Piccolo, an Italian-Mexican institution, will close at the end of April

Piccolo, a family-owned restaurant that has served both lasagna and enchiladas to three generations of Coloradans, will close its doors on April 30 after 50 years.

The neighborhood staple, at 3563 S. Monaco Parkway, was the site of countless family get-togethers, dates and other milestones over the decades.

But the past few years have made it difficult to run a restaurant, said Piccolo manager Robert Desrosiers, who pointed to inflation coupled with a lack of workers and Denver’s minimum wage increase as part of the problem. The building is also in need of repairs.

In addition, owner Vince Canino, who is part of a large family of restaurateurs, is ready to retire, Desrosiers said. “Vince has five grandkids and has been semi-retired for about a year.”

Piccolo was founded by Vince’s father, Clyde Canino, Sr., who at one time owned several restaurants — most serving pizza and Italian food or a combination of both, including multiple locations for both Piccolo and Tico’s, a small Mexican chain. Clyde Sr.’s brother, Roland, also owned several restaurants going back many decades in Denver.

Clyde, Sr. died in July 2022, however, and another one of his sons, also named Clyde, decided to close his restaurant, Canino’s Italian in Fort Collins, in December of last year. Piccolo and Canino’s were the last two restaurants owned by that branch of the Canino family, but Desrosiers said Clyde, Sr.’s two other children, Marty and Claudia, still run a commissary kitchen in south Denver focusing mostly on Mexican food.

“It is with heavy hearts we have made the impossibly difficult decision to let Piccolo go. The years of great memories made will remain forever, but our time in southeast Denver has come to an end. This decision is not made hastily,” the restaurant wrote on Facebook recently.

“There doesn’t seem to be adequate words to sum up how we are feeling right now. If we tried, this statement would likely go on forever. So, for now, we will just say Thank you, thank you, thank you for being our support, our friends, our family.”

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