Autumn Years Fall 2024

the property, and the last signature roast beef sandwich was served on October 24, 2023. It is unknown what will be come of the location. A mob hit In 1951, Joe’s Restaurant/Joe’s Elbow Room was the scene of a notorious crime. Located at 793 Palisade Avenue, Cliffside Park (right on the border of Fort Lee), the restaurant opened as a small luncheonette in 1926 as Joe’s Parkview Restaurant. Across the street from Palisades Amusement Park, it was a very popular gathering spot for local community groups and family gather ings. Joe’s had two separate sections:

low mafiosi worried about his new pro pensity to talk too much, including to a Congressional committee. Albert An astasia (a Fort Lee resident) ordered the contract on Moretti and made arrange ments for Moretti’s driver to be absent so that Moretti would drive himself to a scheduled lunch alone, without an aide. Moretti had invited celebrities Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis to this lunch (Moretti served as padrone to both men), but Lewis got sick with the mumps, and Martin forgot to attend. Moretti and four others were the only ones in the restaurant that day. And when the wait staff retreated into the kitchen, gunfire rang out. Moretti was shot in the face with two slugs—which was considered a sign of respect, as he had the right to see what was happening. Newspapers pub lished photos of the bloody body, face up, on the checkered black-and-white tile floor. One can imagine what the stain of a mob hit does for restaurant reviews. Joseph Cravotta, Jr., inherited the res taurant from his father, and he changed the name to “Joseph’s on the Palisades.” Although the Cravottas had no mob

the regular restaurant, and the more se cluded Elbow Room, which was used for events and private parties. Joe’s Elbow Room is where Ber gen County’s own “Tony Soprano” got whacked on October 4, 1951. Guarino “Willie” Moretti, underboss of the Lu ciano and Genovese crime families— and godfather of Frank Sinatra—had contracted syphilis years before, and the disease ravaged his mind. His fel

43

FALL 2024 I AUTUMN YEARS