
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 17, 1994                   TAG: 9411170130
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WHITE MARSH                                 LENGTH: Short

ITALIAN GROUP BOYCOTTS RESTAURANT

An Italian-American group is boycotting a Gloucester County restaurant, contending that the restaurant's name is offensive.

Goodfellas Pasta, Sea and Grill is one of three restaurants in the country that the Sons of Italy in America says disparages Italian-Americans. The organization's anti-defamation branch approved the boycotts at a national meeting in Seattle last week.

Joseph Scafetta Jr. of Arlington, state president of the 80,000-member Sons of Italy, said the name ``Goodfellas'' reinforces a stereotype linking Italian-Americans to organized crime.

``Goodfellas is a well-known code word for mafiosi popularized by the Academy Award-winning movie of the same name in 1990,'' Scafetta said. Its use by an Italian restaurant ``insults and disparages honest, law-abiding Italian-Americans like us as hoodlums,'' he said.

Kay Panos, who opened the restaurant last year with her husband, Gus, said she can't believe the group targeted her business.

``If they chose to boycott us, they'll miss a good meal,'' she said.

by CNB