Old Spaghetti Factory

In a world where trends dictate the format and content of menus – small plates, kale salads, sliders, etc. – the menu at the Old Spaghetti Factory is reassuringly the same. Though two or three dishes are added with every menu update, which happens twice a year, the core rarely changes. These are dishes that fit every stereotype about red-sauce Italian food as we experienced it growing up, which is to say it’s less Italian than Italian-American: spaghetti with marinara sauce, spaghetti with marinara and mushrooms, spaghetti with meat sauce, lasagna — you get the idea. But even in Denver’s dining boom, business remains strong at this behemoth of a restaurant, which was founded in 1973 and sprawls across 12,000 square feet of what today is prime LoDo territory. And here’s why: Kids love the red trolley and dessert-like drinks. Parents like the fact they can take their kids out to eat without worrying about the noise level. And whoever is paying the bill likes the fact that three courses come for the price of an appetizer elsewhere.