Pop Quiz

1. As Racines prepares to leave its home of nineteen years at 850 Bannock Street next month, the Quizmeister is rummaging through the Tupperware of memories -- as are the restaurant's fixtures. Co-owners David Racine and Lee Goodfriend, for example, met while:

Related Content

• Stay Tuned prepares to tour Pacific Northwest, putting its WESTAF's IM Tour grant to good use
  May 2, 2013
• Communal tables: Does anyone actually like them?
  March 14, 2013
• Historian's Ale House will pour beer on Broadway
  November 30, 2012
• 3 things to do for free this week, November 12-15, 2012
  November 12, 2012
• National Bison Day debuts today -- but every day is bison day in Denver
  November 1, 2012

More About

• David Racine
• Wellington Webb
• Bozeman
• Robbery
• Crime

A. Debating food quality (and lack thereof) on a Continental flight to Bozeman, Montana.

B. Working as a barkeep and a waitress, respectively, at the ferny Zach's in the '70s.

C. Attending East High School, where they were voted Best Boy and Best Girl.

D. Working on Peace Corps sanitation projects in Zambia.

2. In 1996, a pair of armed robbers at Racines:

A. Demanded brownies.

B. Left tips on the tables after an irate waiter complained that he was losing his rent money.

C. Halted their crime-in-progress to remove pastries from the oven for workers, whom they had herded into a walk-in freezer.

D. Drank several shakers of margaritas before exiting, which was caught on security videotape.

3. Before it became a restaurant, the space Racines occupies was:

A. A hot-tub spa.

B. An electric-car salesroom.

C. An indoor remote-controlled-car raceway.

D. A shelter for migrant workers.

4. Which celeb has not munched at Racines?

A. Leon Redbone.

B. Jack Lemmon.

C. Tim Curry.

D. Bono.

5. Then-auditor Wellington Webb was once summoned to Racines' telephone by David Racine, who shouted:

A. "For you, your future mayorship!"

B. "Is there a guy with size-thirteen loafers here?"

C. "Yo, Wellington!"

D. "Attention! President Bush is on the line looking for a Mr. Webb. Should I hang up now?"

6. Then-governor Roy Romer became notorious for this Racines habit:

A. Eating oatmeal breakfasts there every day.

B. Mixing ketchup with jalapeños to make "ketchupeño" sauce.

C. Ordering doubles of everything, with one to go.

D. Complaining that the wavy mirror made him nervous.

ANSWERS:

1. B. Zach's, natch, the Mother of All Fern Bars. Dixon Staples, the third partner in a restaurant empire that now consists of Racines, Goodfriends and Dixons, was not part of the Zach's lineup.

2. C. The courteous robbers made sure the pastry didn't burn.

3. B. It was home to Electricar, then a fashionable high-tech venture.

4. D. No Bono sighting -- but does Carol Channing count?

5. C. Racine's shout-out still reverberates, because the future mayor didn't like being hailed that way.

6. A. The guv loved his oatmeal, which led to a series of regional oatmeal breakfasts to sell the state on building DIA.

(Thanks to John Imbergamo for his dish.)