Cloudy With No Chance Of Meatballs

There was a time, way back when, Main Street in Louisville was a Mecca for pastaphiles. There was Colacci's. There was Luigi's. There was the Blue Parrot. On any given evening, if one was full and the wait for a table was in the ridiculous to extreme category, you could keep walking down the avenue until you found a booth for you and your party. It was understood by the regulars to these establishments that the food and the service was all pretty much aligned to a standard set by the Colacci family back in 1955, when their eponymous establishment started serving spaghetti and meat sauce to the hungry masses. Depending on where you parked and the foot traffic, you would be happy if you ended up getting your anticipatory bread and water within thirty to forty minutes. Then it would be necessary to eat your weight in noodles, sauce and your choice of meat. There were sausage patties and link. There were those who chose gnocchi. There was ravioli and lasagna, and if this was all too much to consider, there were combination plates. Why choose when you can have it all?
Well, now you can't really have any of it, because after years of all kinds of other change, the last stop on the list, The Blue Parrot is closing its doors. This was the one of the three that opened first, nearly a hundred years ago, and sent the Colacci brothers on their way down the street to open their version. When Colacci's was sold and became the Empire Lounge, the fare turned decidedly hipster, followed somewhat abruptly by the change from Luigi's to Zucca Italian Ristorante. "Ristorante" is a pretty good indicator that you will find something artisan or hip on the menu, since it's a foreign word. "Italian Restaurant" would be sufficient for most of us looking for mounds of spaghetti with meatballs. My family spent plenty of Friday nights making the trek east to Pastaville. When I have made my trips back home, I have made it a point to get my fill, and drag my son along to taste the heaven.
Because that's what these places offered. Until they stopped. It seems quite likely that another eatery will open on the site of the old Blue Parrot. It worked for Colacci's and Luigi's. What isn't as likely is that those eateries will be around in ninety years. Ninety days? Probably, but they don't build them like they used to. Not that we wouldn't mind, but getting a large order of spaghetti with meatball just got a little harder in Louisville, Colorado.
Aloha Blue Parrot.