In pre-Capone days it was an Italian restaurant and bar, with a brothel and, I think, gambling upstairs. Have very little documentation to support the gambling though, other than it resembled the other Chicago "combination dives" that did. Interesting to note that when Virgil Peterson testified for the Kefauver Committee in 1950, he mentioned Colosimo's, but only as Big Jim's restaurant. He didn't mention gambling at all, and the committee was investigating gambling.
Colosimo's matchbook designs can be found sometimes. There's also a modern fake that was printed as a novelty. The fake shows "Al Capone, Manager" and "AL JOLSON". None of the genuine books mention Capone or Jolson.
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