When Alois grew tired of the glitz and glam of Hollywood, he moved to New York. For a time, he worked at the famous The Knickerbocker hotel bar, captivating guests with his bartending craft. One of them was Frankie Yale. Unaware that he was standing before a feared mafia boss, Alois accepted Yale’s offer without hesitation and became head bartender at his new establishment, the Harvard Inn. It was there that he met an eighteen-year-old young man who would change his life more than anyone else: Alphonse Gabriel Capone.
Al, as Alois liked to call him, worked at Yale’s establishments as a barback and bouncer. It was during a bar fight on Coney Island that Capone got another nickname, Scarface, when the Italian boxer Frank Galluccio—known for his jealousy and violent temper—slashed his face with a knife. Alois liked to tease Capone about the scar. Whenever he asked for a cocktail, Alois would grin and ask if he wanted something sharp. Capone would just smirk and reply, “Make it as sharp as a knife.”
