The Old Spaghetti Factory Is Closing After 45 Years Downtown

The Old Spaghetti Factory will soon close its downtown Denver location.

August 22, 2018

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For now, the Old Spaghetti Factory at 1215 18th Street will continue to ring with the laughter of children and the murmur of contented families filling their bellies with noodles and red sauce. But that will end on September 16, when the pasta parlor will permanently shut the doors of the restored Denver City Cable Railway Building it has called home for the past 45 years.

The culprit, unsurprisingly, is rising rent. The company, founded by Gus Dussin in Portland, Oregon, in 1969, is pulling out of downtown Denver because it was unable to negotiate a new lease deal.

If your childhood memories are filled with birthday parties spent inside the restaurant's trolley, slurping noodles dusted with mizithra cheese, you have less than a month to recapture the magic. But for those who go for the food, there will still be a Westminster outpost of the restaurant at 9145 Sheridan Boulevard, which opened last summer and contains the same vintage decor as the original, even if the exterior brickwork is considerably younger. The company says it's also scouting other locations, both in Denver or elsewhere in Colorado.

While the Old Spaghetti Factory isn't a Denver original, it has been an integral part of the downtown dining scene for generations and is one of a dwindling number of red-sauce joints in town. Three years ago, in her review of the place, Gretchen Kurtz asked this: "How is the Old Spaghetti Factory able to survive in a juiced-up food scene that sees hundreds of new restaurants a year?"

The answer? Cheap and familiar food in a fun setting for both kids and adults. But the "juiced-up" dining scene has only continued to grow; low prices, a family-friendly atmosphere and a generic menu weren't enough to save the eatery from the growing competition downtown, where landlords know someone else is always willing to pay a premium for a space.

Where else can Denver turn for a taste of nostalgia? See our list of six old-school Italian restaurants that have surpassed the fifty-year mark.

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Mark Antonation is the former Westword Food & Drink Editor. In 2018, he was named Outstanding Media Professional by the Colorado Restaurant Association; he's now with the Colorado Restaurant Foundation.

Contact: Mark Antonation

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