Rick Dominguez owned a fine dining restaurant in Colorado Springs where the waitstaff wore tuxedos and there were several tableside meals served. But that didn’t stop him from serving an occasional flaming Twinkie or a TV dinner.
Dominguez was 60 when he died Oct. 26 after a long battle with cancer. A memorial service is planned for 11 a.m. today at the Shrine of Remembrance, 1730 E. Fountain Blvd., Colorado Springs.
He loved to play tricks on customers and friends at his Peppertree Restaurant, just west of downtown.
Sometimes he’d use a trick on a boisterous customer.
Joe Reich, a longtime friend, recalled one rude and demanding diner.
When the man gave his credit card to the waiter, Dominguez took a credit card from a stack of expired cards he kept near the register, cut it up, put it on a tray and went to the loudmouth.
“Your card was rejected,” Dominguez said. The man was so flabbergasted, he shut up. And then Dominguez told him it was a joke.
“He was really disarming and at ease with anyone,” Reich said.
Dominguez loved to go for a laugh. Sometimes he would serve a meal on a paper plate. Or he would bring “a basket of fresh rolls,” and when the customer opened the cloth he’d find rolls of toilet paper.
Roderick Dominguez was born April 13, 1945, in Laramie and moved to Denver as a child. He went to Sacred Heart Catholic school in Denver, and then to a Catholic school in Wisconsin but dropped out and came back to Colorado Springs. He got a job as a dishwasher at the Broadmoor Hotel and eventually became pastry chef.
He opened a burger place when he was 17 but was forced to close in six months.
He tried his hand at several things: managing a drugstore, a restaurant and a health club and finally took over what had been the Villa 8 Restaurant, which he remodeled and renamed the Peppertree in 1983. It was famous for its pepper steak (fixed with mangoes, chutney and peppercorns), veal sweetbreads, chateaubriand and steak Diane.
Dominguez was a small man “but ate a lot,” said his wife,Lori Dominguez. His favorite was the pepper steak.
Dominguez was usually at the restaurant seven days a week, and took off only occasionally to fish and play the slots in Las Vegas.
“He loved running the restaurant, and he did everything – whether it was greeting customers, cleaning up the parking lot or washing dishes,” his wife said.
Dominguez married June Archuleta in 1962, and they had three children before they divorced. He married Lori Mercer on Nov. 5, 1997. In addition to his wife and ex-wife, he is survived by his daughter, Renee Lopez, and two sons, Rod Dominguez and Derick Dominguez, all of Denver; seven grandchildren; and his mother, Mary Dominguez of Rawlins, Wyo.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-820-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
