Our Rich History: Pompilio’s Restaurant is part of Newport’s Italian tradition and a popular one

By Raymond G. Hebert, PhD
Special to NKyTribune

Part 5 of an occasional series about Casual & Fine Dining

Pompilio’s Restaurant has been a Newport staple since it opened under the name “Pompilio House” in 1933. The building itself, however, dates back further, operating as a saloon. In 1902, Kettenacker’s saloon leased the location and remodeled it, “looking very similar to what we see today, with a furnished back and front bar and a $6000 loan from George Wiedemann Brewing Company.” The saloon changed owners three times before Pompilio’ s opened in 1933.

Newport was a wide-open city that defied Prohibition. On February 11, 1922, “the bar and dining room were raided by the Kentucky National Guard and Federal Prohibition officers.” Multiple forms of alcohol and gambling devices were confiscated, and the owners were arrested. In an ironic twist, Pompilio’s held the first liquor license issued in the state of Kentucky after Prohibition.

The Wiedemann Brewing Company’s connection to the saloon is interesting. “By the 1900s the brewery was the largest south of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River” (Margo Warminski, “Wiedemann Brewing Company,” in Paul A. Tenkotte and James C. Claypool, eds., The Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky . Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2009: p. 957). Wiedemann Brewery had partnerships with saloons, who would then serve as dispensaries for “its exclusive selling of their brand of products, a so-called ‘tied house’” (Michael R. Sweeney, “Pompilio’s Restaurant,” Northern Kentucky Heritage , Vol. XI, no. 2, Spring/Summer 2004, p. 3).

The “tied house” relationship with Wiedemann explains how the brewery’s $6,000 loan was used as “surety for the lease on the building.” Considering the era, the arrangement was an extremely creative loan and lease arrangement that ultimately “configured the bar to look like what one sees today.” ( https://pompilios.com/weidemann-history/ ).

An example of the importance of the partnership was Wiedemann’s contributions to the restaurant at its opening: “a hand carved cherry back bar of 1886 vintage” that, with modern alterations, is still in use today, and an “original front bar placed by Charles Wiedemann” that unfortunately became firewood during the early days of the Depression. Cryptically, the mahogany front bar that stands in its stead today is “certainly of lesser quality.”

On April 1, 1933, the restaurant opened under the name Pompilio House. It became popular, an Italian tradition in Newport and even Greater Cincinnati, known particularly “for being open far into the early morning and re-opening a few hours later the same morning.” Electric trolleys ran from the front door all the way to downtown Cincinnati, “breakfast was on the menu in the early years,” and Mrs. Pompilio’s homemade ravioli (as it is today) was available anytime. Sold for 65 cents, it included “a salad, bread and glass of beer or wine.”

By 1940 the name became Pompilio’s Cafe, and a new large dining room was added on, during “those grand days of infamy for Newport.” The restaurant proclaims itself as having been a “temporary relief from nearby illicit activities,” as its location was a little removed from the hubbub of gambling activities. There are tales, however, of mobsters “with favorite tables” who “frequented the restaurant wishing to eat with normal people.” There was, and still is, a back booth that supposedly “was one of the mob’s special spots. No one could easily sneak up on the table.”

As a part of an internet series called “Date Night in Cincinnati,” a writer named Michelle H. focused on the importance of the restaurant’s history, from the first dining room’s doubling “as a saloon,” to the “raid during Prohibition” to the “electric trolley car” taking patrons directly to the restaurant from downtown Cincinnati, and to the “Hollywood connections, particularly to “Rain Man,” which still holds a spot for a remembrance in the bar area. While Michelle had positive comments about personal food favorites such as the “vodka sauce” and the “cannoli,” she ultimately focused on what could turn a regular dinner into a pleasant dating experience: “Bocce ball; live music and dining al fresco on the patio out back” – giving Pompilio’s a 3 hearts rating for romance and only $$ for pricing. She concluded by adding: “remember if you run out of conversation, there is always a ton of history at Pompilio’s to discuss” (Michelle H., “A Date Filled with History at Pompilio’s in Newport,” datenightcincinnati.com ).

In 1982 ownership changed when the Pompilio family era ended and the Mazzei family took over, renaming it “Pompilio’s Restaurant.” The new owners understood that it was the name and image that had accumulated extensive goodwill over the years. Proudly, they “continued to serve the same pastas and sauces that the Pompilios perfected, and they added some of their own family dishes, “like the Italian sausage, lasagna, cannelloni, and manicotti.”

Also in the 1980s, Hollywood came to Pompilio’s, first with the short segment in the 1988 award-winning movie Rain Man when actor Dustin Hoffman (in the role of Raymond) “knocked over a box of toothpicks and immediately called out the number spilled on the floor.” Next, in 1993, came the skateboard movie called Airborne — featuring Jack Black and Seth Greene. Since then, there have been several renovations to the restaurant, including to the main dining room in the 1990s, exposing the high old windows and adding new ones. Likewise, a home was demolished to “accommodate two regulation sized bocce courts.” This brought with it “world class bocce since 1991.”

More recently, in 2011, a second generation of the Mazzei family has become involved in the restaurant. According to the NKYTribune , Larry Geiger and his high school friend Joe Bristow became partners with Mike Mazzei (who had bought out his family) in ownership. Their friendship began when Joe started working at Pompilio’s as a 15-year-old busser. Eventually, this led to Joe extending an invitation to Larry to join him in 2006 in a managerial capacity. Larry had earned a business degree in marketing and finance in 2003 at the University of Kentucky. This all set the stage for the partnership with Mike Mazzei in 2011 (Ginger Dawson, “People of NKY: Newport’s Pompilio’s is an Old Favorite and Larry Geiger and Friends Carry On,” NKyTribune ). They have added the finest bourbon to the back bar and music several nights a week. Appreciatively, though, they understand and take pride in the tradition of being “the Italian restaurant with a Kentucky flavor set in a historic neighborhood, where everyone knows your name, as well as your father, your mother, and probably at least one of your grandparents. Mangia!”

In other recent articles, similar themes have emerged about Pompilio’s as a “timeless” experience in Northern Kentucky’s history. In 2014, as part of the Key Cincinnati “Hot Spot” series, the author wrote that, in her estimation, Pompilio’s is comparable to the “true Italian experience you get in Philly or the Big Apple” (“Pompilio’s: a hot spot since the days of FDR”, June 1, 2014, Key Cincinnati) .

In 2020, in true Campbell County tradition, the Sweet Tooth Candy and Ice Cream shop, also a Newport tradition, that was under a threat of closing, had a reprieve thanks to a “familiar, local ownership group” — Joe Bristow and Larry Geiger, owners of Pompilio’s. In Joe’s words: “We would go and get Sweet Tooth’s famous Ice Balls in the summer, Caramel Apples in the fall, and Valentine’s Day chocolates. It was just part of our lives, and we had to secure its future” ( “Beloved Iconic Sweet Tooth Candy and Ice Cream in Newport to Stay Open under Pompilio’s Ownership, NKYTribune , December 2020.)

Finally, in an article appearing in the “Only in Your State” series, Sarah McCosham elaborates on Pompilio’s as a “timeless experience.” In her words, after stating that “Pompilio’s might be one of the most famous restaurants in Kentucky, but it’s not all pomp and circumstance,” she concludes that for nearly a century, Pompilio’s has had “the most authentic and delicious Italian cuisine in Kentucky” (Sarah McCosham, “Open for Nearly a Century, Dining at Pompilio’s in Kentucky Is Always a Timeless Experience,” Only in Your State , February 10, 2023.

As Ginger Dawson noted in her Northern Kentucky Tribune article, Larry Geiger believes in an attitude of consistency and dependability. Fittingly, with this vision in mind, Geiger shared one of his favorite quotes, “attributed to Aristotle: ‘We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit.’” That certainly seems to be the tradition and philosophy of Pompilio’s Restaurant from 1933 right down to the present day (Dawson, NKYTribune ).

Dr. Raymond G. Hebert is Professor of History and Executive Director of the William T. Robinson III Institute for Religious Liberty at Thomas More University. He is the leading author of Thomas More University at 100: Purpose, People, and Pathways to Student Success (2023). The book can be purchased by contacting the Thomas More University Bookstore at 859-344-3335. Dr. Hebert can be contacted at hebertr@thomasmore.edu .

Paul A. Tenkotte, PhD is Editor of the “Our Rich History” weekly series and Professor of History and Gender Studies at Northern Kentucky University (NKU). He can be contacted at tenkottep@nku.edu . Tenkotte also serves as Co-Director of the ORVILLE Project (Ohio River Valley Innovation Library and Learning Enrichment). For more information see https://orvillelearning.org/ .

The post Our Rich History: Pompilio’s Restaurant is part of Newport’s Italian tradition and a popular one appeared first on NKyTribune .