if you don't speak english, you can't order food at geno's steaks

The English-only signage, in point of fact, is a modest addition to Geno's wall. The "Freedom Fries" sign is bigger, an anti-French slur that seems less hostile than brainlessly quaint at this sorry juncture in the Iraq bloodletting.

what an asshat!

Haha, wit, good one. I didn't think Tony Luke's was so great, though. Took a really long time, too. I'm all about the Pat's.

For more than 40 years the people of Philadelphia have divided themselves into two camps: Pat's King of Steaks and Geno's, two sandwich stands endlessly fighting the Philly cheesesteak wars.

It now appears the owner of Geno's has fired another shot ... at himself.

Joseph Vento posted signs at his famous sandwich shop declaring his refusal to serve anyone that doesn't speak English, "This is America. When Ordering, Speak English."

Geno's sits in the heart of what was once Little Italy, at Ninth and Passyunk, but is now a largely Mexican neighborhood.

"If you can't tell me what you want, I can't serve you," he said. "It's up to you. If you can't read, if you can't say the word cheese, how can I communicate with you -- and why should I have to bend? I got a business to run."

So Vento has made it his policy to refuse service to anyone who can't speak English and those who cannot speak at all.

"I don't want somebody coming here to change my culture to their culture," he said with no apparent irony. "They want us to adapt to these people. What do you mean, 'Press 1 for Spanish'? English, period. Case closed. End of discussion. You better make it the official language."

Asked for his opinion on the immigration battle brewing, he simply declares "Go back to the 19th century, and play by those rules."

That wouldn't have affected Vento much. It wasn't until 1921, the year Vento's own grandfather arrived on these shores, that there was such a thing as an "illegal immigrant" from Italy. That was the year the U.S. began issuing entry visas. Up until then Congress had only passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and entered an agreement in 1907 with Japan that allowed their laborers to enter only Hawaii but not the U.S. mainland.

When Vento's not busy making sandwiches, he likes to drive around his neighborhood -- with a PA system mounted on his SUV -- scolding area businesses that hire illegal aliens.
Vento founded Geno's in 1966. Unable to work up an original idea, Vento opened his cheese steak stand across from Pat's King of Steaks, the original.

Not only did Vento lack a fresh idea, he couldn't even use his own name, as it was already taken for another restaurant. As legend has it, he got the name from a broken door he found with GINO painted across it. But that too was taken and so he misspelled it.
Vento likely would've refused service to his own grandparents, who spoke almost no English.

http://www.sploid.com/news/2006/06/no_english_no_c.php

Vento founded Geno's in 1966. Unable to work up an original idea, Vento opened his cheese steak stand across from Pat's King of Steaks, the original.

Haha, yeah, Pat's pwns.