Three Kinds of Pizza

2:04 am, 2/13/05

Three Kinds of Pizza
Stop me if you've heard this one. There are three kinds of authentic Italian pizza: Sicilian, Neopolitan, and Chicagoan.

So why is the Illinois tollway authority contracting with Famous Famiglia's, the official pizza chain of the New York Yankees, the most hated baseball team in America?

Well, we can't be sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if it has something to do with the fact that Famiglia's partnered with a known mobster to "target nontraditional locations". The partner company, DeBartolo Property Group, is run by Youngstown, Ohio's very own notorious son Eddie DeBartolo Jr.

That is, after all, how you make things happen in Blagojevich's Illinois. Again: Who wants to start my car for me?

Update: Just in case you thought Blago wasn't personally connected...

The Subway sandwich shops and Panda Express Asian restaurants now being installed in the tollway's seven revamped rest stops are controlled by firms with strong ties to the food-service empire of Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a Blagojevich confidant who has seeded the governor's cabinet with former business underlings.

Christopher G. Kelly, Blagojevich's chief fundraiser, who also recommended the tollway's executive director for his job, is an investor in at least one Rezko-controlled food firm, a spokesman said.

The $83 million oases overhaul is being overseen by Los Angeles-based developer Wilton Partners, whose owner delivered a $50,000 personal check to the Blagojevich campaign just weeks after the governor announced with great fanfare the launch of the work.

What's more, food-service permits filed in Boone and Lake Counties, where two of the oases are, identify the manager of the Subway shops as Rezko's nephew, Rimon Rezko. The nephew lives in Oak Lawn in a home sold to him by Tony Rezko, property records show.

In addition to his Rezko ties, Chaib also has donated $10,000 to the Blagojevich political fund run by Kelly. The governor also appointed Chaib's wife, Lori, to a $15,000-a-year, part-time position on an obscure state board dealing with employment issues.Panda's corporate parent, based in Southern California, is the sole owner of the tollway restaurants. But it is also a partner with Rezko in most other Panda Express restaurants throughout Illinois and four other Midwestern states.

Revenues from the tollway restaurants, while not directly benefiting Rezko, flow to his business partner, Panda Express Inc.

Kelly enters the picture as an investor in Rezko Concessions Inc., Rezko's portion of the joint venture with Panda Express. Chaib also is a director of that Rezko firm, state records show.

Kelly, of course, is a "roofing contractor". Presumably, "his trucks are always rolling", if you know what I mean. Absolutely un-freaking-believable.