Back when I still worked in an office – and back when that office was still in downtown Denver – this was my ideal lunch: I’d call my friend Davis and we’d head down the 16th Street Mall to Chinja which was located in the basement food court at the Republic Bank Building. There we’d partake of some great fast Chinese food. Then we’d stop by the Santa Fe Cookie Company next door for some of their fresh baked chocolate chip offerings, three-for-a-dollar. Yeah, you heard me – 33 cents each. All in, we’d be back at our desks inside an hour. And we’d be out less than ten bucks for the best fast lunch on the planet. It was cheapskate heaven.
Alas, those days are gone. The owner of Chinja was murdered during an on-site robbery in 1994. His wife was back at work the next day. She kept the place open until retiring and closing for good some twenty years later – see DP story from 2014, here. As for the cookie place, the owner died suddenly and unexpectedly in 2017. Her daughter kept it open a few more years before succumbing to the pandemic-fueled drop in downtown Denver foot traffic last year. It was the end of an era. Or was it?
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Don’t get me wrong. I love working from home, and you can see here for a post on that topic. But today’s news from the DP that the cookie place is re-opening brought with it all sorts of nostalgia for a bygone era of cheapskate downtown lunches. Now if I can just work up the gumption to pay $50 for a baker’s dozen – yeah, you heard me, $50 for thirteen cookies – all will be well. But it’s a brave new world we’re living in. And I don’t mean maybe.
Hmmm…. maybe I’ll go do a little baking on my own.
At fifty bucks a dozen, it’s gotta be worth a shot.
