Joe Colacci, a member of a family responsible for two of the best-known restaurants in northern Colorado, died Aug. 16. He was 90.
Colacci, who owned Joe Colacci’s Blue Parrot in Louisville, was for years in competition with his brother, Anthony Colacci, who owned Colacci’s Restaurant just down the street.
The two started out working for their father, who opened the Blue Parrot in 1919. But the brothers had a dispute and parted ways. Anthony Colacci, who died last year, opened Colacci’s in 1955. That restaurant has since been sold and is now Pasquini’s.
Over the years, the brothers partially reconciled, said Joan Riggins, Joe Colacci’s daughter.
“Employees popped back and forth between the two restaurants,” she said.
The Blue Parrot spaghetti sauce is now sold in supermarkets.
Joe Colacci never officially retired, Riggins said, and even though she and her brother, Richard Colacci, run the restaurant along with their children, their father came in every day to have coffee and visit with customers.
He liked everything on the menu but was especially fond of spumoni ice cream with Chianti poured over it, said Paul Weissmann, bartender/manager for 18 years.
Joe Colacci golfed for as long as he could and provided the food for the Spaghetti Open Golf Tournament each July in Louisville.
He loved playing cribbage with his friends at the Elks Club, and even though his eyesight was failing, “he usually walked away with everyone’s money,” Riggins said.
Joe Colacci had played the penny machines in Black Hawk just days before his death.
The Blue Parrot got some unwanted publicity in May when a newcomer to Louisville complained about the name of a sausage sandwich, which had been listed on the menu for decades as the wopburger.
The complaint was that “wop” is a derogatory term for Italians.
After some weeks of discussing the matter, hearing from customers and considering renaming it the “Italian sandwich,” Joe Colacci made the decision.
“Enough is enough,” he said, according to Weissmann, who is a Democratic state representative from Louisville.
They let the name stand.
Joseph Colacci was born in Louisville on Nov. 15, 1916, went to high school there and attended two years at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.
He did coal mining for a while, ran a service station and worked at Rocky Flats.
He married Evelyn “Honey” Porta, who died in 1966. She and her husband both died in the home they had been given by his parents, Michael and Mary Colacci, when the young couple got married.
In addition to his daughter and son, Joe Colacci is survived by his second wife, Dixie, as well as three other daughters, Vickie Villegas of Broomfield, Edi Colacci of Lafayette and Mary Ann Colacci of Louisville; seven grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
