Baby Doe’s Matchless Mine Restaurant opened in 1978 at 2520 W. 23rd Avenue in Denver Colorado. The restaurant overlooked I-25 and downtown Denver from its location on a bluff on the west side of the highway. The restaurant operated until approximately 2004 and then was used sporadically as a reception and banquet facility after that.
Baby Doe’s and its sister operation, The Chili Pepper, were landmarks on the Denver skyline, until yesterday afternoon. Chili Pepper was demolished last week and Baby Doe’s was demolished yesterday to make way for a huge new apartment complex called Pinnacle Station to be constructed by AG Spanos, a California corporation. The dirty work of the demolition was done by E-21 Engineering. The neighborhood associations in the area gave up a good fight, but in the end the developers won.
Who would the City of Denver allow rezoning of this landmark property for very dense housing by an out-of state developer? This will have a huge impact upon this residential neighborhood. The restaurants were a proper use of this property and the sale of them to various restaurant holding companies, and eventually to the developer, should have been stopped a long time ago.
In the process, Denver has lost one of most noticeable landmarks, as well as a fabulous restaurant. The story of Baby Doe Tabor has a huge resonance to the state of Colorado, and this Californicated apartment complex is an insult to this. The huge pile of rubble on the Baby Doe’s lot is not a tribute to progress, but rather an indictment of the perils of overpopulation and overdevelopment.
I will be posting additional history and photos on my site.
