The story
The building on Mockingbird Lane began in 1946 as the Egyptian Lounge, a piano bar founded by Johnny Brazil Grisaffi. The Campisi family took it over in 1950. Their first place was the Idle Hour at Knox and McKinney, where in 1946 they made what the family calls Dallas' first pizza and Texas' first pizzeria. On Mockingbird they kept most of the decor and swapped the word Lounge for Restaurant on the old sign, because they could not afford a new one.
Jack Ruby ate a steak there on November 21, 1963, the night before the Kennedy assassination. On November 30, Joe Campisi and his wife visited Ruby in jail for about ten minutes. A 1979 House committee report found no indication that Campisi had engaged in specific organized crime activities. In 1971 the restaurant got one of the first liquor licenses in Texas since Prohibition.
What's There Now
It is still operating as Campisi's Egyptian Restaurant.
Everything that was here
- 1950–present · still open
Campisi's Egyptian RestaurantRestaurant
The Egyptian Lounge sign stayed up because the Campisis could not afford a new one, and Jack Ruby ate steak here the night before he shot Oswald.
See the map in 1951 → - 1946–1950
The Egyptian LoungeBar
A piano bar founded by Johnny Brazil Grisaffi before the Campisis bought it.
See the map in 1947 →
Did you know?
Connected places
Mia Cucina Italian Trattoria
Green Door Tavern
Italian Village
Conte Di Savoia
Villa Capri
Explore the full web of connections on the map.
Nearby history
Northwest Highway Drive-In
The Old Plantation
Sons of Hermann Hall
Trees
The Bomb Factory
Adair's Saloon
Know something about Campisi's Egyptian Restaurant? An old photo, a date, a memory of what stood here before?
Add it on the map