By age 25, Ammatuna had several bank accounts and held interests in various legitimate businesses. He earned the reputation of a "dandy" and would be seen attending operas with Angelo and other gunmen, often wearing expensive diamond studs and cufflinks, and he bought the Bluebird Cafe, a restaurant in Halsted Street in Chicago. He was confident that he was safe in the Bluebird and never wore his two guns there. He once boasted to reporters that "no one can shoot me in here. This place is full of my friends. Any guy who would hurt me here would be torn apart by my patrons".