Campisi’s serves Italian-American cuisine. It is located on one of Dallas’s main highways. Its main features are delicious cuisine and interesting stories about Dallas criminals. Discover more about Campisi’s on dallas1.one.
Background of the restaurant’s founding
The Campisi family emigrated from Sicily to the US in 1904. Carlo and Antonia first lived in New Orleans. In 1916, they settled in Dallas, where they bought a small grocery for $800. Here the couple gave birth and raised six children.
After World War II, Carlo bought the Idle Hour Bar on the corner of Knox Street and McKinney Avenue. His cousin advised him to cook pizza, which was already one of the most popular dishes in New York. Carlo used the kitchen behind the bar for this. Thus, the Idle Hour bar became the first place in Dallas that offered visitors to taste delicious Italian pizza.
Purchase of a restaurant
In 1950, the family bought the Egyptian Lounge. It was located on Mockingbird Lane, one of the main highways of the city. It was created as a piano bar and Carlo decided to keep most of the initial decor. Due to the lack of money, the new owners replaced only the word Lounge with Restaurant on the sign. The name stayed like this.
The place was primarily run by Carl’s sons Joe and Sam Campisi. Joe is the grandfather of the restaurant’s current owner, David Campisi.
Liquor license
The Eighteenth Amendment has long prohibited the production, sale or transportation of alcoholic beverages in the United States. It operated from 1920 to 1933. However, it took nearly 40 more years for Texas to allow the sale of alcoholic beverages in restaurants and clubs.
Campisi’s became one of the first establishments in the state to receive a license to sell alcoholic beverages. It happened in 1971. Thanks to this, the place became very popular among local residents, especially among distinguished persons.
Ties with the mafia and criminals
The owner, David Campisi, says that his grandfather Joe was attributed with ties to the local mafia. It is said that he knew Joe Civello, Carlos Marcello and his brothers Vincent and Joe. The mafia family was a frequent visitor here. David Campisi himself attended the wedding of Joe and Vincent Marcello’s children.
However, David Campisi points out that these are all nonsense that interests the visitors. Therefore, rumors cannot be completely denied because they have become part of the brand and help earn a few extra dollars.
However, the restaurant is an attractive place due to Jack Ruby, who shot Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President John F. Kennedy. On the eve of the tragedy, Jack Ruby dined at Campisi’s. He was also known for some illegal activities.
The next day, the President was shot while driving through the city in an open limousine. As Oswald was being led from the police station to his car two days later, Ruby jumped out of the crowd and shot him dead.
Ruby asked Campisi to visit him in prison. Joe and his wife paid Jack a ten-minute visit on November 30, 1963. The House Select Committee on Assassinations questioned Joe Campisi about Ruby in 1978. This ended the restaurant’s ties with the criminal world.