Taxes trip Al Capone again - in Boston

Financial district restaurant owes state $45,385.90

By Tom Moroney

Bloomberg News / April 8, 2009

Stop me if you've heard this one: Al Capone is in hot water over taxes.

It is not the late Chicago gangster convicted of income-tax evasion in 1931, but a popular Italian restaurant of the same name in Boston's financial district.

State Police arrived shortly before noon yesterday at the Al Capone restaurant on Summer Street, secured the front door, and affixed two fluorescent orange signs: "Seized, nonpayment of taxes."

The restaurant owes Massachusetts $45,385.90, mostly in meals taxes dating back to December 2004, said Robert R. Bliss, a spokesman for the state Revenue Department. The sum includes $1,850.90 in corporate taxes, he said.

Al Capone is a lunchtime stroll from Fidelity Investments, the world's largest mutual-fund company, along with Wellington Management Company LLP, State Street Corp., Putnam Investments, and Loomis Sayles & Co. The bolted door disappointed anyone who showed up for sandwiches and pizza slices yesterday.

John Verban, 51, a chemist whose favorite Al Capone fare is the thick-crust pizza, saw the irony in the police action.

"I'm up on my history," he said. "The way they bagged that other Capone was via taxes, too."

Revenue agents did not point out the Chicago parallel when pursuing the restaurant for payment, Bliss said.

"A different set of circumstances, but an interesting name nonetheless," he said.

Massachusetts closes about 80 restaurants a year after attempts to negotiate a payment schedule fail, Bliss said. The rate has remained steady during the recession, he said.

State records show the restaurant owner as First Capone V Inc., and Rose Capone of Waltham as the sole corporate officer. Calls to the phone number listed for that name did not go through.

"I just hope all that food isn't going to waste," Verban said as he peered through a window.