From the outside, Gaetano’s looks like your classic Italian neighborhood spot. But step inside, and you’re stepping into one of Denver’s most infamous stories, where good food met mob ties.
This dining room once doubled as a meeting place for one of the city’s most powerful crime families.
Gaetano’s has called North Denver’s Tejon Street home since 1947. Owned by Clyde and “Checkers” Smaldone, the family called it simply “The Place.”…