The story goes that Joe Jerge checked out a couple hundred restaurants before he decided to open his own place in Lackawanna and call it Mulberry Italian Ristorante. He says he sampled restaurants "Mainly in New York" adding "there were days when I would do fifteen or sixteen places, that's how I got this tank." as smiles as he pats his stomach.

When asked how he ended up in a residential neighborhood in Lackawanna, Joe says "this building was a tavern when I was a kid and I worked here from the time I was eleven until I was twenty-three. Who knew I would buy it twelve years later and turn it into a restaurant?"