DENVER — Racines, a 36-year-old restaurant most known as a place where Denver’s well-known and well-connected would meet for breakfast, will close in January after its owners have sold the land and the building for redevelopment.
Co-owners Lee Goodfriend and David Racine said they plan to retire and noted that the closing of this restaurant is not related to the coronavirus spread that has shuttered in-facility dining at bars and restaurants throughout Denver until at least mid-May. They did say in a news release, however, that a number of other mounting government-produced issues at least helped to push along their decision to close a local institution and leave the business world.
“While rising labor costs, property-tax increases, the labor shortage and governmental intrusion all factored into this bittersweet decision, it’s really about retirement and having the chance to travel and enjoy our lives that have been consumed by this business,” Goodfriend said. “I’m not sure where I’ll eat after we close. I still love the food.”
The duo first teamed up with the late Dixon Staples and David McCormick to open Goodrfriends in 1979, growing to add Racines in 1983 and Dixons Downtown Grill in 1997. They sold the Goodfriends site near City Park in 2008 and closed Dixons in Lower Downtown in 2011 when its lease expired.
