71dine
71dine, the podcast that invites you on an immersive journey through the heart and soul of southern Colorado. Whether you're a seasoned local or a first-time explorer, join us as we savor the rich flavors and craft lasting memories together. Welcome to where southern Colorado's captivating narrative unfurls through its vibrant people, rich culture, and delectable cuisine. Join us as we delve into the tapestry of this extraordinary region, one episode at a time, celebrating the people, the culture, and the food that make it truly exceptional.
71dine
The mob always follows the food...
A chance encounter at Rock City Cafe transformed into an unexpected journey through Southern Colorado's hidden mob history. When I overheard locals discussing Pueblo's past, I couldn't resist introducing myself and my podcast—little did I know I'd soon be recording first-hand accounts of the Italian mafia's surprising influence throughout the 719 area code.
One gentleman shared how his Italian grandfather, having relocated from Memphis to Colorado Springs, once took a friend to Pueblo for a movie. Upon arrival, mysterious men recognized the friend, urgently demanding they "go back to Memphis now"—revealing connections between organized crime networks across state lines. This echoed an email I'd received from the owner of Ian's Pizza in Pueblo, whose establishment began after his great-grandparents abandoned their bootlegging business when threatened by the mob. The restaurant's curious name change from "Bessemer Drive-In" to "Ian's"—despite no family member having that name—became an inside joke about "Witness Relocation Pizza."
The conversation unveiled how the steel mills, labor unions, and immigrant communities created perfect conditions for mob influence throughout Southern Colorado. "The mob always follows the food," one participant noted, highlighting the intertwined relationship between cultural traditions and underground enterprises. Most fascinating were stories of tunnels originally built for moonshine operations that were later repurposed for discreetly transporting psychiatric patients—literal and figurative undercurrents of a history that shaped the region in ways many outsiders never realize. If these hidden stories of Pueblo fascinate you, discover more local histories and the people behind them by subscribing to the 719 podcast wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ugly people. Put your hands down. You wanna throw down? Go and put your hands up. Start the party now. Go and put your hands up.
Speaker 2:One listen up loud and clear, because we got a little something to put in your ear. Step two raise those arms off your side.
Speaker 3:I have a feeling we should be dealing With the facts. What's dripping from the ceiling.
Speaker 1:In fact, step three is so whack.
Speaker 2:You're listening to Joe and the 719 podcast.
Speaker 4:Hey, it's Joe. This is the 719 podcast. Thank you so much for listening in. So I wanted to share a story with you.
Speaker 4:I had the opportunity to go and visit one of my favorite places here in the Springs Rock City Cafe.
Speaker 4:As many of you know, rock City Cafe was the first restaurant featured on the 719 podcast, got to see Ricky and while I was there getting ready for breakfast, I happened to overhear a group of guys just hanging out chopping it up, getting ready for their breakfast and I just couldn't help myself but to not just go over, say hey, tell them about the 719 podcast, mention some of the things that I do that I've run into.
Speaker 4:And wouldn't you know it, the topic of the mafia in Pueblo just happened to come up. I know, amazing, who would have thought? Super chill group of guys, obviously with history, here in the 719. And so I said, hey, why don't I give you my card? You give me a call, send me an email, we'll get together, we'll plant a microphone and we'll just, you know, have a conversation and see where it takes us. And one of the gentlemen he said you know what, if you're talking about the mob, the mafia in Pueblo, have I got a story for you, so I ran over, grabbed my recorder and this is the conversation that ensued.
Speaker 3:My dad's family was Italian and his immediate family came out from Memphis when he was seven years old and my granddad when they had grocery businesses here in town in the Springs and they had a friend come out from Memphis one year and they, for whatever reason, reason, they decided to go down to Pueblo to see a movie. And they go down to Pueblo and they get out of the park and they get out of the car and these guys come up and they look at my granddad and they go Gino, you get back in the car. He doesn't know these guys from Mo. You know they him and they go, we've got to talk to him. And so they're talking to this guy. This guy is shaking his head. He gets back in the car, he goes Gino, we've got to go back to Memphis. And Paul goes okay, well, let's go home. And he goes no, no, no, no, no, no, we've got to go back to Memphis now, come on, he goes.
Speaker 4:No, no, no, no, no, no, we got to go back to Memphis now when I first started doing the podcast and I because it's called 7-1-9, a play off the area code, it's all Southern Colorado. I don't have any problem with the chains, but like this is all about the food and the culture and the people, and so I I printed out there and I got a. I got a uh, an email from a gentleman who he's the owner of IAN's pizza down in Pueblo and he said oh, if you ever want a story, I'll tell you about the time that mob showed up and my grandparents were moonshining and they said you need to get out of the moonshining business or we're going to kill you. Don't worry, I'm going to play the conversation from this morning in its entirety. I just wanted to pop out here real quick and play for you the email that I received from the owner of Ayan's Pizza in Pueblo. I know what you're thinking how do you play an email? Well, that is done through the power of magic.
Speaker 5:Thanks for reaching out. Anytime you'd like to come in, let me know. If you're looking for a Pueblo restaurant with history and a hell of a story, we're your place. In a nutshell, pueblo's first pizza place. Great-grandparents started it about 80 years ago after the mob threatened to kill him if he didn't stop his bootlegging business. They were the only two employees for the first several years, trading off 12-hour shifts. It was originally called the Bessemer Drive-In and eventually changed to I-Anns, not sure why. We've also had three extremely popular nightclubs ran by my uncle in the 60s and 70s that many of the older customers remember fondly. It's pretty cool. I'll show you if you come in. But the last nightclub, called the Wiz, still looks like it did when it was in operation, from what the old-timers tell me. Again, thanks for the message and if there is any way we can collaborate, let me know.
Speaker 4:And now back to your regularly scheduled program and I thought well, you know, some people it takes a while to, you know decide on a career change.
Speaker 3:Sometimes it's immediate.
Speaker 4:And he goes I don't know why they called it IANS and I'm like, yeah, you don't want it to be. You know, yeah, you don't want it to be. You know Dave and Betsy's moonshining. Now it's Dave and Betsy's restaurant. Yeah, he said no one. I and in our family. I'm like, yeah, I mean, that's almost as good as calling it. You know, witness relocation pizza. Yeah, but yeah, but you don't find out about that stuff. You know, like your story. Yeah, and unless you ask those questions, I even went to the Mob Museum. One of my kids he lives in Vegas and they converted the old courthouse into the Mob Museum Big time. But there's a section there about Pueblo and then there's other mentions of it.
Speaker 3:It's not like a whole wing, but I'm like, yeah, yeah, there were just so many things about pueblo that attracted that element. What's the attraction to pueblo? Yeah, well, part of it was cfi, it was, it was the, it was the steel mills and the unions yeah, and you know they was. They were a big part of the cfi you know what I was told the whole union movement started in Ludlow.
Speaker 3:I mean, have you been down to see the sign for the Ludlow Massacre and all that? Oh, yeah, yeah. So because of that massacre I mean that was the Rockefellers and they came in and I mean just started basically shooting people because they weren't going to mine coal, because they wanted better wages Well, that started the whole union movement and you know so it was really predominant in southern Colorado, you know, down through Trinidad and all that, yeah, trinidad.
Speaker 1:I've always heard about Trinidad, yeah.
Speaker 3:Trinidad was a big mob town also.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know, I grew up on the East Coast and it felt like I grew up in Northern Virginia, okay, but you got Philly, you know, and you got food and culture there, maryland and crabs, and you go up and down the East Coast and then you get out here to Colorado and you're like, well, I fell in love working with restaurants. I fell in love with independent bookstores. They went, you know, the way of the Dodo. So then I started working with independently owned restaurants, doing advertising, print, tv, radio, and so I just do this as a hobby.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's awesome.
Speaker 4:But then you start. I was like I'm sorry, did you say mob? So I'm like maybe I should bring friends when I come down to Pueblo and start asking questions.
Speaker 3:You know, you know, the mob always follows the food.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they always have.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I imagine that. Yeah, I was going to say Italians following food. Being Italian, I mean, that was always the big thing for us. Everything was done over food, and they were the same way For us everything was done over food and they were the same way.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, and a lot of the names that I found, the old mob names. They're still associated with the restaurants down there. I asked my niece I said, did you know about this mob stuff? She's like, yeah, there's a whole section on it in school. I'm like, oh okay, but you know for someone from the outside, we wouldn't have known.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you wouldn't. That's the one thing the Mafia did really well was it didn't mess with civilians.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know there was a code and for the most part they didn't mess with civilians. There was a little collateral damage here and there, but yeah, for the most part they kept civilians out of it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, there's a great show called the Wire, based in Baltimore, that I fell in love with just being from the East Coast, and one of the main characters there was like yeah, I don't mess with anybody who's not in the game, and that was kind of their.
Speaker 3:That was their creed, their code. Yeah, back on the East Coast. Man, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a wise guy, right, wow, I mean, they're everywhere. It's the East Coast.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:He told me when I was done with the mafia that I should start talking to people about the state psychiatric hospital down there. Oh, yeah, and I'm like, well, let's focus on the mafia first. Yeah, he's like, then he goes, you talk about tunnels, let's focus on the mafia first. Yeah, he's like, then he goes, you talk about tunnels, and he's telling me the tunnels where they were taking patients from the prison to the state hospital. But they didn't want anybody to see them. So they I mean, it seems like it seems like a lot of work to you know, not have somebody just put a sheet over and build a tunnel. But he's like well, the tunnels are already there for the moonshine.
Speaker 1:I'm like what are you talking about?
Speaker 4:Crazy stuff. What's your name? Again one more time in here Jim Jim Perfect last name.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, there we go I love it.
Speaker 4:Thank you Classic. Yeah, great group of guys, great story. Jim, thank you again for allowing me to crash your breakfast and capture that story, looking forward to hopefully getting together with you and your crew again soon. So since this is kind of an introduction episode, at least to these gentlemen that I met this morning, I'm going to go ahead and just add to the end of this episode the introductory episode that I did. So that way, those listening maybe you're new, maybe you forgot about me, for whatever reason just to tell you what 719 is all about and why I am here. So let's take a quick break and then, like I said, we will wrap up this episode by playing, at the end of this episode, the episode that was the introductory episode of 719.
Speaker 1:episode. The sparkling drinks are just dandy, the chocolate bars and the candy. So let's all go to the lobby to get ourselves a treat. Let's all go to the lobby to get ourselves a treat.
Speaker 4:We have received a number of questions wanting to know what 719 is, what our mission is and why we are here. Many of these questions have come via our website. Many have come through our email, but the vast majority of the questions we have encountered have come from our interactions with the community that is Southern Colorado. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that you have the same, similar or different questions about 719. Where do we begin? Let me tell you a brief story.
Speaker 4:719 has been six years in the making. Now, I'm not saying it took six years from conception to where we are today. What I'm saying is I kept putting off this podcast to do other podcasts which I thought would have a broader audience. Now I have worked in marketing and advertising in radio, television and print here in southern Colorado and during that time I fell in love with the independently owned restaurants and the people associated with those establishments. Before we continue, let's pause here, because I know you might be thinking great, another dining review site, like we need one of those. Let me set your mind at ease and tell you that this is not a dining review site like we need one of those. Let me set your mind at ease and tell you that this is not a dining review site. Our focus here is the people, the history and the culture, in that order. What does this mean for you? Well, the answer to that is incredibly simple. We want to share the stories of why these amazing people do what they do day in and day out, the journey that led them to this exact moment and an understanding of the pride they apply to their craft. Taking it one step further, we also want the stories of the customers what drew them to this restaurant and why they frequent it as often as they do. With that out of the way, won't you please join me on an abridged audio version of our FAQs?
Speaker 4:The question we get most often is are you going to post negative reviews? Well, if you remember what I said earlier, we aren't a review site. So if you aren't a review site, you can't post negative reviews. Are you going to post negative stories? Well, no, of course not, because these aren't our stories, these are their stories. If you haven't posted anything about my favorite restaurant, should we take that as you don't like it? No, of course not. All that means is we haven't had a chance to visit. Well, if that's the case, do you take recommendations or suggestions. Absolutely Easiest way to do that Visit our website at 7-1-Dinecom. Click on the contact page, fill out the recommendation form and then hit submit page. Fill out the recommendation form and then hit submit. Be honest with me the restaurants are paying you to do this, right. Nope, we don't receive, nor do we ask for, any compensation in any form from any of the restaurants that we post here and share their stories To expound on that.
Speaker 4:We cover everything from travel, advertising and promotion, production and, yes, even maintaining the website and this podcast. Of course, it's our sincerest hope that these restaurants that we highlight refer us to those that they know within the industry, and we hope that you recommend this podcast and our website to your friends and family to help us grow and ensure we're going to be around for many years to come. What do you get out of this? Are you kidding me? I get to travel throughout southern Colorado with my friends and my family and meet new friends and new families and understand their passion, while also pursuing my passion. And, lest we forget, I get to share all that passion with you. It's a win, win, win. And last but not least, why are you doing this? I'm not exaggerated when I say that I could do an entire podcast episode based on this one question alone.
Speaker 4:In the interest of time, and aside from the people, the culture and the food. To us, dining out should be more than just a meal. It should be an experience, and we want you to view it the same exact way. A restaurant is so much more than a location name and the type of food they serve. It really is the people. We want our experience to be your experience. These people aren't just feeding you, they are welcoming you into their home, and one other reason we are big proponents of supporting our community through spending locally. Stories that we have already uncovered touch on every emotion imaginable Stories with such a long history they run three and four generations deep Stories that will tug at your heartstrings as you come to know these people and their personal goals and their personal missions and stories that sound so preposterous, so exaggerated, you won't believe they're true.
Speaker 4:As this introductory episode comes to a close, I want to express my appreciation to those of you who have listened to this episode, who are going to share this episode with your friends and family, and to those of you who are going to keep coming back week after week to listen to these incredible stories and just like that, 719 is back. A big thanks to Ricky. Always a great time at Rock City Cafe. Go to 7-1-Dine to see all the locations, their addresses and how to get there. Use their address. Put it in your map thingy. You got it Until next time.
Speaker 2:Where can you find the 7-1-Dine podcast? Well, you can find the 7-1-Dine podcast wherever you look for and find podcasts. Don't forget to visit us online at 719.com.
Speaker 4:Episode.