Campisi's Egyptian Restaurant
32°50′11″N 96°46′18″W / 32.836338°N 96.771688°W
Campisi's Restaurant is an Italian restaurant located in Dallas, Texas, USA offering a self-described Roman cuisine.
The facility was founded as The Egyptian Lounge in 1946 by Johnny Brazil Grisaffi. It was sold to Joe & Sam Campisi in the late 50"s and then renamed to Campisi's Egyptian Restaurant. It was first named Egyptian Lounge because Johnny had a friend who was a sculptor and owed Johnny money, so he traded what was owed to him for the sculptures of chariot races and were hung on the walls of the lounge. When it opened in the 40's it had a dance floor and bar and Johnny brought pizza to Dallas and served it in the lounge. He later added to the menu and changed the name to restaurant. When Joe and Sam bought it they called it Campisi's Egyptian Restaurant later they dropped Egyptian from the name.
The Campisi family continues to own and manage the restaurant and have opened six additional branches throughout the Dallas area.
Campisi's is well known locally for its founder's connections to organized crime,[1] a fact that the restaurant capitalizes on for publicity.[2] Jack Ruby, the killer of Lee Harvey Oswald, was a regular at Campisi's and was frequently seen eating there, including the night before the assassination of John F. Kennedy.[3][4][5] After Jack Ruby's arrest for killing Oswald, Ruby requested that Joe Campisi visit him in jail.[3] Joe Campisi and his wife visited with Jack Ruby in jail for ten minutes on November 30, 1963.[3]
See also
- Steve Palermo, American League umpire who was partially paralyzed by a gunshot wound while apprehending two armed robbers outside the restaurant on July 7, 1991.
- List of Italian restaurants
References
- ^ Don Fulsom, Crime Magazine: An Encyclopedia of Crime (October 16, 2006), http://www.crimemagazine.com/06/marcello,1019-6.htm Archived 2009-02-25 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ FAIRBANK, KATIE (14 February 1999). "A Dallas Restaurant Cashes In on Mob Connection". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ a b c HSCA Appendix to Hearings, vol. 9, p. 344, par. 917 and 919, Joseph Campisi.
- ^ "The Great 50th Anniversary Playmate Hunt". Playboy. December 2003.
- ^ Blakey, G. Robert (November 7, 1993). "Murdered By The Mob?". Washington Post.