Boxing Restauranteur

Dear Mr. Coney Island...
There was a restaurant on the corner of West 16th Street and Surf Ave owned by a boxer in the fifties.  What was his name?  Thank you!
- Jimmy P

Hello Jimmy,

His name was Tony Pellone. He and his family had several other bars and restaurants in Coney including the Hollywood Bar in the Stillwell terminal and the Lido on the Boardwalk. "Tough Tony" was a top welterweight who fought against such champions as Kid Gavilan and Bob Montgomery. He died at Coney Island Hospital in 1996.

Comments

I heard the was a boxing gym in coney island somewhere near the keyspan baseball field. Is that true and if yes where is it?

Before the Pellone's the boardwalk Lido Bar & Grill was owned by the Arniotes family. In his younger years the late Supreme Court Judge Vasilios ("Billy A.") Arniotes was the bartender. The Arniotes family sold it in 1963. The waitress and sometimes chef was his sister Diane who passed away Inauguration Day 2009. Steve Arniotes, who made pizza there, later became a Civil Court Judge and still practices law.

Tony lived on Dahill road in Gravesend as an old man. I remember him. He was a colorful local character, with his Chihuahua and bashed up boxer's face. Most people laughed him off (he looked pretty bummy and was almost constantly guzzling beer), but anyone who actually talked to him would get some great stories about his past.

For those negative comments I was one of those kids that Tony showed how to box and kept me off the street we used to get up at 5:30 in the morning and meet Tony on Kings Highway and Vansicklen Street with his bike and his whistle and run down Kings Highway to Ocean Parkway and to Church Avenue and back to W. 7th St. and Kings Highway. Where Tony had a gym built for us the Ave Maria boxing team, may be if you had the balls to go a few rounds with some of the guys he went in the ring with and had a couple of punches thrown at you you would have a little drinking problem too. The man deserves respect he helped a lot of kids out, that were heading for jail. What he accomplished in life you should, so there are still a couple of Tony Pallone fans around . And if you ever seen us in the gym then you know what the word ca chunk meant.

Hey, on the corner of 31st and Mermaid was Kesslers bar. Ex boxer, anyone remembers. Upstairs was the Jewish Center were we had a club called the Griffins. That was the year we started to look at girls. Remember

Tony had a gym, downstairs on West 7th and kings highway in the 70's. I trained there as a kid.

My uncle Sid Haber fought Tony twice in 1945. The first in a knock down drag out brawl in which both hit the canvas resulting in my uncle being stopped at the end of the 5th round. A few weeks later they fought a rematch at Madison Square Garden underneath the main event of the 3rd Ray Robinson-Jake Lamotta bout. This time my uncle lost a 6 round decision. My uncle ended up with a 41-10-3 record.

I remember going to his gym on kings Highway and he was giving us some pointers how to box & how to have the right stands he was a nice guy I remember ,!!!

Anyone familiar with boxer Carmine Fiore from Williamsburg, Brooklyn? He boxer professionally back in the late 50's and maybe the early 60's. Tough guy. Never made it to the top.

Myself and Joey Bermudez were the boxing team stars along with light heavy Kenny Haines..at the Ava Maria Youth center..

I went to Tony’s gym in the late 70s. He taught us how to properly throw a jab and use it effectively. At 65 years old, I still remember how to step into the jab and double up.

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