Trouble onThacher St.
It is among the more enduring, if not endearing, institutions in a city that takes its food as seriously as its past: the original Pizzeria Regina in the North End, home to what is arguably the best pizza north of New Haven.
The pies are wafer thin in the middle, sweet and crusty along the edge, slapped down onto worn Formica tables by no-nonsense waitresses who call customers ''Sweetie" and ''Honey" and make change from fat wads of money bunched in their apron pockets.
But so much for the idyllic images of life in the ramshackle Thacher Street restaurant that has been Regina's home since 1926. Come today, four of those waitresses with a combined 64 years experience serving Regina's pizza will file a sexual harassment complaint with the state. They are alleging that the shop's general manager routinely demeaned them, insulted them, and groped them for years. And that was on good days.
On a bad day, the four waitresses said, the manager would train a pair of security cameras hidden in the restaurant ceiling on unsuspecting female customers. As he sat in his office, he would zoom in on the women on his monitor, changing it from split screen to a single screen to get a better view.
''He's back there, and he's zoomed in on one screen," said Lynne Power, one of the waitresses. ''He has this thing with women's underwear. He said once, 'Let's see if it's Victoria Secret or some cheap
Regina's officials released a written statement yesterday saying they had removed the longtime manager, Dominic Strazzulo, from the restaurant pending an investigation, though he remained with the company.
The statement, signed by George Chapdelaine, the chief executive of
Strazzulo could not be reached, and George Regan, hired by the company to handle inquiries, said he was unavailable.
Regan instead described the women's lawyer, Herb Holtz, as a ''sexual harassment bounty hunter." Added Regan: ''We have a brand to protect, and this is nothing but a shakedown."
Meanwhile, the four waitresses gathered in Holtz's office yesterday to discuss their complaint, which was to be filed today with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. Prior attempts to settle were rejected by Regina's, Holtz said.
Three of the four women still work at Regina's. A fourth, Patty Oppedisano, was recently let go for reasons she says were never explained.
All the women said Strazzulo would use the most profane language around them. He would repeatedly turn the bar television to a scrambled pornography station to hear couples having sex as the waitresses tried cashing out at shift's end. He would describe to them in vivid detail the porn movies he had recently watched and ask if they had seen them. At times, they'd find him engrossed in the security monitor in the office after he had disengaged the system from the VCR. ''I'd walk in and see him zoomed in on a woman's breasts," said Joanne Nighelli. The system was installed last year.
Cindy Stewart, a cancer survivor, said Strazzulo once belittled her by asking if she was wearing a wig, even though he knew she hadn't started chemotherapy.
''At the bar, he'd rub up against you," said Oppedisano.
Lynne Power said that Strazzulo one day ordered her to put her hair up, and as she did, he rubbed his hands across her chest. ''I was horrified," she said. ''It was in front of everyone. He said he was sorry, he didn't know why he did it."
When she complained to another manager, a written statement was taken, but there was no disciplinary action.
Who knows where this all ends? Meantime, my next large cheese comes from Santarpio's.
Brian McGrory is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at mcgrory@globe.com.
