'Mad Dog' The Mobster Tries Ritzy UES Eatery Shake Down: Report

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A mobster named "Mad Dog" unsuccessfully tried to shake down ritzy Upper East Side restaurant Il Mulino Uptown with the help of a corrupt union official, according to reports.

Steven Arena, a mobster associated with the Genovese family's Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, tried to extort Il Mulino's Park Avenue and East 60th Street location — according to a recording played in the trial of Genovese enforcer Frank Giovinco, the New York Post first reported. Arena ordered corrupt United Food and Commercial Workers union officials to "raise all this union s***" so owners would seek out protection from the Genovese family, according to the report.

Shakedown attempts went as far as sending an enforcer to the restaurant to relay a cryptic message about to "work out" an agreement so that "there's no problems," the Post reported.

The call where union officials discuss the attempted shakedown was recorded by Vincent Fyfe, a union official-turned mob informant, the Post reported. Fyfe got the union job through his grandfather, the Genovese mobster Vincent Gigante, according to the report.

Il Mulino Uptown is an expansion of the iconic Il Mulino restaurant founded in Greenwich Village. Founders sold the business in 2005, resulting in an expansion into other areas of New York City. The eatery is known for drawing celebrity customers and hosted Bill Clinton and Barack Obama for a dinner in 2009.

Read the full New York Post article here.