“They know us here,” said Ms. Rossetti, 51, an administrative assistant once more who lives in Bayside and, ever the Queens girl, pronounces her first name “Pwaw-la.” “You’re like family. They kiss us.”
Filled with bow-tied waiters weaving between tables draped in white, the 65-year-old restaurant, run by John Abbracciamento, the founder’s son, reflects several enduring qualities of the neighborhood — timelessness and deep reverence for family. These attributes also play out in local residents’ political views, which are coming to the fore now that the mayoral election in New York City is weeks away.
Concern over soaring inequality may be central to the mayoral campaign of Bill de Blasio, the Democratic nominee, but Rego Park has largely remained solidly blue collar and middle class. The community is also safer than it once was, and many of those interviewed defended the Police Department’s much-criticized stop-and-frisk practice, which they believed had contributed to a downturn in house burglaries and car thefts.
“We remember the bad old days of 2,200 homicides a year,” said Matthew McMahon, 45, who grew up with four brothers in Ozone Park. “You had to carry ‘mug money,’ and you kept your real cash on the side. We don’t want to return to those days.”
Many people here are happy with the city as it is. But, reflecting Mr. de Blasio’s broad appeal, several said they were considering voting for him even though he has been highly critical of the stop-and-frisk practice, and has vowed to replace Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, whose leadership of the department is held in high regard here.
Mr. McMahon was at Joe Abbracciamento’s on a recent Friday with his mother, Kathleen McMahon, 75, and three of his brothers — a teacher, a New York City firefighter and a retired transit worker, all ruddy-faced, barrel-chested and looking every bit like the Irish-Americans they are.
As they reflected on the mayoral campaign now under way, Mr. McMahon said he liked Joseph J. Lhota, the Republican nominee, because he has executive experience. Mrs. McMahon was nervous about what she saw as Mr. de Blasio’s leftist ways: his views smacked, she said, of socialism.
But Kevin McMahon, 43, looking for work as a teacher as he celebrated his birthday, was concerned about a lack of jobs in the city and undecided about which candidate to support. And Thomas McMahon, 54, who has worked as a firefighter for 30 years, was backing Mr. de Blasio, in part because he wanted a mayor who would settle the city’s expired public employee union contracts and keep the Police and Fire Departments at the forefront.
“New York City is the Rome of the Roman Empire,” he said. “It is the center of the world. And it needs to be protected.”
A table away, Ray Goldbach, 54, a retired fire chief, dug into fried calamari and house salads with seven family members and friends. Like many regulars, he had been eating at Joe Abbracciamento’s since his parents brought him as a child, and the menu of Italian staples — baked ziti, veal scaloppine and the like — did not change after John Abbracciamento took over from his father, who died in 1999. The restaurant has drawn its share of federal judges and political notables, and photos of visits from John F. Kennedy, Edward M. Kennedy and Geraldine A. Ferraro line the wood-paneled walls.
Mr. Goldbach said he, too, was concerned about keeping the city safe — the stop-and-frisk tactic, he said, was helping with crime and gun control — and noted that Rego Park had gotten so safe that people sometimes forgot to lock their houses and cars. He praised Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg for balancing the budget, and said he felt unruffled by income inequality; concurring with the mayor, he said he believed the rich help the city by paying taxes.
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