My Lefty Rosenthal Story
About 15-20 years ago, on a business trip, I had just finished reading Nicholas Pileggi’s Casino as my plane landed in Ft. Lauderdale. I noticed on the back of the paperback it mentioned that Frank Rosenthal owned a restaurant called Croc’s in Boca Raton. That night on a whim a friend and I found the restaurant and went in for dinner. I asked the bartender, half jokingly, if Lefty ever came in. The bartender pointed to a back table and said, “That’s Mr. Rosenthal having dinner with his daughter”. A little while later, after the bartender told him I’d asked for him, Rosenthal came over and introduced himself. I told him I had just finished the book, loved Scorsese’s film and what an honor it was to meet him. Frank Rosenthal then stood at the bar for the next 30 minutes telling us stories about Pileggi, the film and his life since Vegas. (“Bobby was much better looking than me”; “Sharon Stone was a real sweetheart”). He even personally served us our dinner.
Rosenthal had some hardbound copies of Casino behind the bar for sale and I bought one, which he signed for me. Overall, although I found him quite personable, he appeared as an average south Florida retiree. He seemed to enjoy meeting people and the celebrity status that the book and movie provided. Unfortunately, the next time I was in Boca I noticed that Croc’s had closed. I guess the restaurant business turned out to be a bad gamble for Lefty.