Why The Rabbit Hole matters.
The Rabbit Hole is a theatrical New American restaurant where Downtown Colorado Springs' historic commercial character meets a subterranean former morgue, Lewis Carroll-inspired fantasy and restaurateur Joe Campana's influential approach to independent dining and nightlife.
Set beneath North Tejon Street near East Kiowa Street and just a short walk from Acacia Park, the restaurant occupies an underground commercial space within downtown's historic retail district, surrounded by Victorian storefronts, established restaurants and the commercial blocks extending toward Nevada Avenue. A glass-enclosed stairway resembling a Paris Métro entrance descends from the sidewalk into the dining room, establishing an immediate sense of separation from the surrounding streets. Dark walls, intimate booths and dramatic lighting create a Gothic atmosphere enhanced by elaborate artwork depicting characters and imagery associated with Alice in Wonderland. Oversized playing cards, antique-style clocks and fantastical decorative elements transform the underground chambers into a theatrical setting, with closely arranged tables encouraging an intimate evening of dining and conversation. The result is a distinctive downtown restaurant whose hidden entrance, unusual subterranean architecture and imaginative interiors turn a historic commercial space into an elaborate culinary fantasy.
What defines The Rabbit Hole.
The Rabbit Hole is best known for restaurateur Joe Campana's transformation of a former underground morgue into one of Colorado Springs' most recognizable independent restaurants, combining an unconventional historical setting with a deliberately theatrical approach to contemporary American dining. Campana was born in Boston and raised in Florida, where his mother worked as a country-club bartender and he entered the hospitality industry washing dishes at eleven years old. His early career developed through restaurant kitchens and bars before he returned to the Boston area at nineteen, gaining experience with national restaurant groups including Red Lobster, TGI Fridays and Houlihan's. A position at Phantom Canyon Brewing Company brought him to Colorado Springs during his late twenties, establishing the professional relationships that eventually supported his independent restaurant ventures. The underground property had previously served as the city's morgue, taking advantage of the naturally cooler temperatures beneath the commercial district. Following the morgue's relocation during the twentieth century, the space accommodated successive hospitality businesses, including a Moroccan restaurant during the 1990s. Campana became involved with the property through the Metropolitan, an earlier restaurant and bar whose development required extensive interior demolition and reconstruction. His partnership in that establishment dissolved, leaving an opportunity to reconsider the underground venue's commercial future. Jerry Flesher, the father of Campana's close friend, subsequently invested in a new restaurant concept built around the property's unusual architecture and a more accessible approach to upscale dining. Campana established The Rabbit Hole in 2011, drawing its name and visual character from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The restaurant's official trade name was registered in Colorado on May 18, 2011, under Locals Food & Drink, LLC, establishing the business within the state's commercial records. Local artists Phil Lear and Douglas Rouse contributed Gothic artwork that strengthened the connection between the restaurant's historical associations and its fictional inspiration. The resulting establishment combined late-evening dining, creative cocktails and an informal atmosphere, developing a following among residents seeking an alternative to conventional downtown restaurants. Its success provided the foundation for Campana's expanding hospitality enterprise, which subsequently included SuperNova, Bonny & Read, Cork & Cask, Shame & Regret and STIR Coffee & Cocktails. By 2019, his restaurant portfolio encompassed several distinctive concepts, with each establishment developing a recognizable atmosphere and independent culinary direction. The Rabbit Hole's sustained popularity established it as the founding achievement of a restaurateur whose businesses became an important component of Colorado Springs' contemporary dining and nightlife culture.
Joe Campana's culinary concept connects recognizable American comfort food with unexpected ingredients, concentrated sauces and lively presentations that complement the restaurant's fictional setting. The kitchen approaches familiar preparations through substantial portions and combinations that introduce elements of regional game cooking, contemporary steakhouse technique and modern American restaurant cuisine. Rabbit meatloaf provides the clearest expression of that approach, combining ground rabbit with pork sausage to develop a rich, cohesive texture. Honey-cured bacon surrounds the preparation, contributing sweetness and a savory exterior that balances the leaner character of the rabbit. A chipotle-honey demi-glace introduces controlled heat and concentrated sweetness, connecting the dish's familiar meatloaf structure with a more adventurous flavor profile. The same attention to savory depth extends into preparations using bison, whose relatively lean meat develops tenderness through slow braising. Local whiskey contributes aromatic complexity to the cooking liquid, and a fruit-based reduction introduces acidity that balances the richness of the finished meat. Seafood preparations develop a lighter dimension through herb crusts, citrus and classical butter sauces, allowing crisp textures and bright seasoning to complement delicate fish. The kitchen's vegetable accompaniments follow a consistent approach to balance, bringing together roasted roots, creamy grains and carefully seasoned greens to support the principal ingredients. Cocktails extend the restaurant's theatrical character through names drawn from Carroll's fictional world, including the White Rabbit and the Duchess. Their presentation connects the beverage program with the decorative environment, reinforcing the sense of entering a self-contained fictional setting. Desserts continue that relationship through familiar American baking, with carrot cake providing a recognizable conclusion to the restaurant's imaginative menu. The combination of substantial comfort food, inventive seasoning and theatrical surroundings establishes a dining character that remains closely associated with Campana's original conception of the restaurant.
How The Rabbit Hole fits.
The Rabbit Hole works as the culinary anchor for an outing connecting Colorado Springs' foundational public landscapes, the domestic architecture of its earliest settlers and the artistic institutions that established the city as a major cultural center of the American Southwest.
Begin at Acacia Park, the city's first public park, donated by founder General William Jackson Palmer in 1871 as part of his original vision for a planned community at the foot of Pikes Peak. Originally designated North Park, the square occupied a prominent position within the settlement's rectilinear street plan, establishing a landscaped gathering place amid the developing commercial district. Scottish landscape gardener John Blair designed its early grounds, extending the formal planting traditions he also employed at Palmer's Glen Eyrie estate. A wooden bandstand appeared in 1888, followed by a permanent bandshell designed by architect Thomas P. Barber in 1914, reinforcing the park's importance as a venue for public entertainment. Its subsequent recreational development has preserved the original civic purpose of a landscape that accompanied Colorado Springs from its founding. Continue to McAllister House Museum, the English-style cottage constructed in 1873 for Major Henry McAllister and his wife, Elizabeth Couper McAllister. Philadelphia architect George Summers designed the residence, introducing a substantial brick structure at a time when many buildings in the young settlement remained temporary wooden shelters. Its construction incorporated additional masonry reinforcement against the region's powerful winds, and three marble fireplaces were imported to furnish the interior. Future mining magnate Winfield Scott Stratton contributed interior finish work and porch railings before his discovery of the Independence Mine transformed his financial circumstances. The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in Colorado acquired and restored the property in 1961, preserving a rare example of domestic architecture from the city's founding decade. Conclude at Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, the landmark cultural institution that opened on April 20, 1936, through the philanthropic collaboration of Julie Penrose, Alice Bemis Taylor and Elizabeth Sage Hare. Architect John Gaw Meem designed the building through an innovative combination of Pueblo architectural traditions, Art Deco geometry and modernist construction, establishing one of the Southwest's most consequential twentieth-century cultural landmarks. Its opening celebrations included modern dancer Martha Graham, performances incorporating stage designs by Alexander Calder and exhibitions featuring major European modernists. The institution united an art museum, professional theater and art school, extending the work of the earlier Broadmoor Art Academy into a comprehensive cultural center. Its 1986 National Register designation and subsequent affiliation with Colorado College preserve the architectural and institutional legacy of a project that transformed the city's artistic ambitions. The progression moves from Palmer's original public landscape through the preservation of an early settler's residence and culminates in Meem's landmark cultural center, tracing Colorado Springs' development from planned frontier community to an established center of American art and architecture.
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