Leaning Tower Restaurant Las Vegas?

Where was the Leaning Tower restaurant located in Las Vegas? Who owned the restaurant and when did it close?

Gaspare “Jasper” Speciale owned the Tower of Pizza, better known to locals as the Leaning Tower, which operated from 1964 to 1979.

Speciale moonlighted as a loan shark. One of his favorite patrons was Tony “The Ant” Spilotro. As such, the Tower of Pizza is depicted in the film Casino (in scenes actually filmed at Piero’s).

The Leaning Tower is sometimes confused with Upper Crust Pizza, formerly owned by mobster Frank Cullotta, one of Spilotro’s lieutenants. The Upper Crust pioneered Chicago-style stuffed-crust pizza in Vegas; both Spilotro and Cullotta hailed from the Windy City and managed the business interests of the Outfit, Chicago's mob families. Cullotta was also a partner in the My Place Lounge next door.

Don’t bother looking for either restaurants. The Upper Crust and My Place are now occupied by Favorites and the Dive Bar at 4110 S. Maryland Parkway in the Pioneer Plaza.

And the land on which the Leaning Tower stood is currently occupied by the Cosmopolitan on the Strip. We doubt that the two Veer Towers, which lean in opposite directions (five degrees from center) and are directly across Harmon Avenue from where the Leaning Tower was located, were designed that way to memorialize the Leaning Tower restaurant.

You can see some Tower of Pizza memorabilia, including the menus, a photo of the Speciale family, and a great photo of the Leaning Tower sign on the Facebook page: Tower of Pizza Las Vegas.

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Jon Anderson Dec-27-2020

possible mob restaurant

late 80's or early 90's my friends and i went to an italian restaurant just south of the riviera casino and on the same side of the strip. seems like it was shaped in the round. anyway we caught a redd foxx show at the riviera then hit this place for a late dinner. we were the only customers in the place and it was a little creepy. dark and all the waiters were italian men. food was pretty good but just seemed like we had invaded some mob joint and were tolerated as the no nothings we were. any idea where we were or anything along those lines ??? we still chuckle about it all when we get together figuring they had better things to do than wipe us out and plant us in the desert somewhere. 
gulp and hahaha. thanks lva and go raiders !!!   
p.s we left a GOOD tip and thanked our server profusely.

Ray Dec-28-2020

Also Venetian?

I missed a couple of days by being out of town and was catching up on missed days. I don't know if this is a new question or just a comment on the general "gone Italian restaurants" theme. Anyway, we went to an Italian restaurant, I think it was called the Venetian, and my recollection is it was on Sahara, west of the Palace Station. We had gone there twice and the next time we were in town it was gone. Also Mobby? Any info about it?

Question of the Day - 27 December 2020

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