Dixons Downtown Grill, a 14-year staple for LoDo dwellers and business types, will close in September.
Co-owner Lee Goodfriend said the lease is up at the 16th and Wazee space, and she and her business partner, David Racine, have no intention of re-signing.
Instead, the dining duo will concentrate their time and efforts at Racines, the wildly popular restaurant at 650 Sherman St. where Goodfriend and Racine own the real estate.
The roughly 60 employees will be offered jobs at Racines or may opt to leave.
“It’s been in my mind for a long time (closing Dixons) because we own the property at Racines,” Goodfriend said. “We would rather operate for ourselves.”
A new tenant will have huge shoes to fill in the 9,200-square-foot space.
All the furniture, fixtures and kitchen equipment will be left behind according to the lease agreement.
“It’s a beautiful space,” Goodfriend said. “I hope some of it gets preserved and that it doesn’t get completely torn up.”
Goodfriend, along with partners Racine and Dixon Staples, opened Dixons in 1997 when LoDo was an emerging neighborhood for commerce. Staples, its namesake, died in September 2004 shortly after the partners moved Racines from the leased space at Speer and Bannock to buy their own land where the restaurant sits today.
Former Channel 7 news anchor and consumer advocate Bill Clarke was a well-recognized fixture during lunch at Dixons several times a week.
The waitstaff knew his standing order of a large pitcher of iced tea with a plate of extra lemons.
“I will miss the people in LoDo,” said Goodfriend, who sold her namesake restaurant on Colfax to the Annie’s Cafe folks a few years ago. “It was a hard decision to close, and (David Racine) and I agonized over it for a long, long time. In this economy, I don’t want to sign a long-term lease.”
The Palm spruces.
The Palm restaurant inside the Tabor Center will mark 15 years in Denver next month with a retro look for the waitstaff, and new menu items.
But some things never change. Even though some arguably notorious characters appear on the restaurant’s wall of fame, policy is that their likenesses never come down.
The most recent example? The estranged former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver. The twosome portray a cozy couple on The Denver Palm’s wall.
“We hope that Maria will take him back,” said Palm general manager Cathy Cooney. “But if not, they will have to share custody of the wall 50-50.”
Meanwhile, the servers have traded in their white uniform coats for the brownish ones that debuted in 1926. And new menu items include beef carpaccio, braised veal and sage ravioli, an 18-ounce Delmonico steak and a bag of warm doughnuts.
Hot hotels
Out of 16 luxury hotels in Denver, five made U.S. News & World Report’s list of the best hotels for 2011, and two scored high enough to make the exclusive U.S. News list of the best hotels in the USA.
The top five, in descending order, were The Ritz-Carlton Denver, Four Seasons Hotel Denver, Hotel Teatro, JW Marriott Denver Cherry Creek and The Brown Palace Hotel.
Eavesdropping
on a man talking about Elway’s Cherry Creek’s concert on the patio series: “I’m not finding any new wives there . . . or first ones.”
Penny Parker’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Listen to her on the Caplis & Silverman radio show between 4 and 5 p.m. Fridays on KHOW-AM (630). Call her at 303-954-5224 or e-mail pparker@denverpost.com.
