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You Are Here: The Yum Yum Tree offered a taste of the world

For our second "You Are Here" segment, we stop by a place that now only exists down Memory Lane and was once a hot spot for cheap family dining that gave Coloradans a taste of the world.
A look at the iconic logo of the Yum Yum Tree restaurant (Photo courtesy: History Colorado)

On Wednesday, 9NEWS started the "You Are Here" trivia series in west Denver with a puzzle centered around the iconic pizza joint, the Organ Grinder Pizza parlor. While it was old, it's much younger compared to our second stop on this trivia highway.

So, for Thursday, our journey started in the late 1960s in what is now known as the Cherry Creek neighborhood. Back then, a restaurant popped up on Cherry Creek North Drive and Colorado Boulevard. It was a place that was once a hot spot for cheap family dining that gave Coloradans a taste of the world.

Plus it had Blinky the Clown as a spokesperson. He was a local mainstay that entertained kids on TV for decades.

Some 9NEWS viewers got the guess right, including Michael Kroh, Lori Sherwood, Maria Manriquez - among others. Congratulations - you've got our admiration!

PREVIOUSLY | You Are Here: Remembering The Organ Grinder in Denver

The Yum Yum Tree Food Bazaar wasn't known as a Michelin restaurant, but it gave locals a taste of a food court before those were a thing. Our friends at History Colorado said the restaurant used to brag about having eight dining areas under one roof.

A Denver Post article from June 30, 1968, said the restaurant could seat 600 and offered over 300 different food options - 302 to be exact. According to an excerpt from the book, "Lost Restaurants of Denver," writer Sally Stitch wrote about the restaurant and going there while attending DU. As goofy as the idea sounds now, she wrote, it was eclectic dining and pretty cheap. She said you could get practically anything there - and that was the point.

In a 2007 article, the Denver Post said the restaurant moved to South Havana and Yale before it eventually closed.

For those wondering about the Phoenix clue we gave - the owner of Yum Yum Tree, Hal Russell, whose first restaurant success was a similarly named Pepper Tree Restaurant in Arizona's Urban Heart.

Do you have an idea for where we should go next? Email us at youarehere@9news.com.

Here are the guesses we received - did you get it right?

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