Pagliacci’s, North Denver’s venerable Italian restaurant, will close Aug. 19 after 66 years serving up such classic dishes as calamari fritti, caprese salad, gnocchi, fettuccine with bolognese sauce and a memorable seven-layer lasagna.
We got word from a reader who told us she’d eaten there Sunday night, where she was told by the waiter – a family member – that the restaurant is shutting its doors in a month. This was confirmed this morning by owner Rose Langston, the niece of founder Frank Grandinetti. (The restaurant’s website also has a streamer announcing the closing and saying goodbye.)
“It was a good life,” said Langston, who added that she couldn’t yet reveal the developer’s name. “We’re really grateful to our customers.”
The upshot: The property has been sold to a developer, who will be putting an apartment building on the lot.
A check with public records revealed that Shawn Mather of TreeHouse Brokerage & Development filed a letter with the Public Works Plans Review Services in late June for an alleyway clearance at 1440 W. 33rd Ave., which is the restaurant’s address. The planned construction: A 5-story building with retail on the first floor and four stories of apartments above it.
Mather could not be reached for comment at the time of this updated posting.
This is tough news in a town with a dwindling number of classic red-sauce outlets.
The Pagliacci’s story is a good one, ripe as a tomato with immigrant ambition, the American dream, and even a love story. It was founded in 1946 by Grandinetti, a Sicilian produce vendor who six years earlier had met his future bride, Thelma Balzano. The family legend has it that one day when Thelma leaned out her window to chat with Frank, he tossed her an apple.
Asked if the restaurant was planning a send-off party, Langston sighed.
“No, we’re really not,” she said. “We have such a broad client base it would be difficult.
But not as difficult as customers saying goodbye to the place after all these years. (For the record, the restaurant opens at 4 p.m. on Sundays, 5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturdays.)
With all due respect to the restaurant’s namesake opera, perhaps it’s appropriate to crank up “Tears of a Clown” by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. Hey, the song even name-checks Ruggelo Leoncavallo’s classic work.
