Dino’s has been around for decades, serving Italian comfort food to generations of Denverites. The unchanging decor has all the charm of a true-blue Italian family restaurant; the unchanging menu offers such standards as pizza and pasta, overflowing with red sauce to mop up with Dino’s garlic bread.
Italian in Denver
Showing 67 - 88 of 123
This cozy, family-owned Italian market and deli has been around since 1976. The shelves are lined with imported pasta of all shapes and sizes, olive oil, canned goods, frozen foods like housemade sausages, and so much more. Still, the sandwiches – huge, messy masterpieces loaded onto freshly baked rolls, which you can custom-order with that […]
While some pizza joints strive to present an authentic version of the Italian pizzeria experience, Armando’s is a museum-quality reproduction of the classic (and, some would say, nonexistent) fantasy neighborhood Italian joint, serving amazing red-sauce spaghetti and meatballs. The dining room always seems to have the buzz of a big holiday meal — the floor […]
For almost a century, people have been coming to the Blue Parrot for spaghetti and meatballs, for ravioli and sausage sandwiches, for simple Italian food cooked by the same family for generations. And though Louisville itself is changing — from an old mining town to a bedroom community — the Blue Parrot is not. Even […]
This Italian bakery in Wheat Ridge turns out Sicilian cookies, biscotti and cannoli, plus savory dishes like calzones and pizza, to name just a few. While Sicilian-style pizza has steadily fallen by the wayside, shunned by aficionados of its nemesis – the thin-crusted Neapolitan pizza that seems to generate all the accolades – Dolce Sicilia […]
This second Venice from owner Alessandro Carollo is a beauty: coldly stylish, undeniably luxurious, and with a menu that reads like a primer of every good idea the Italians ever had. It’s expensive, though not murderously so. It’s fancy, though jacket and tie are not required. But most important, this restaurant finally offers a fitting […]
advertisement
Luxury cars purr to a stop in front of this Cherry Creek North mainstay at all hours of the day. The drivers valet their vehicles and head into the sleek, airy spot bedecked to meet friends — or make new ones. During the day, North Italia is popular with ladies who lunch, and who do […]
Tom and Marna Sumners have doubled the fun with two locations of Trattoria Stella, their hip neighborhood bistro – one on the west side, one on the east. Both are comfortable spots, with eclectic menus that aren’t afraid to take chances and regulars who appreciate the results. Sunday brunch is particularly popular, and in a […]
The Old Fashioned has held down this corner for two generations, beginning with Tom Panzarella, a born-and-bred Buffalo native who came to Denver in 1976; Tom’s son Dave now works the counter. On the outside, the silvered windows are covered with hand-painted advertisements for deli sandwiches, calzones and Sahlen’s hot dogs — the only Buffalo-style […]
Most of the red-sauce joints that once proliferated in northwest Denver have dried up, but Gaetano’s is now more than seventy years old. Of course, it’s gone through some changes over the decades after being founded by the Smaldone mob family, who installed bulletproof glass in the front door and ran illegal poker games in […]
Kris Ferreri grew up in Buffalo and came to Denver with a plan to introduce the Rocky Mountain West to the true, two-note cuisine of his hometown: the Buffalo chicken wing and thick-and-sweet, Buffalo-style pizza. While the menu also includes sandwiches, salads and boasts several derivations of the pizza-and-wings combo (including BBQ and jerk wings, […]
For over three decades, this Italian eatery in a nondescript Lakewood strip mall has drawn a crowd of regulars. When it moved to a larger space next door to its original location in 2018, it didn’t lose any of its charm – thanks in large part to owner and co-founder Elisa Heitman, who was born […]
advertisement
Founded in Milan, Italy, in 1972 as a baking school, Il Fornaio is a national chain offering upscale Italian cuisine and an extensive dessert menu. The Colorado location, in the Denver Tech Center, has a roster that features wood-fired pizzas, fresh pastas made in-house daily, rotisserie meats and, of course, plenty of baked treats. Il […]
This branch of Brinker International, which also owns Chili’s, is fancier than its corporate sibling — and it’s definitely several steps above Olive Garden in the Italian chain-food world, with items priced accordingly. The extensive lunch and dinner menus offer traditional and specialty pastas, chef’s favorite plates, and various preparations of shrimp, chicken, beef, pork […]
After a long run on the second-floor corner of 15th and Champa streets, Tarantula Billiards moved to street level a block east in early 2012, giving the pool hall much more visibility. The new space has a sleek and classy look, closer to that of sister pool hall ZanZibar Billiards and Grill, which is owned […]
The menu at Luigi’s Bent Noodle issues a challenge: “If this isn’t the best minestrone recipe you’ve ever tasted, we want your recipe.” We doubt anyone this side of Italy has anything to beat this minestrone; the bewitching brew has an appropriately rough-edged flavor and is available by the cup, the bowl and the really […]
This branch of Brinker International, which also owns Chili’s, is fancier than its corporate sibling — and it’s definitely several steps above Olive Garden in the Italian chain-food world, with items priced accordingly. The extensive lunch and dinner menus offer traditional and specialty pastas, chef’s favorite plates, and various preparations of shrimp, chicken, beef, pork […]
The D Note celebrated its tenth anniversary and a change of ownership in 2012, but this live-music venue and full-service restaurant and bar in Olde Town Arvada is still a favorite local hangout and a tourist attraction for out-of-town visitors. Originally envisioned as a performance space/art gallery, it was expanded to include hot eats and […]
advertisement
The Littleton location of the Luigi’s brotherhood (the other restaurant is in Aurora) features photos of celebs such as Marlon Brando with fake testimonials (“Your lasagne is to die for,” Don Corleone wrote), and shelves on the painted exposed-brick walls that overflow with old clocks, plastic flowers and Chianti baskets. During the day, this Luigi’s […]
This restaurant has gone through some changes since it opened in 2002 as Venice. For one thing, it’s no longer called Venice – owner Alessandro Carollo renamed it Chianti, did a little redecorating, and changed the menu to match the name. What hasn’t changed are the crowds: Chianti is still packed from open to close.
Parisi has gone through many iterations in its 26 years, but one constant has been owner Christine Parisi’s passion for sharing Italian fare. The business originally opened in 1998 as a market and deli before moving to Tennyson Street and leaning into serving prepared foods, including fresh pastas and panini. While its fine-dining downstairs sibling, […]
