After Friday's show, a sour note hit La Stanza

What happened last weekend at La Stanza, the Italian restaurant in South Philly?

No, this isn't about mob associate Ralph "Ralphie Head" Abbruzzi using his Friday night reprieve from house arrest to woo the audience with Louis Prima classics.

It's about liquor-control agents raiding the joint after midnight, apparently acting on a bum tip that they'd find kids getting drunk at the bar.

Could a devious tipster have pulled a prank on Philly mobsters to break up their party? Or was it just a coincidence?

Organized-crime investigators and prosecutors say that they didn't even know about the 12:30 a.m. Saturday raid until after it occurred.

"It looks almost like we wanted to rain on their parade, but that wasn't the case," said Chief Deputy Attorney General Erik Olsen, who prosecuted Abbruzzi in Delaware County.

Sgt. William La Torre, of the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement, said yesterday that alcohol was confiscated because the restaurant, on 20th Street and Oregon Avenue, didn't have a liquor license.

He said that police had received a complaint that an underage drinking party was planned for Friday - which happened to be the same night that a judge had allowed Abbruzzi out of house arrest to perform there.

"There were no minors located within the facility," La Torre said.

While inside, however, undercover officers discovered that La Stanza was apparently selling booze without a valid license. Police arrested six bartenders and a manager and confiscated $4,500 in cash, 158 liters of liquor and 162 gallons of beer as evidence.

La Torres said that the raid was unrelated to Abbruzzi or the mobsters who came to watch him sing, including reputed underboss Anthony Staino. He declined to elaborate on the tip that prompted the investigation.

"I'm sure the people that were there thought we were behind it, but we really weren't," said Olsen, of the Attorney General's Organized Crime Section.

Restaurant employee Lucia Tripodi said yesterday that the raid was "just a misunderstanding" due to a change in ownership. "It had nothing to do with Ralph," she said of Abbruzzi.

Dominic Verdi, of the Department of Licenses & Inspections, said that La Stanza has reopened but is temporarily prohibited from serving alcohol. *