Metro-area Yellow Cab drivers in the 1970s turned out a stellar class of high achievers who want to throw a reunion from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Wynkoop Brewing Co.
“They were the ambassadors of the city,” said organizer and cabbie for nine years in the ’70s, John Pazen. He said a passel of CU and DU law students, state legislators, a judge, doctors, a top Vegas poker player and a best-selling author are among the Yellow Cab alumni.
“It’s great to drive a cab and go to law school,” Pazen said.
His pal, Jim Lehman, who’s been with Yellow Cab for 38 years, said many of his fellow hacks traveled incognito after the oil and gas crash in the mid ’80s.
“A lot of people who drove cabs didn’t want other people to know they drove them,” he said. “They just drove to make ends meet. We’ve seen people on the way up driving a cab, and people on the way down driving a cab.”
Cabbie alums include “Final Flight” author Steve Coonts; Ari Taylor, the first black representative in the state house; Howard Tucker, comptroller of Jefferson County Public Schools; lawyers Kathy Robinson and Henry Feldman; retired judge Joe Billet; doctor Ginnie Nieberger; and pro poker player Joe Becker.
“One guy said he’d like to see everybody before he dies,” Lehman said. “We started throwing names around. People are coming from California, Florida and New York.”
How’s the hack business in today’s floundering economy? “Absolutely terrible,” Lehman said. “There are way too many cabs in this town. I was down 30 percent last year, and I drove 17,000 miles less than I drove last year.”
Admission to the event is $15 per person or $25 per couple. More info: 303-204-4994.
Lunch bunch.
In conjunction with the Palace Arms’ 60th anniversary, the fancy- schmancy restaurant inside the venerable Brown Palace Hotel reopened for lunch.
Lunch had been served in what was formerly a strict dress-code environment (but has since been loosened up) from 1950 till 2003, but it shut down for midday meals as competition that didn’t require men to wear sports coats won out.
“We felt it was time to bring back the lunch,” said beverage director/sommelier and lobby maitre’d Chris Jones. “It happened to be coordinated with the 60th anniversary.”
The hotel itself has been open and operating since 1892.
The lunch menu includes smoked pheasant soup, cobb salad, a Palace Arms burger with kobe beef and foie gras, organic chicken meatball pasta and diver scallops with soffrito ratatouille and hazelnuts. Reservations for lunch Monday through Friday or dinner Tuesday through Saturday: 303-297-3111.
The seen.
Food Network star Claire Robinson (“5 Ingredient Fix” and “Food Network: Challenge”), dining with Denver author Streeter McClure (“The Single Man’s Guide to Cooking With Beer”) and fashion stylist Tobie Orr at Corridor 44 Friday.
Eavesdropping
A woman to a man at The Palace Arms: “I’m old-fashioned enough that I don’t believe in marriage outside of wedlock.”
Big bowl.
At the end of the Scholarship Bowl, an annual competition between the Colorado Restaurant Association and the Colorado Hotel and Lodging Association last week at Elitch Lanes, the CHLA captured the traveling trophy when Robinson Dairy’s Udder Gutters #2 blew away The Wild Turkeys’ Skyy Spirits team playing for the CRA.
I think my team of Elway’s Cherry Creek executive chef Tyler Wiard; his wife and Elway’s banquets manager Jen Wiard; and my CRA gal pal Barb Simmons was doomed when the second time I went to bowl, I dropped the ball in my backswing. Not good.
Ritz-Carlton GM Andrew Rogers earned style points for bringing his own shoes, his grandfather’s bowling ball and an official wrist guard.
Best team name: Big Balls from J&S Audio; best team attire: Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center; best team spirit: Udder Gutters from Robinson Dairy; best female bowler: Laura Deluna; best male bowler: Matt Varberg.
Penny Parker’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Listen to her on the Caplis and Silverman radio show between 4 and 5 p.m. Friday on KHOW-AM (630). Call her at 303-954-5224 or e-mail pparker@denverpost.com.
