SPOTTED Warren Buffett and Bill Gates in a Mob Protected Harlem Joint

By Beth Landman

There’s only one table for two at Rao’s. But all of the tables are tables for few.

The 119-year-old restaurant remains one of the hardest places to get into in the city — and, in the past few weeks, VIPs have been feuding over one table in particular.

Celebrity private eye Bo Dietl has had a regular eight-top table at the restaurant every Thursday night since 1977. Page Six reported last week how New York City banker Christopher Bond dropped $6,000 at a charity auction to use Dietl’s table for one night, but has had trouble claiming his prize.

Bond says he initially arranged a July date, only to have Dietl cancel on him eight days out. He then tried for Nov. 5, but Dietl’s assistant said it wasn’t available. A verbal sparring match between the two men ensued that ended with Bond threatening to just show up at Rao’s and Dietl telling him that if he did, he’d punch Bond in the face.

“He ain’t gonna get the table . . . Let him sue me,” Dietl told Page Six.

So what is it about the tiny Italian restaurant in East Harlem that has grown men putting up their dukes? Though the place first opened in 1896, it wasn’t until charismatic owner Frank Pellegrino took the reins in the ’70s that Rao’s morphed into one of the city’s most legendary spots.

Back then, East 114th Street wasn’t the safest of areas, but the fact that members of the Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese crime families were allegedy regulars allowed patrons to park their cars out front without fear.

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