Some welcome news for Denver diners and fans of Mile High history: once owned by the city’s most notorious crime family, is reopening Sept. 15 after several months of revamping. There will be a new menu, but it will doff its fedora to the past.
Gaetano’s, at 3760 Tejon St., has been an institution since the 1940s. Back in those days, it was owned by three Smaldone brothers, connected guys with their fingers in illegal gambling, bootlegging and, shall we say, some of the attendant unpleasantness that occurs in such entrepreneurial businesses.
As a nod to all that, the restaurant’s six booths will face the entrance, arranged so that no one’s back is to the door. Each booth will be named after a prominent north Denver family. The owner, Wyn-koop/Breckenridge Group, contacted each family and asked for a vintage photograph.
The big news is a revamped menu that pays homage to the place’s red-sauce past while embracing contemporary Italian dining. Also,
the restaurant is going back to the original name, Gaetano’s Eccellente Cucina & Cocktails. No need for fussbudgets to pipe up about the misspelling “Eccellente,” which appeared on the original menu.
