Danny Ray's Had to Take a Pause After 1,000 People a Day Visited During Opening Week

The announcement that Danny's Carnation, a forty-plus-year-old diner on Wadsworth Boulevard in Lakewood, was closing in late March was bittersweet. While owner Danny Hopkins and the many longtime Carnation regulars were sad to see the place go, it wasn't quite the end of its story. After learning late last year that the diner's lot was slated to become apartments, Hopkins had jumped on the opportunity to buy a building nearby, at 11353 West Colfax Avenue in Lakewood.

Danny's Carnation shuttered on March 29, and on April 4, just five days later, Danny Ray's made its debut, serving the same diner menu as at the previous iteration, but in a much larger space with a full bar.

When Westword caught up with Hopkins ahead of the opening, he was energetic and optimistic about the new beginning. "This is all about fun," he said. "If it's not fun, I don't want to do it."
And while it was fun, the opening proved to be even busier than Hopkins anticipated. He'd doubled his staff to accommodate the much bigger capacity and was prepared to handle 600 to 800 guests a day — but around 1,000 people ended up coming in each day, he says.

Needing to regroup and restock, he made the decision to close for a few days over Easter weekend. "Wow, wow where do I start. Your support to me, my family, my employees and my new restaurant Danny Ray's was exciting and incredible!!!!!! Thank you so so much from all of us. However receiving so much support from all of our customers and community was overwhelming for us and we need to shut down for a few days and prepare better so we can get some more tools and training to perform at a higher level of execution to handle the amount of volume of business we are going to be doing going forward," he wrote in a Facebook post on April 8.

Those hungry to try the diner fare at Danny Ray's will be able to visit once again beginning on Wednesday, April 12. Its new, updated hours will be 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.