Noted Denver restaurant owner Noel Cunningham dies at age 62

[orpheus]

By Joey Bunch The Denver Post
Cunningham, 62, owned and operated Strings restaurant on East 17th
Avenue in Denver for 25 years. He and his wife, Tammy, founded the
Cunningham Foundation in 2003 and were heavily involved in other
charities such as Quarters for Kids.

His close friend Pat Miller, the restaurant critic known as the "Gabby
Gourmet," said Cunningham's death was sudden and unexpected but that
he had not been well lately.

There were no funeral or memorial plans yet, she said, as family
members will be summoned from Ireland. Cunningham was born in Dublin.

"He was my best friend in the world," she said. "And I will miss him
dearly.

"He was a wonderful man."

Denver public-relations executive Wendy Aiello worked as a waitress
for Cunningham at Strings in the 1980s.

She found herself immersed in community causes and charity events, a
trait that defined Cunningham as a community business leader and as a
person, she said.

"He knew no boundaries," she said. "I honestly don't know if kept
anything for himself. I know he was rich in friends.

"He had a wife who adored him and many, many friends who adored him."

Lobbyist Lacee Artist also called Cunningham a good friend.

"I am deeply saddened that we have lost someone who has been so strong
in our community," she said. "We will miss him deeply."

In addition to the Cunningham Foundation, which benefits African
causes, the Cunninghams were involved in numerous community
fundraisers at his elegant eatery.

According to his biography on the Strings website, he joined his
family in the restaurant business when he was 14.

"He proved a quick study, hired as an apprentice at London's famous
Savoy Hotel after just three years and attained the rank of sous chef
by age 23, an especially notable accomplishment for a non-Frenchman,"
according to the biography.

He and his family in the 1970s moved to Los Angeles, where he worked
as a sous chef at Harry's Bar & American Grill in Century City, then
later as executive chef in charge of Spectrum Foods, which owned
Harry's Bar and other California-based restaurants.

He became chef at Touch, a private supper club for celebrities in
Beverly Hills, before moving to Denver and opening Strings in 1986.

He opened 240 Union in Lakewood in 1989, and two years later opened
Italian Trattoria Ciao Baby in southwest Denver.

Cunningham was the Denver Business Journal's Corporate Citizen of the
Year in 2004 and was inducted into the Colorado Tourism Hall of Fame
in 2007.

Staff writer Lynn Bartels contributed to this story.



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