The last time I was in Pulcinella, the downtown Denver outpost of a homegrown chain of Italian eateries, it was to try the special holiday cocktail -- a concoction just as sweet as the restaurant's cozy little bar area.
But when I popped by last night, at prime dinner time, the door was locked and the dining room dark; a call to the restaurant went to voicemail. According to the Pulcinella web site,
the location is still open, with another in Lafayette, a new restaurant in Fort Collins coming soon, and assorted Pulcinella pizzerias serving in northern Colorado.
The Denver Pulcinella opened in December 2006 -- during the big snow dump -- at 1800 Lawrence Street. That's just a few blocks from the doomed Pizzeria Mundo, making this section of town the Bermuda Triangle of 2009.