Young restaurant industry whippersnappers take note: Sally Dussin, 88, knows a thing or two about restaurants. She opened her first with her husband Guss back in 1969, a little place called The Old Spaghetti Factory. Maybe you’ve heard of it.
After nearly 50 years in the biz, Dussin is still opening restaurants — to the tune of about three per year — and her 54th OSF will start serving in Westminster on Monday, July 31.
“We normally try to build in the cities first, and then we gravitate nearby or somewhere close, and we saw this beautiful building (formerly a Pappadeaux) and thought it would make a good Spaghetti Factory,” Dussin said.
Dussin opened the Denver OSF back in the early 1970s, and she remembers every detail, probably because she designs each and every restaurant herself.
Like the headboard booths? That’s Sally. Covet the Tiffany glass chandeliers hanging over your table? Sally again. The antique wood carvings from Vienna that mask the register? Yep, all Sally.
Dussin’s art background serves her well, and she’s the reason each OSF restaurant feels comfortable, like walking into your grandma’s house. A grandmother herself, Dussin wants her customers, especially kids and families, to feel at home while slurping up spaghetti.
“I’m always looking for things,” she said of her never-ending quest for Factory d—cor. “Then you find it and it’s, ‘Well where do you put it?’ But that’s the fun part.”
Pretty much everything you see at the new Westminster location, from the colossal light fixtures over the trolley (from an old Nashville movie theater) to the giant framed mirrors and pictures (Dussin found those while browsing the local Westminster Homestead Antique Mall) to the framed tin ceiling tile (formerly of a Denver building), has been salvaged and repurposed by Dussin.
Then, of course, there’s the trolley.
Back when the Denver restaurant opened, OSF used real trolleys, but those were difficult for handicapped people to get into. Since OSF is of the people and for the people, they now build their own trolleys that are accessible to everyone. Because what would America be without equal access to trolley dining?
These days, the trolleys are fully customizable — booth separators come down to create large, fluid mega booths that seat 10 each. The Westminster trolley can seat a total of 30 people, which is perfect for kids’ birthday parties. Or, you know, 57-year-old birthday parties. (Pro tip: you can reserve the trolley, even if you just need one booth.)
When you come out to Westminster for spaghetti and meatballs — and you know you will — take a break from carb-cramming long enough to look around. Dussin has spent half a century creating one of the coziest restaurant legacies around.
The Old Spaghetti Factory: 9145 Sheridan Blvd., Westminster; osf.com; opening July 31
