58-Year-Old Dino’s Italian Food Latest Old School Red Sauce Joint to Announce Closure

After 58 years of serving up its classic meatballs and other red sauce favorites on Colfax Avenue in Lakewood, Dino’s Italian Food is closing at the end of September, according to 9News.

Judy Duren, who now owns the restaurant started by her father, Dino DiPaolo, told the news station she is closing the restaurant because the building and equipment have become too old.

It has also struggled to deal with damage the roof sustained in a 2017 hail storm, she said. Duren said the restaurant would need a new building to continue but any new building would not be Dino’s.

9News reported the restaurant has 45 employees, including 12 who have worked there for more than 15 years.

The restaurant’s last day in business will be Sept. 30.

Dino’s is the latest in a string of old fashioned red sauce joints to close around Denver in recent years. Many of those closures have been in the city’s old Northside neighborhood (now commonly referred to as Highland), which saw the closure of Italian mainstay Pagliacci’s and pizza joint Longo’s Subway Tavern in 2012 and Patsy’s Inn, then the city’s oldest Italian restaurant, in 2016.

• Dino’s Italian Food in Lakewood closing after 58 years [9News.com]
• Old School Italian Icon Patsy’s Shuttered in LoHi [EDen]
• Pagliacci’s Italian Restaurant to close in North Denver after 66 years [The Denver Post]
• North Denver pizza joint Longo’s subway tavern says goodbye [The Denver Post]