Mellow Mushroom opens to crazy crowds at the Tabor Center

When I got the hostess on the horn earlier today, she hung up on me. An immediate call-back was a short, pointed, one-sided conversation that went something like this: "We're crazy, crazy busy; please call back later." Click. Apparently Mellow Mushroom, which opened today at 1201 16th Street in the...

By Lori Midson

July 12, 2010

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When I got the hostess on the horn earlier today, she hung up on me. An immediate call-back was a short, pointed, one-sided conversation that went something like this: "We're crazy, crazy busy; please call back later."

Click.

Apparently Mellow Mushroom, which opened today at 1201 16th Street in the Tabor Center, is already shrooming with crowds. The Atlanta-based pizza chain, owned by Morris and Sharon Purcel and their son Shane, franchisee John Valentino, and another son and daughter-in-law, Jason and Holly Griset, trumpets more than a hundred locations nationwide, including a second Colorado location at the Streets at SouthGlenn.

"Denver has a vibrant downtown, and the 16th street Mall doesn't have another establishment like Mellow Mushroom," explains Morris Purcel. The Southern-style, stone-basked pizza joint offers late-night dining, nightly live entertainment and a temperature-controlled covered patio. "Downtown Denver is a happy place and Mellow Mushroom is a happy place--a perfect match," says Morris.

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