Floral Park catering hall gets starring role in 'Gravesend' crime drama
William DeMeo, right, writer-director-creator of “Gravesend,” takes a break outside Our Lady of Grace R.C. Church in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn with son Christian DeMeo and producer Michele Frantzeskos on June 18. Credit: James Carbone
A Floral Park catering hall becomes a chic Manhattan nightclub in two upcoming season 3 episodes of the Brooklyn-based crime drama “Gravesend.”
“We had had our season 2 premiere” at Floral Terrace on Jericho Turnpike, says series producer Michele Frantzeskos. And while there, “Obviously we scouted the location” for possible use on a future shoot, as any astute producer of an independent, self-distributed TV series would do. The particular ballroom used for the premiere party, she realized, “is a big room and it could stand in for an upscale club.”
In scenes shot there on June 11, Basketball Hall of Famer and occasional actor Shaquille O'Neal — who generally plays himself on screen, with the notable exceptions of his starring roles in “Kazaam” (1996) and “Steel” (1997) — plays Mustafa, leader of a crime crew based in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. He’s meeting with protagonist Benny Zerletta (series creator-writer-director William DeMeo), a soldier in the Colezzo crime family from the borough’s Gravesend section.
“It was a club at night with Mustafa and his boys,” describes Frantzeskos, 55, of Staten Island, of the footage for the sixth and seventh season 3 episodes, with the current working titles “Rainy Night in Georgia” and “New York Society.” “That was the name of their club,” Frantzeskos says. “New York Society.”
NBA legend O'Neal came to be on the show, she explains, through “a colleague of ours, Steve Martorano. He has a famous restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, Cafe Martorano,” which also has outposts in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. “They're friends, Steve and Shaquille O'Neal. So Steve happened to speak about 'Gravesend' because he’s a part of our series — he plays one of the characters in [recurring guest star Armand Assante’s] Philly crew.”
Others with O’Neal in the nightclub scenes are New York rappers Peter Gunz and Maino. “And James Harrison, the [former] linebacker from the [NFL's Pittsburgh] Steelers, is in that scene,” says DeMeo, who is in his early 50s and played the recurring role of Jason Molinaro on “The Sopranos.” “And so is [WABC “Sid & Friends in the Morning” radio host] Sid Rosenberg.”
Floral Terrace co-owner Daniel Akilov did not respond to Newsday calls or emails.
In addition to DeMeo, the series’ cast includes Chazz Palminteri — who had cast DeMeo in “A Bronx Tale” (1993) — and their respective children, Cristian DeMeo and Gabriella Palminteri. Also popping in are other veterans of “The Sopranos," “A Bronx Tale” and “Goodfellas,” plus such familiar names as Andrew Dice Clay, Fran Drescher, William Forsythe, Ken Lerner, James Russo and Martin Kove.
“We’ve shot on Long Island many times,” DeMeo says. “We shot at Governor's Comedy Club [in Levittown] in season 2. We'll be back at Floral Terrace,” he predicts, adding, “We probably are going to shoot at [the restaurant] 388,” in Roslyn Heights.
Episodes of “Gravesend” are available for purchase on Prime Video, and are free with commercials on Tubi and The Roku Channel. Interiors have been shot at Gum Studios in Brooklyn; Cinema World Studios in Brooklyn and Long Island City, Queens; and Broadway Stages in Staten Island, says Frantzeskos.