Campisi's Egyptian Restaurant

Campisi's Restaurant is an Italian restaurant located in Dallas, Texas, USA offering a self-described Roman cuisine.

Campisi's Egyptian Restaurant

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 the restaurant capitalizes on for publicity.[2] Jack Ruby was a regular at the restaurant frequently seen eating there including the night before the assassination of John F. Kennedy.[3][4] After his arrest for killing Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby asked that Joe Campisi come and visit Ruby in jail.[3] Joe Campisi and his wife visited with Jack Ruby in jail for ten minutes on November 30, 1963.[3]