By Editor,Sonya Gugliara

Copyright dailymail

Boston locals are outraged by an Italian restaurant’s bold move to hang infamous mobsters’ mugshots on its walls as part of a makeover led by Gordon Ramsay.

Savin Bar + Kitchen, located in the Savin Hill neighborhood of the Massachusetts city, has faced criticism for its controversial d̩cor Рwith community members planning to start a petition to have the pictures removed.

But co-owners Driscoll DoCanto and Ken Osherow said the idea to flaunt the pictures of frowned-upon figures, including Irish mob boss James ‘Whitey’ Bulger and hitman Stephen ‘The Rifleman’ Flemmi, was all Ramsay’s.

The British Celebrity chef featured Savin Bar + Kitchen on an episode of his Secret Service reality TV show, which aired in August.

Ramsay’s Secret Service helps struggling restaurants get to the root of their issues and correct them to help businesses thrive.

Part of his rebranding of Savin Bar + Kitchen was to incorporate elements of Savin Hill’s notorious past – a significant Irish mob presence in the mid-1990s – into its interior design.

‘He and they felt it was a very interesting angle for our place because of the history of this restaurant, and they represent restaurant industry professionals from around the country,’ Osherow told the Dorchester Reporter.

As soon as customers enter the brick-walled establishment, they are greeted by a large, framed mugshot of Bulger, which was taken after a 1950s bank robbery.

A similar snap of Flemmi, who was convicted of murdering several of Bulger’s rivals, is also featured in the restaurant.

While its co-owners are over the moon about the new art, sharing it online and urging customers to come check out the new and improved Savin Bar + Kitchen, many neighborhood residents are less than thrilled.

The Columbia-Savin Hill Civic Association spent roughly 20 minutes of its Monday night meeting slamming the restaurant – claiming its owners are glorifying the mobsters that once terrorized the community.

‘Whitey Bulger traumatized our community and murdered people here and was a drug dealer and hurt people and then fled,’ Donna McColgan, who wants to start a petition to ditch the pictures, said at the meeting, as per the Dorchester Reporter.

‘I don’t think he should be celebrated anywhere in our community.’

Jeanie Doherty, who said she wants to support the business but refuses to do so while it dons the mugshots, added: ‘That’s just Hollywood and that’s what they like to think about Boston.

‘We’ve moved so far away from that and those were very dark days in Boston. So many good things are happening now.’

‘I’m surprised anybody would decide to put Whitey Bulger’s or Steve Flemmi’s picture in a restaurant,’ Civic Association President Bill Walczak said.

But Osherow and DoCanto have no intentions of taking down the pictures. In response to the backlash, they have attached a poster to the Bulger portrait explaining the history behind the divisive images.

‘We don’t glorify Whitey Bulger or the violence he brought to Boston. What we are highlighting is the history of this very spot,’ the flier reads.

In a statement to the Daily Mail, the owners clarified the intent ‘was to preserve and interpret the history of this building – not to romanticize its darker chapters.’

Savin Bar + Kitchen was once The Bulldog Tavern, a popular neighborhood bar and a key gathering place for the members of Boston’s Winter Hill Gang, which Bulger led.

‘We display this image not to celebrate Bulger, his associates, or their crimes – but to recognize a chapter in the complex, gritty story of our neighborhood,’ the owners wrote.

‘The Bulldog Tavern was more than just a bar; it was a front-row seat to a notorious era in Boston’s underworld, when organized crime quietly moved behind the scenes of everyday life.

‘By acknowledging this past, we remember where we’ve been – and how far we’ve come.