Nick Cantone is known for two things – his restaurants and his larger-than-life reputation.
Through the years, the former owner of Cantone’s Southern Italian Restaurant in Lower Paxton Township had a string of run-ins with authorities, from gambling convictions to violations of the state’s indoor smoking ban.
That never stopped diners from visiting the restaurant, one of the premier Italian establishments of its time in Harrisburg.
Now, one of Harrisburg’s old-time restauranteurs is in hot water again.
On June 13, Lower Paxton Township Police arrested Cantone, 71, on charges of criminal trespass and mischief, according to court documents. The charges stem from an incident at his former restaurant, now the Sons and Daughters of Italy Lodge on Fritchey Street in Colonial Park.
According to the criminal complaint, Cantone allegedly went to the club on May 29 and spent four hours in the basement before using a crow bar-like object to destroy a gambling machine. A preliminary hearing will be held later this month in Dauphin County.
“Thirty-five years I spent building that place and now they want to arrest me for trespassing? What are you going to do?” Cantone said.
In the 1980s and ’90s, the John Harris High School graduate was well-known on the Harrisburg restaurant scene. He opened Cantone’s Sports Tavern in 1979, later converting it into a full-fledged Italian restaurant.
His larger-than-life persona made him a local celebrity. He didn’t think twice about stunts such as a $10,000 wager with the late Vince Catalano of Catalano’s Lounge & Restaurant in Wormleysburg, to see which one of them would quit smoking first.
When he opened a restaurant in Harrisburg city he brought in B.B. King for the opening. Less than a year later Cantone’s Downtown closed in 2003 after Cantone left the partnership to focus on his suburban restaurant.
Harrisburg Patriot-News
Nick Cantone, center back row, is pictured with staff from Cantone's Southern Italian Restaurant in 1998.
“I was pretty well known throughout the region and I think the name is a recognized name and highly regarded,” he said in 2017.
The restaurant was built on his family’s recipes for southern Italian cuisine such as sautéed veal dishes, chicken, seafood and steaks. Celebrities such as Tony Curtis, Tony Bennett, Billy Crystal, David Brenner, George Carlin, Joe Paterno and Phil Simms ate at the restaurant.
“The food was always great and the atmosphere matched the food,” said RJ Harris, morning radio host on WHP-AM and operations manager for the station. “For Harrisburg it was a quintessential Italian place.”
Cantone was ever the jovial host and would lead diners down the path to lively conversations, Harris said. Thus, he said, the restaurant had the magic of a great Italian establishment combined with the qualities of a local bar.
“You had people when they wanted to entertain and go big, they would come out there. There wasn’t a lot of other decent Italian restaurants [in the area] at the time. It was Cantone’s,” said Scotty Hohe, bartender at Grill 22 in Lower Paxton Township.
He said Cantone, who he served when he worked at the Subway Café in Harrisburg, was the driving force behind the restaurant.
“He was full of life. He loved everything. Everything he did he did to the extreme,” Hohe added.
Even if it meant the legal woes Cantone found himself immersed in on several occasions.
In 1992, he was sentenced to 23 months of probation on bookmaking charges. Then, in 2009, state police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement agents seized grids in a Super Bowl pool from the restaurant following a monthlong investigation into illegal gambling accusations.
At the time, Cantone called the raid unfair.
"The state has legalized gambling in so many aspects when it's beneficial to them, but the average little guy that wants to indulge in public camaraderie is in violation of the law," he told PennLive. "It's the epitome of hypocrisy."
Cantone hinted that he was targeted for being an outspoken critic of the state’s smoking ban. In 2009, he was also ordered to pay fines after state liquor enforcement officers allegedly observed people smoking inside the restaurant.
A year later he decided to convert the restaurant into the Sons of Italy chapter to allow small games of chance and smoking. He signed on 2,300 members.
“I created the Sons of Italy. Just me. I did it all,” he said.
But his troubles continued. In 2012, Metro Bank foreclosed on the club and two adjoining properties.
PN
Cantone said the length of time it took to switch from a retail liquor license to a private club license took a financial toll on him.
Tim Marsico, the club’s current manager who has been a critic of Cantone since shortly after it formed, said Cantone is not longer allowed on the property.
The court complaint alleges Cantone entered the club at 9 p.m. wearing a hat covering his face and went to the basement. It went on to say security cameras show him attempting to break into a gambling machine using a crow bar-like object and leaving the club shortly after 1 a.m.
Cantone told police he “[messed] around inside the restaurant for a while and then I left,” according to court records. He told police he didn’t take anything or intend to take anything from the club but he did admit to damaging the gambling machine.
In a phone call with PennLive, Cantone said he stopped at the club to visit a former employee and walked to the basement to avoid being seen.
“I didn’t want anyone to notice me or say ‘Nick.’ I just wanted to say hello and have a drink,” he said.
Then, he said, he fell asleep in the basement.
“I’m on cameras but I knew there were cameras. When I came upstairs everything was dark,” Cantone said.
He said he estimates he returned upstairs after midnight to find the club empty. He said he saw money in the gambling machine and left.
“I’m not a thief,” he said.
“The honest to god truth, I miss the place. I spent 35 years there every day and night. I just missed the place,” he said.
https://www.pennlive.com/news/2019/06/nick-cantones-visit-to-old-restaurant-lands-him-in-hot-water-i-just-miss-the-place.html 2019-06-11 09:30:00Z
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