Rodney's in Tamarac Square will close on Saturday

Developers Diversity Realty has long had its eye on aging Tamarac Square, which it plans to raze and replace with brand-new condos and retail space. In order to execute that project, though, it had to contend with the handful of businesses that somehow had survived in Tamarac, and still had...

By Laura Shunk

January 20, 2011

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Developers Diversity Realty has long had its eye on aging Tamarac Square, which it plans to raze and replace with brand-new condos and retail space. In order to execute that project, though, it had to contend with the handful of businesses that somehow had survived in Tamarac, and still had leases.

One of those businesses was a second outpost of Rodney's, 7777 East Hampden Avenue, a neighborhood joint hawking prime rib and happy hour specials, which still had six years left on its lease.

"I guess we'll be here until they tear down the shopping center at the end of the year," owner Rodney Utz told me in August. "I guess they'll have the guy with the bulldozer hand me the check."

Utz made it a few weeks past the end of 2010. But now a deal has been struck, and Rodney's will be closing after a goodbye party on Saturday, marking the end of a nineteen-year run in this location.

Utz, who had one point had three Rodney's locations, will now just concentrate on his spot in Cherry Creek, 2918 East 2nd Avenue, a neighborhood mainstay for nearly three decades that hosts a nightly crowd of regulars who come in for good deals and good company. It's a family that will remain, even after the sibling restaurant is gone.

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Laura Shunk was Westword's restaurant critic from 2010 to 2012; she's also been food editor at the Village Voice and a dining columnist in Beijing. Her toughest assignment had her drinking ten martinis and eating ten Caesar salads over the course of 48 hours. She still drinks martinis, but remains lukewarm on Caesar salads.

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