The Napoli E Notte Cafe

This is the former Napoli E Notte Cafe.

It is located at 165 Thompson Street in Manhattan, New York.

These days, the original entrance no longer exists, as the property was merged with the adjoining Blue Haven bar in 2009.

The "Napoli E Notte" was a grubby, rundown cafe that was used as a mob hangout by the Genovese crime family.

An article in New York Magazine in 1969 described it as an unwelcoming spot that only served potatoes and pretzels. A sign on the inside warned, "This is not a club. Do not hang around."

During the 1960s and early 1970s, the cafe served as a daily meeting point for a group of senior Genovese members that investigators nicknamed the Greenwich Four. This group consisted of Thomas Eboli, Frank "Funzi" Tieri, Peter DeFeo, and Anthony "Tony the Sheik" Carillo.

At the time, Eboli was the acting boss of the family. However, he was assassinated in 1972 after he failed to pay back a large debt to crime boss Carlo Gambino.

Following his death, he was officially replaced by Tieri, who ran things until he was convicted of RICO charges in the early 1980s.

Later, an informant alleged that both Eboli and Tieri were merely "decoys" for a mobster named Philip Lombardo, who was the real boss of the family. Lombardo had chosen the two men to act as lightning rods for the authorities. By doing so, he was able to insulate himself from large federal investigations.

This strategy was later employed by his successor, Vincent Gigante, who ran the nearby Triangle Social Club.

Photos

Photos of the cafe and other related images.

165 Thompson Street

This Google Street View image of 165 Thompson Street was captured in May 2009.

Not long after, it became part of the Blue Haven bar.

On the right, you can see an old photograph of the Napoli E Notte Cafe.

2019

Image source: Google Maps

The image above was taken in 2019. As you can see, the original storefront is now gone.

Greenwich Four

Pictured above, from left to right, are Thomas Eboli, Frank Tieri, Peter DeFeo, and Anthony Carillo—four senior members of the Genovese crime family.

The group, which investigators referred to as the Greenwich Four, held daily meetings at the cafe.

Eboli was later killed after he failed to pay back a $4 million loan to Carlo Gambino. He had borrowed the funds to start a drug trafficking operation. However, law enforcement shut down the operation before he was able to raise enough money to pay back what he owed.

One popular theory posits that Gambino set Eboli up so that he could kill him and install Tieri, whom he viewed as an ally.