Police investigating arson fire at ‘Skinny Joey’ Merlino’s South Philly cheesesteak shop

Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino had some exciting news.

In late March, the reputed Philadelphia mob boss announced on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that — more than a decade after his release from federal prison on racketeering, illegal gambling, and extortion charges — he had a new venture:

Cheesesteaks.

“Breaking ground today at the location for Skinny Joey’s Cheesesteaks! It’s goin to be the best in the city!” Merlino, 62, wrote, accompanied by video of him outside the former site of Ace of Steaks on South Broad Street near the sports complex.

After a fire broke out at the shop around 2 a.m. Thursday, Merlino’s shop is now the site of a Philadelphia Police Department arson investigation.

“The Fire Marshall responded to the scene declaring an arson,” a Philadelphia Police spokesperson said Friday. “Inside two incendiary devices were located.”

The department is investigating alongside other local law enforcement agencies. The small blaze caused minor damage.

The shop was closed for renovations at the time of the blaze, according to police. Merlino said in an X video in March that his intent was to gut and rehab the location to make it the “cleanest, best cheesesteak place in the city.”

“Come by here, stop and see me, I’ll be behind the grill making steaks,” Merlino said in the video.

Merlino’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

Within walking distance to Citizen’s Bank Park, Merlino’s shop is a half mile from Marconi Plaza and the South Philadelphia neighborhoods where he rose to command Philadelphia’s Italian crime family in the early 1990s, following his usurping of its Scarfo faction.

Once dubbed the “John Gotti of Passyunk Avenue,” Merlino oversaw the family’s gambling, loan sharking, extortion, and stolen goods operations throughout the decade.

A federal jury found him guilty of racketeering and related charges in 2001.

A judge handed Merlino a 14-year sentence in federal prison. He was released in 2011, and then briefly returned to prison on an illegal gambling charge in 2019.

Merlino remained in the public eye despite publicly distancing himself from the mob. He split time between Philadelphia and South Florida, where he opened a short-lived Boca Raton restaurant called Merlino’s.

Then in 2023, Merlino’s name returned to the headlines when former President Donald Trump dodged an explanation for how he and the reputed mob boss had ended up in together on a South Florida golf course, evidenced in viral photograph of the men posing together.

Cheesesteaks aren’t Merlino’s only new venture. They come after the recent launch of The Skinny with Joey Merlino, a conversation-style podcast hosted by Merlino and Joe Perri, referred to as “Lil Snuff.”

Merlino was spotted at the city’s annual 9th Street Italian Market Festival last week, according to a video he posted to his Instagram account.

Asked whether he preferred the term “sauce” or “gravy” for his pasta topping, Merlino said “gravy, not even close.”