The Strings Connection
Strings old guard are now the pillars of Kearney Street’s restaurant scene
By Celeste Thurman Archer
Strings restaurant, which closed for business on April 30 after 26 years in business at 17th and Humboldt, was a hard place for a lot of folks to see go, but not as much as its owner, Noel Cunningham, who passed in December 2011.
The restaurant and the man had been an important part of so many lives. Countless proposals were made there, proms celebrated and first dates, all doted on by Noel, who made sure each night exhibited the excellence he expected.
Strings was the go-to watering hole and place to be seen; a place where quality and care was reflected in the food, service, atmosphere and all else that surrounded the experience there. Politicians, business folk and celebrities gravitated there. When babies could see just over the counter, Noel had them in the kitchen helping to make their desert or whatever he might think to cook up with them.
Noel’s untiring philanthropy was matched by few. His love for Project Mercy in Ethiopia was known by most who ventured in the doors, including Sting and Bono, and his Mother’s Day breakfast, which honored and treated mothers who otherwise wouldn’t have had such a treat, was a 20-year tradition at his passing.
Fortunately for Park Hill, some of Noel’s most accomplished protégés have chosen the Kearney Street retail block as the place to showcase their talents: Greg and Ashlee Ruedi of Neighbors, and Amy Vitale and Dustin Barrett of Tables Restaurant.
NEIGHBORS
Home of former Strings’ General Manager Greg Ruedi
Greg started with Noel as a teenager in 1989, working as a busboy for 240 Union. He transferred to Strings in 1998, where he worked his way to general manager within three months and stayed in the position until 2005.
Greg considers Noel a mentor, teacher and lifetime friend. When he starts to reminisce about Noel, the stories flow. He remembers the late night phone calls when he was still at 240 Union, where he and Noel would talk the necessary business first, but then have a good chat. “[He] always took the time to give a care about who you were,” said Greg about Noel.
Once, Noel told Greg to take a sea bass down to 9 News. Turns out, the expectation was that he would cook the fish, giving instruction, on live TV. Noel knew Greg hated being in front of large audiences, but it’s easy to imagine two things if you knew Noel: a good Irish giggle and that expectation to overcome a fear to master what was good for the business.
According to Greg, Noel was good at teaching how to make a business work. He said never take the next step before you can make it work – don’t owe as you go, but build slowly.
Greg met his wife and Neighbors co-owner, Ashlee, at Strings; she was a regular and one thing led to another. Today, Neighbors is a glimpse of those familiar Strings faces, with Greg running the front of the house, and Ashlee running the back.
TABLES
Home of former Strings’ chef and sous chef Amy Vitale and Dustin Barrett
Just down the street from Greg and Ashlee are Amy Vitale and Dustin Barrett, owners of Tables restaurant. They, too, met at Strings. Amy was Noel’s chef and Dustin his sous chef. They kept their relationship a secret at the restaurant until she and Dustin had bought a house together.
Amy remembers the day she was hired by Noel. She had just moved to Denver and was looking for a job. She called Pat Miller, known to Denver as the “Gabby Gourmet.” Pat put a call into Noel and ten minutes later Amy had an interview. “Hear you think you know how to cook,” Amy remembers Noel saying. “Be here at 2.” It was 1:25. She got the job and Noel left for a month-long trip to Ethiopia shortly thereafter.
Amy will tell you that she worked really hard for Noel, and he worked really hard for everyone else. She and Greg both laughed, in separate interviews, about Noel’s having yelled at them – frequently – about their food costs. Then, almost in the next breath, he was giving away whatever might be in the kitchen. To her, Strings was like a big, somewhat dysfunctional, but always loving family.
When asked how she and Dustin bring Strings to Kearney street, other than being able to reproduce just about anything on the Strings menu, she becomes animated. She says they make sure people feel at home.
“This is our home and heart and we want people to feel like they are part of that here. People come for first dates, engagements and first night out after the baby, just like at Strings. Watching kids grow up here – like the boy who we saw here when he was a toddler who just had his bar mitzvah party here – that’s like Noel.”
LESSONS FROM NOEL
Both Greg and Amy will tell you that Noel was one of the most difficult but at the same time the most loving and kind person in the world.
When Greg told Noel that he was going into the restaurant business, Noel asked Greg a serious question: “Are you stupid?” No doubt Noel was thinking about the long hours and hard work any successful restaurant requires.
The lesson Greg has always kept at the forefront is to always buy quality, even if it shrinks your menu. “’Don’t ever sacrifice the quality of what you do, no matter how tough a week,’” Noel told Greg.
Amy echoes Greg’s sentiments. “[Noel] said in the restaurant business, there was no ego,” said Amy. “He taught that if you were willing to ask someone to do something, you better be willing to do it yourself. If you were there just for a paycheck, it wasn’t the right place for you.”
Through tears, Amy said that Noel’s final act, his suicide, angered her. He had conquered alcoholism, was on a path to making amends with previously estranged family and had stopped smoking long ago. Amy felt that Noel had a unique gift for anticipating the future. “He was the one who always said, ‘It’s not my first rodeo,’” said Amy.
Beyond running a great restaurant, both Amy and Greg said that Noel taught them empathy and the importance of philanthropy. “Noel’s heart went and went,” said Amy.
AVENUE GRILL | Home of former Strings’ Bar Manager Kris Lykins
Further down the road, in Uptown at 17th and Washington, Strings’ longtime bar manager Kris Lykins now tends bar at the Avenue Grill.
Kris will tell you that in her 23 years at Strings restaurant, the constant message drilled into her and every other staff member by Noel was that, “the enemy of excellence is good.” According to Kris, that was Noel’s hallmark, and if you didn’t know that, you didn’t know Noel. The lessons taught by Noel were austere and clear, never to be forgotten and absolutely to be replicated.
Kris practically embodies Strings, having been with the restaurant for all that time. So many regulars have followed Kris just down the street, that people are bound to run into someone they knew. There, for just a moment, you can almost think nothing has changed.