![]() ![]() ![]() Eventually, Barakos hopes to reach the same ambitious goal his grandfather had nearly 60 years ago: to open multiple restaurants in Denver.Happy Hour Food & Drink List for Downtown, The Edge District and The Grand Central District *Please note for purposes of this list we consider Downtown up to 22nd Ave N and to 22nd Ave S out to The Edge District at 9th St (MLK Jr. Pete’s Kitchen is not yet back to being open 24/7, but Barakos hopes to reinstate the hours once the difficulties of the pandemic let up. “But now, I think he would say, ‘Hey, you’ve still got some work to do.’ ” “At that moment, I was like, ‘OK, he’s proud,’ ” Barakos recalls. Pete was pleased that his grandson had learned how to cook so efficiently during the chaotic hours. When he turned around to take another order, he saw his grandfather nodding and smiling on a stool behind him. He recalls whipping up breakfast burritos in two minutes for a group during the shift a few summers back, before Pete passed away. “He just jumped in with both feet.” In July 2021, when mask requirements were relaxed, Barakos reinstated Pete’s Kitchen graveyard shift to two days a week: Friday and Saturday, when those in the service industry are working at their late-night shifts.Ĭustomers can enjoy crispy fries, smothered pork chops, and giant gyro sandwiches any time of day or night, but the graveyard shift means more to Barakos than convenience for his customers. To keep Pete’s Kitchen afloat, Barakos signed the iconic diner up on the mobile food service app DoorDash. After a one-month hiatus, Pete’s reopened in April 2020 with limited hours. “My goal was to make sure that we were going to make it.” Upon arrival in Denver, Barakos moved in with his grandmother and got to work. “I’d been waiting for this moment,” he says. Anyone can come in.” The now 24-year-old moved from Arizona to Colorado two weeks before his graduation from Northern Arizona State University, where he studied hotel and restaurant management, to help save his family’s businesses. The spontaneity of it is the coolest thing. and the diner will fill up because of a concert down the street. “It could be a random Tuesday at 2:30 a.m. Before the pandemic, Barakos spent his summers taking orders at the Greek Town Cafe then heading over to Pete’s Kitchen to cook his favorite overnight shift. “When went, there was nobody really stepping up to steer the ship here,” says Alex Barakos, the Contos’ grandson. In spring 2020, still in the throes of grief, Liz braced for the COVID-19 pandemic solo without the husband’s leadership, and the doors of Pete’s Kitchen swiftly closed. At the end of 2019, in the span of five months, Pete’s Gyro Place and the Greek Town Cafe shuttered. In May 2019, Pete passed away at age 85, and the iconic Denver restaurateur left behind a legacy of Greek food, flare, and late-night eats at six different businesses across the city: the Satire Lounge, Pete’s Kitchen, Greek Town Cafe, Pete’s Central One, University Park Cafe, and Pete’s Gyro Place. The overnight shift at Pete’s Kitchen would come to be known as the graveyard shift. “We worked night shifts because, well, there are people that worked night shifts, and they would have no place to go eat,” Liz says. ![]() Since then, Liz and Pete worked to ensure the diner was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When the diner was put on the market in 1981, the couple jumped at the opportunity to purchase a second business-and Pete’s Kitchen was born. Behind the Scenes of Yakitori Night at UncleĪfter getting off work late from the Satire Lounge, the Contos would meet their friends (who also worked late shifts) at the neighboring restaurant, which had been run as a diner since 1930.What to Buy at Bombay Bazaar, According to a Local Chef.Denver Native Set to Become the First Magician to Perform at Red Rocks.Celebrate The Best Restaurants at 5280 Dines This October!.The 25 Best Neighborhoods in Denver in 2023. ![]()
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