i just found out about Rice to Riches, a rice pudding shop in Little Italy. Was it actually a front for a gambling operation????
From the NYTimes article: There has always been something strange about the business on Spring Street. It seems too beautiful, too expensive an operation, given that it sells only coffee and 20 flavors of rice pudding. Beyond that beauty — the serving case with specially designed pudding bowls, the oval glass entryway sculptured like a grain of rice, the quirky flavors like Stubborn Banana and No Guts, No Carrot Cake — lies a tight-lipped tale.
Mr. Moceo, 45, displayed an artist’s delicacy and care with his rice pudding store that was not apparent in what prosecutors say were his rough dealings in an illegal underworld. In announcing the arrests and charges against Mr. Moceo and 19 other men — including his father, also named Peter Moceo, 69 — the Suffolk County district attorney, Thomas Spota, said the ring was ”probably one of the largest gambling operations ever in Suffolk County.”
Mr. Scotto also represented the elder Mr. Moceo and said that his clients were not guilty. ”I have to laugh,” Mr. Scotto said, when asked about a link between his clients and organized crime. ”Too many people watch ‘The Sopranos,’ so everyone thinks they’re half an expert on all this stuff, you know what I mean?”
Before Mr. Moceo was arrested, I had begun reporting an article trying to answer the question, How do you make money from rice pudding? Sales at Rice to Riches averaged $15,000 to $18,000 a week, according to the trade publication Nation’s Restaurant News. While ”moby” portions (serving 10) go for $35, most customers order the two smallest sizes at $4.75 and $6, which I found out in my research.
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