After 98 years, Louisville's Blue Parrot Restaurant bids farewell to loyal customers

LOUISVILLE, Colo. – For nearly a century, the Blue Parrot Restaurant at the corner of Pine and Main Streets in Louisville has been a family tradition for many in the area.

On Sunday, those traditions will pass on to become only memories.

The Blue Parrot closed its doors Sunday, after 98 years of serving their signature spaghetti dinner, among other Italian dishes.

It all started when Mary Colacci openly invited the town to join her family for big Italian dinners on Sunday afternoons.

Through word of mouth, the Colacci family discovered their cuisine perhaps needed a bigger space to satisfy the townspeople, and in 1919 the Blue Parrot was born.

While the original founders have since passed away, the restaurant’s mission of serving good food at reasonable prices as well as offering good service and companionship, survived through the generations -- five to be exact.

“Louisville will never be the same,” said Brian Raben, who was a loyal customer at Blue Parrot. “Been eating there 40+ years very sad day,” he said on the restaurant’s Facebook page.

Others, such as Dan Reynolds, shared birthday memories created at the restaurant in the late 60s and early 70s. “This is where I tasted cherry peppers for the first time and have loved them ever since!!! It's the little things in life that can mean so much!!!”

The Colacci family, grateful for decades of loyal customers, is bidding farewell but not without one last gift to the community.

“We just want to say thank you so very much for the loyalty we have seen the last 98 years … we are working on getting some of our foods in the grocery stores so keep an eye on this page for further updates.”