Cool story, and good memory. Searching newspaper archives, was able to confirm owners' names. D&N were Dan Isola and Nello Ceccarelli, the original owner/operators according to this clipping from New Year's Eve 1943/1944. Later news articles show that Nello died in 1954 and son Ugo took over. It was still called D&N in 1968 when a Gordon Herzog was granted a poker room license.