Philly update: Joey Vento died suddenly of a heart attack.

[PCIntern]

On Edit: Sorry, cali, I didn't see your thread...my apologies.


Joey owned Geno's Cheesesteaks in South Philly. Joey was the usual Philly dichotomy: On the one hand, he gave lots of dough to charities. All well and good. OTOH, he was the guy with the sign:

"This is America. When ordering, please speak English."

This raised a hell of a stink here...of course the commission let him get away with it because...well because he claimed that he served anyone and everyone who came to his establishment. What is not in the obituary is that he also had radio ads blasting "illegals" and praising people like his parents etc. You all know the drill. All of his public political life really began when Obama was elected...amazing coinkydink.


http://www.philly.com/philly/obituaries/20110824_Joey_Vento__71__founder_and_owner_of_Geno_s_Steaks.html?cmpid=124488704

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Why did he have to have the sign?

If "English" was so important, couldn't he have had a bilingual menu? Helped his customers with their familiarity with a new language? Welcomed their patronage, period?

[PCIntern]

2. Because at the bottom of it all, he was not nice.

Everyone in S Philly when I was young spoke Italian and we struggled but understood why we had to work with it. This guy, climbed up the ladder and raised it.

[rsmith6621]

3. I Hope He Finds Out In Heaven The Speak.....

......HEBREW.......

[Bonhomme Richard]

4. Never was a fan of cheeze wiz on my cheesesteaks.

As a matter of fact I never even heard of it till someone from out of town talked about Pats and Genos. If I walked into anyplace around my neck of the woods and I asked for a cheesesteak I got a sandwich with american cheese on it.

[brendan120678]

5. My one question regarding his "Order in English" policy...

If a customer didn't order in English, what language did they order in?
And how would the counter workers understand what the customer wanted?

[gateley]

6. Could they have read the sign? I don't think it was actually

directed at those people, more like "showing off" for other racists like himself.