As Cherry Creek Continues to Change, Italian Staple Cucina Colore Marks Three Decades

“Pan-seared scallops, shrimp and white wine sauce. Garlic. Pecorino cheese. Our original spaghettini is timeless,” says Venanzio Momo, owner of Cucina Colore, which is celebrating thirty years in business this month. It's got a bright future, too, even as development in the area promises more change to come, including the closure of the Cherry Creek Elway's at the end of August.

Spaghettini was one of the first dishes Cucina Colore served when it opened in 1994. Three decades on, Momo can’t imagine opening for dinner service without it.

It all began, as a neighborhood Italian joint often does, with family. “My mother had a deli, Teresa's Italian Specialties Deli, on the border of New Jersey and New York,” he says. Alongside his siblings, he worked day in and day out at Theresa’s, where he learned the business and discovered a penchant for a daily cheese pie. “This is where pizza found its way into my DNA,” he notes.

Then, a few years after graduating from high school, Momo and his brothers opened their own pizzeria, Teresa's Pizza Cafe in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where they offered to-go and delivery pies for nearby college students and faculty.

In 1989, an employee of Teresa’s Pizza Cafe moved to Colorado to pursue his master’s degree and approached Momo with a business opportunity. “At the time, he said there wasn’t enough good pizza and Italian food in Colorado,” recalls Momo, who flew out to Colorado to consult and help his associate get the business started.
The following year, Momo took out a lease on the Hill in Boulder, another college neighborhood. There, he opened his first Pizzeria Colore location across from Tulagi (now the Fox Theatre). Later, he opened a second Pizza Colore, as well as Cafe Colore in Denver.

The leap from late-night slices to neighborhood trattoria was big, but the restaurateur life called to Momo. “Pizza happens to be my life,” he notes. “But we needed to adjust to the demographic and what people wanted.”

Cucina Colore debuted in Cherry Creek in August 1994. The original menu “was very pasta-heavy” and, according to Momo, the restaurant had one of the first wood-fired pizza ovens in Denver.

Cucina Colore’s Italian comfort food quickly became a neighborhood staple, and the restaurant has always maintained a focus on quality, hospitality, service and value. “Every time we do a menu change, we try to keep some of the classics,” Momo notes, listing fan favorites such as fettuccine Bolognese. The pizza dough and sauce are proprietary — a family secret carried over from the original Teresa’s. Rotating seasonal dishes, including a summer watermelon gazpacho and peach budino, offer a vibrant balance to the mainstays.

The neighborhood has changed a lot since Cucina Colore’s debut, but it has remained a constant. Despite a recent rumor that development would force it to close next year, its run isn't ending anytime soon.

“I'll see kids that were coming in here thirty years ago — one year old, barely walking in the building — and now they're coming in with their kids,” Momo concludes. “That is certainly an achievement. ... And thirty years later, we're selling a lot more pizza than ever.”

Cucina Colore is located at 3041 East Third Avenue and is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. For more information, visit cucinacolore.com.