Mezzaluna Restaurant

Mezzaluna Restaurant, a Brentwood dining establishment on San Vicente Boulevard, was where Ron Goldman worked as a waiter and where Nicole Brown Simpson dined on the evening of June 12, 1994 — the night of the murders. Testimony from multiple witnesses, including fellow staff members Karen Crawford and Stewart Tanner, established that Goldman left the restaurant at approximately 9:50 PM to return a pair of prescription glasses that Nicole Brown Simpson's mother had left behind. That departure time became a critical anchor in the prosecution's timeline, narrowing the window in which the murders could have occurred, with neighbor testimony placing a dog's distressed barking at roughly 10:15 to 10:20 PM. Witnesses Ellen Aaronson and Danny Mandel, who had dined at Mezzaluna that evening, testified about their movements from the restaurant along Gorham and Bundy, and a dispute arose over whether the time printed on their dinner receipt was accurate. The restaurant also surfaced in earlier incidents: prosecutors cited an episode in which Simpson allegedly confronted Nicole there, staring at her and remarking that she was still his wife. The jury visited Mezzaluna during a daylong tour of key locations on February 12, 1995, viewing it alongside Goldman's apartment, the Bundy crime scene, and Simpson's Rockingham estate.