Tavern feud brings out rich, connected
John Kass
August 1, 2007
Tavern on Rush, one of Chicago's most popular and profitable high-end nightspots in the heart of the city's Viagra Triangle, is suffering from a terrible case of ED:
Ego Dysfunction. It's so bad that a doctor might soon make emergency house calls on Rush Street.
The Tavern's two well-known managing partners -- Phil Stefani and Marty Gutilla -- are at each other's throats in a lawsuit filed last week, with Phil accusing Marty of conspiring with the building's new landlords to squeeze him out of the Tavern's $10 million a year business.
Stefani's lawsuit identifies the conspiring landlords only as Rush & Bellevue Property. But according to sources, the landlords include two guys from the 11th Ward who know guys, including Mayor Richard Daley:
* Fred Bruno Barbara, the wealthy trucking boss and mayoral fashionista who was recently named in testimony in the Chicago Outfit's Family Secrets trial as taking part in the early 1980s bombing of an Elmwood Park restaurant with late Outfit boss Angelo "The Hook" LaPietra.
* Tommy DiPiazza, the Bridgeport neighborhood real estate developer who in another, unrelated lawsuit, is alleged to have demanded $1.3 million in consulting fees, and more in kickbacks, to allow developer Thomas Snitzer to prosper in the ancestral mayoral homeland of Bridgeport.
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