Collingswood's mob-themed Italian eatery has filed for bankruptcy
The popular restaurant on Haddon Avenue filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sept. 2.
After more than a decade as a must-visit eatery for Mafia aficionados in South Jersey, Collingswood’s Kitchen Consigliere has run into some financial troubles.
The mob-themed Italian restaurant on the borough’s bustling Haddon Avenue, named and designed to play up owner Angelo Lutz’s ties to the Philadelphia mob, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sept. 2.
“Like a lot of small businesses, we’ve gone through some very difficult financial periods,” Lutz said in a statement posted to social media Wednesday. “I made decisions along the way to keep our staff working, pay our vendors, keep the lights and gas on, and keep this restaurant operating.”
“We fell behind on certain obligations, including taxes owed to the State of New Jersey and I take full responsibility for that. We are addressing those obligations and have been working through a payment plan,” Lutz said, before emphasizing that the restaurant is operating as usual and all gift cards will be honored.
“The food, the recipes and the experience people have come to know and love are not changing one bit,” he said. “For me, this restaurant has always been more than the food. … It’s about the people who work here and the customers we love to serve — who have supported us over the number of years.”
Lutz first opened Kitchen Consigliere as an 11-table cafe in 2010, but it soon outgrew its original location on Powell Lane. Boosted by an online crowdfunding campaign, he was eventually able to expand to the restaurant’s current home at 700 Haddon Ave. in 2013.
Lutz’s culinary career began in earnest following a seven-year stint in prison on various charges related to organized crime.
The mobster-turned-restaurateur was tried in 1999 along with Joseph Merlino, Frank Gambino, and other high-ranking members of Philadelphia’s Mafia.
When embarking on his second act, Lutz did not shy away from his criminal past — a consigliere is a trusted adviser or right-hand man to Mafia leadership, and the restaurant’s signage is styled to resemble the font used with The Godfather trilogy.
Now, Kitchen Consigliere Cafe LLC’s estimated assets total less than $50,000 while the company owes up to $500,000 to dozens of creditors, according to the bankruptcy filing.
The company’s largest outstanding debt, $117,663.73, is owed to S&M Provisions Inc., a West Philadelphia-based food and deli supply company.
Kitchen Consigliere is disputing the next two largest creditor claims listed in the filing: $102,000 owed to New Jersey’s taxation division and $58,503 owed to regional utility service provider PSE&G.
The next hearing in the case is a meeting of the creditors on Oct. 5 at 10:30 a.m., according to the court docket.
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