Why Cheesesteak Maker Tony Luke Is Suing the Philadelphia Inquirer
He claims that a story led Joey Merlino and others to label him a "rat."
Left: Anthony Lucidonio Jr., aka cheesesteak maker Tony Luke Jr. (Photo provided.) Right: The front page of an Inquirer issue in which a story about his family members appeared.
It’s been a while since we heard from Anthony Lucidonio Jr., aka Tony Luke, who was once a constant presence in the Philadelphia cheesesteak world. A “behind-the-scenes nightmare,” as we called it in 2016, unfolded between Tony Luke and his brother and father. Tony Luke left the original Oregon Avenue Tony Luke’s shop, with his father and brother remaining at the helm, and he concentrated on a separate Tony Luke’s franchising business, which still exists to some extent today. But mostly, Tony Luke is concentrating on writing new music — he’s decidedly in the smooth jazz/ballads category — and on suing the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Last year, a federal judge sentenced Tony Luke’s father and brother to nearly two years in prison on tax fraud charges. The pair admitted to hiding more than $8 million from the IRS. Naturally, the Inquirer reported on the sentencing, and it is that report by Jeremy Roebuck (he’s now at the Washington Post) that is at the center of a lawsuit winding its way through Philadelphia’s Common Pleas Court.
What is undisputed is that the Inquirer published a story about the sentencing online on January 25, 2024. The original publication time was 6:00 p.m. According to an auto-generated field at the top of the piece, the story was updated in some way at 6:27 p.m. There is no editor’s note, clarification or correction to indicate what that update might have been, and it is not uncommon for the Inquirer to change online stories without explanation. (At most publications, editors will attach a note to the end of stories that are altered after publication explaining any changes.)
According to the lawsuit, the story represented that when Tony Luke left the business, he took documents with him that detailed the tax fraud and then shared those documents with the feds, leading to the criminal investigation into his father and brother. Tony Luke says that is absolutely false, that he did neither. The New Jersey media outlet NJ.com ran a story about two hours after the Inquirer‘s, making the same claim, and when Tony Luke confronted NJ.com about it, the publication claimed that it based that claim on the Inquirer‘s reporting. NJ.com changed its piece and added an editor’s note, which reads, “This story has been updated to correct what transpired when Anthony Lucidonio Jr. left the family business.”
The Inquirer‘s online story now reads as follows: “Anthony Jr.’s two sons — Anthony III and Michael, who were also employed at the sandwich empire — followed him out the door, taking copies of the company’s financial records with them and turned them over to federal investigators.” The lawsuit claims that Tony Luke or his attorneys have asked the Inquirer for a copy of the article as it originally appeared at 6 p.m. on the date of publication but that the Inquirer has not produced one.
Tony Luke says that his reputation has been gravely damaged by all of this. According to the lawsuit, he’s received death threats, and he’s been the subject of such numerous negative social media comments as “the worst piece of shit in the world” and “fucking rat snitch cocksucker.” Former Philadelphia mobster Joey Merlino featured the Tony Luke drama on a recent podcast episode, designating him as a “motherfucker” who “put his father and brother in jail.” The segment was accompanied by a photo of Tony Luke edited to make him look like a rat.
The suit accuses the Inquirer and Roebuck of defamation and seeks unspecified damages. A lawyer representing the defendants did not reply to a request for comment.
Ed. note: After publication, this story was tweaked to better explain the use of editor’s notes. Yes, we recognize the irony.
