Change of direction for TV mobster

Vincent Pastore, best known as Big Pussy on the Sopranos, is branching out beyond his mobster comfort zone, though he isn't stretching too far.

Pastore will play an Italian restaurant patriarch in an untitled NBC comedy from writer-producer Dave Flebotte and Law & Order guru Dick Wolf.

The comedy, from NBC Universal TV and Wolf Films, looks at an Italian-American family running a deli-coffee shop on Boston's North End and catering to a mixture of old school neighbourhood types and the yuppies who are new to the area.