with partners Paul Dauber and Robbie Rundbaken, continuing the namesake’s legacy. The Italian neighborhood where Pucciatti moved existed even before Little Italy. We are the only Mafia experience allowed to enter the joint.
• East Village - The Village has been a NYC Mafia stronghold since 1900. Together, we visit key Mafia locations where all five families operated.
• St. Mark’s-in-the-Bowery Church - Burial place of New York’s political elite and John C. Colt, brother of famed gun manufacturer Samuel Colt.
• New York Marble Cemetery - The first public cemetery in NYC. Marble Hill has below-ground vaults demanded by NYC to protect its citizens from diseases. The site is also open to the public every first Sunday of the month.
• East Village - This is where Cosa Nostra, “Our thing,” began.
• Orpheum Theatre - The Orpheum Theatre, formerly Player’s Theatre, is a 299-seat off-Broadway theatre on Second Avenue near the corner of St. Marks Place in the East Village neighborhood of lower Manhattan, New York City.

There may have been a concert garden on the site as early as the 1880s, but there was a theatre there by 1904. During the heyday of Yiddish theatre in the Yiddish Theater District in Manhattan, the venue was the Player’s Theatre and was part of the “Jewish Rialto” along Second Avenue. By the 1920s, the theatre was exhibiting films but was converted back to dramatic use in 1958, with the first production, “Little Mary Sunshine,” opening in November 1959.

Significant productions include the revival and revamping of Cole Porter’s musical “Anything Goes” in 1962, “Your Own Thing” in 1968, “The Me Nobody Knows” in 1970, “The Cocktail Party” in 1980, “Key Exchange” in 1981, “Broken Toys!” in 1981, “Little Shop of Horrors” in 1982, and Sandra Bernhard’s “Without You I’m Nothing.”

• 188 1st Ave. - Once the famous Club 188 run by Charlie “Lucky” Luciano, we talk about the Genovese crime family’s powerful influence over the nightlife scene in NYC from the 1920s through today.
• Liz Christy Bowery Houston Community Garden - Considered the oldest community garden in New York, Liz Christy Community Garden was established in 1973. In late 1973 and early 1974, the community activist group the Green Guerillas, including an energetic member named Liz Christy, cleared the lot at the northeast corner of the Bowery and East Houston. In late April 1974, the New York City Office of Housing Preservation and Development agreed to rent the site for $1 a month to the Bowery Houston Community Farm and Garden. The land where the Liz Christy Garden now stands has seen many changes in its history.
• Albanese Meats & Poultry - The oldest butcher shop in NYC that welcomed Sicilian immigrants since the 1800s and a frequent destination for Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. In fact, this is where “Marty” filmed his first film.
• St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral - The Basilica of Saint Patrick’s Old Cathedral is the original Cathedral Church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. Since its opening over 200 years ago on the corner of Mott and Prince Streets in the Nolita section of lower Manhattan, its spiritual mission continues to be a great beacon for the Catholic Faithful and an American symbol of the triumph of religious freedom. Originally the worship center for a largely impoverished Irish community, St. Patrick’s expanded over decades to provide for the spiritual and material needs of a diverse community, including Italian, African American, Chinese, and Vietnamese Catholics. “The Godfather” was filmed inside.
• Ravenite Social Club/Former HQ Of Gambino Crime Family - Headquarters of the Gambino crime family and John Gotti. We visit the place where the most powerful “family” operated their elusive and often deadly business. Being a local kid from Little Italy, I offer the real inside details that tour companies get wrong.
• Chinatown - Chinese traders and sailors began trickling into the United States in the mid-eighteenth century. While this population was largely transient, small numbers stayed in New York and married. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Chinese arrived in significant numbers, lured to the Pacific coast of the United States by the stories of “Gold Mountain” California during the gold rush of the 1840s and 1850s and brought by labor brokers to build the Central Pacific Railroad. Most arrived expecting to spend a few years working, thus earning enough money to return to China, build a house, and marry.

As the gold mines began yielding less and the railroad neared completion, the broad availability of cheap and willing Chinese labor in such industries as cigar-rolling and textiles became a source of tension for white laborers, who thought that the Chinese were coming to take their jobs and threaten their livelihoods. Mob violence and rampant discrimination in the west drove the Chinese east.

• Little Italy - Little Italy is a neighborhood in New York City that began developing in the 1840s when Italian immigrants began to settle in the area. The area was first home to Dutch settlers and the Lenape tribe during the 1600s. The neighborhood was popular among immigrants because of its population of local Italian speakers and traditional Italian culture. Originally, Little Italy spanned from Lafayette Street to the Bowery and from Kenmare to Canal, but today it takes up roughly three blocks on Mulberry Street.

• Dinner included
• Lunch provided

• Drinks are not included but can be purchased on the day
• Gratuity NOT Included & Always Welcomed