Famed Queens Italian restaurant Don Peppe is expanding into Manhattan — and at the same time, “Entourage” creator Doug Ellin will immortalize it by bringing a fictional outpost to Hollywood.
The family-run Don Peppe, which has been on Lefferts Boulevard in Ozone Park for more than 47 years, will expand to downtown Manhattan next year. It will also have a major role on the HBO comedy in which Jerry Ferrara‘s character, Turtle, will try to take the restaurant to Hollywood with the help of the Knicks’ Amar’e Stoudemire and the Yankees’ Mark Teixeira, who have been handed cameos on the show.
Don Peppe, a favorite for family-style Italian dining, has boasted regulars including Bonnano crime family consigliere Anthony “Fat Tony” Rabito, who was later banned from eating there and several other old-school Italian spots by probation officers after serving 2½ years in prison for gambling, extortion and racketeering.
Ellin is also a longtime regular, and in January, he brought Teixeira there. At the time, Ellin told Page Six he was cooking up a story line for the last season of “Entourage” — which started filming three weeks ago and will air in July — where Stoudemire would guest-star as an investor in the eatery.
Ellin last night confirmed Stoudemire and Teixeira will both appear in the final season as investors in Don Peppe, and he’s also in talks with Carmelo Anthony and Alex Rodriguez to appear on the show.
In real life, owner John De Luca, whose great-grandmother founded Don Peppe 100 years ago in Brooklyn, told us the restaurant will open its next outpost somewhere downtown. He’s eyeing locations including near the Gansevoort Hotel in the Meatpacking District. De Luca expects to open sometime next year, hoping to create a high-end version of Don Peppe with a lounge on one side and a bar on the other.
Ellin said he’d love to invest in Don Peppe’s Manhattan location. And he’s including a character named John De Luca in the script. “I’m going to let him read for it, and if he can act, then he can play the part,” Ellin said.