Longtime Dayton restaurateur dies at 81
Dec. 31—A former restaurateur in Dayton died Wednesday due to complications from a fall.
Bruce Comisar, 81, owned the King Cole restaurant, which opened in Indianapolis and Dayton, Yankee Tavern in Centerville and Lincoln Park Grill in Kettering.
The Lincoln Park Grill closed Jan. 1, 2009, due to low business, according to a Dayton Daily News article at the time. It used to be near the Fraze Pavillion.
Comisar bought the Lincoln Park Grill in 1999, according to Dayton Daily News articles from the time. It held up to 215 people and featured live music on Fridays and Saturdays.
The King Cole closed in 1999. It was founded by Comisar's father, Max Comisar, according to his obituary. Max Comisar owned another restaurant, the Seville, in downtown Dayton before King Cole.
The King Cole had a four-star Mobil Travel rating until 1991. But when it closed, Comisar told the Dayton Daily News it was a symbol of "a time that has passed by."
While it was opened, it was a high-end restaurant, complete with oil paintings, French chandeliers, drapes, a live band and a dress code.
According to a Journal Herald story from December 1974, a group including Judy Carne, an actress who died in 2015, were turned away from the dining room because one of the women was wearing slacks and a man in the group was wearing a leather jacket.
Either Comisar or his father owned a restaurant in the Dayton area between 1928 and 2008.
His restaurants operated through multiple challenges, including declining customer bases downtown, a Legionnaire's disease scare in 1979 at the Indianapolis restaurant and financial challenges to the restaurants.
"The restaurant business was made for Bruce — or perhaps Bruce was made for the restaurant business," his obituary read. "He was kind, well-spoken and made everyone feel comfortable in his establishments."
He graduated from Oakwood High School, according to his obituary, and attended Yale University before getting a law degree from Vanderbilt University. He was married to his wife, Bobbie Rollstin Comisar, for 39 years.
A celebration of life will be held on Jan. 13 at the Dayton Country Club.
