The worst thing about Denver - Pizza (Golden: dorm, moving)

[SouthXSW]

I'm a fan of Proto's on Platte St near REI. Then a walk up the hill to Little Man for ice cream.

[McGowdog]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

... Papa Murphy's...

I was talking to some guy working out here at Bechtel from NY and he said he didn't like to admit it, but he likes Papa Murphs. We were talking about how good that family sized stuffed cowboy is. That pie must weigh 5 lbs. Old Chicagos would charge 35 bucks for something like that.

[roadwarrior101]

I'm not from Denver, but I visited relatives there in April. We went to Dad's and Dudes in Aurora for dinner. I thought both the pizza as well as the craft beers were very good.

[otterprods]

Originally Posted by beezle1

I think everyone has their own style of pizza that they think is the best, and when you relocate, you often end up having to adapt to the local style (if there is one). I myself grew up with pizza from central Ohio. Masseys was my favorite. Thin crust with cornmeal on the bottom, lots of pepperoni that is curled up and slightly burned on the edges, pizza cut into strips instead of triangles. I would not expect people from other areas of the country to think it was the 'best'. If anyone finds Ohio-style pizza out here in Colorado anywhere, I would love to hear about it.

Beezle's point is dead-on. I lived in San Diego for a number of years when I was a 'kid' and I can't find that sort of Mexican food anywhere. But It's just a difference in style. For example, to me, a carne asada burrito is flank steak browned on a grill with a bunch of spices inside of a nice, soft, flower tortilla with some cheese and some guacamole on the side AND THAT'S IT. Go anywhere outside of SD and everyone seems to think 'Burrito' = a tortilla stuffed with rice to the size of a nerf football and a little bit of boiled meat in there somewhere. What do people not understand about NO RICE or RICE ON THE SIDE?

Fortunately, some people moved to Monument from San Diego a few years back and opened a great place called 'Rodolfo's', which they told me was basically just Alberto's of SD with a different name'. They do it right in my book.

[Geork]

Former resident (moving back in a month, yay! please don't buy all the houses before I arrive!), raised in western NY, lived ALL OVER the country.

This.

Don't know what the reason, but when we originally moved to Denver, we spend 2 years looking for pizza. We had effin' charts, spreadsheets, we ordered from about 20-30 places in total. We eventually settled for Lucianos's (closest to a western NY style, although still not "good").

We called it the "great Denver pizza hunt" Man... we MAAAAAY have taken it too far (we'd order from the same place at different times of day to try to have a larger sample size and account for variation), but the summation is that the people of the city of Denver do not care about making pizza. I used to think it was the altitude or some sort of conspiracy (Denver is so cool, lets make one SUPER ANNOYING thing to **** off transplants, the Masons are likely involved).

Hey quick money making tip. Someone fly to someplace OTHER than Denver work at a pizzeria, get the owner, chef, guy who orders supplies, etc. drunk and/or high, write down the recipe and the ingredients, order the EXACT same ones, have them shipped to Denver, and make the pizza (for bonus points just hire the chef, guy who orders supplies and fly him/her out to Denver) the sell it to people like me for $80 a pie.

Don't put avocados on it. Don't make it gluten free. Don't make it artisan. Just please do what I outlined above. I would do it, but I'm generally a pretty lazy person.

I'll be angry, I'll complain to my family, I'll write ranty forum posts, but I will buy your $80 pizza.

[Timmyy]

Originally Posted by otterprods

Beezle's point is dead-on. I lived in San Diego for a number of years when I was a 'kid' and I can't find that sort of Mexican food anywhere. But It's just a difference in style. For example, to me, a carne asada burrito is flank steak browned on a grill with a bunch of spices inside of a nice, soft, flower tortilla with some cheese and some guacamole on the side AND THAT'S IT. Go anywhere outside of SD and everyone seems to think 'Burrito' = a tortilla stuffed with rice to the size of a nerf football and a little bit of boiled meat in there somewhere. What do people not understand about NO RICE or RICE ON THE SIDE?

Fortunately, some people moved to Monument from San Diego a few years back and opened a great place called 'Rodolfo's', which they told me was basically just Alberto's of SD with a different name'. They do it right in my book.

Me being from San Diego I will have to check Rodolfo's out.

Tata's in Aurora is another good place.

I don't eat pizza anymore. It just isn't that good to me anymore.

[HoyaSoxa]

Pizzeria Locale on Broadway just opened up and is pretty good if you like Neapolitan style. Not quite Two Amy's in D.C. (too flimsy), but best Neapolitan style I've had in Denver. Never been to the Boulder locale, but i hear it's less fancy and maybe not quite as good, so word of caution there.

[travelhound]

Real Pizza has to be made with imported Italian grown and processed semolina flour or the dough always just seems tasteless. Having a real wood fired oven also makes a huge difference, and of course, only the best ingredients on top. I can hardly ever eat Pizza because of the carbs, so when I do the dough/ crust better be good or I just don't eat it. I also try to avoid pork, if you try good quality italian style turkey sausage instead it's just as good or even better. Has to be buffalo Mozzarella of course, quality olive oil, etc, or it's just junk not worth eating.

[davidv]

Originally Posted by Geork

Former resident (moving back in a month, yay! please don't buy all the houses before I arrive!), raised in western NY, lived ALL OVER the country.

This.

Don't know what the reason, but when we originally moved to Denver, we spend 2 years looking for pizza. We had effin' charts, spreadsheets, we ordered from about 20-30 places in total. We eventually settled for Lucianos's (closest to a western NY style, although still not "good").

We called it the "great Denver pizza hunt" Man... we MAAAAAY have taken it too far (we'd order from the same place at different times of day to try to have a larger sample size and account for variation), but the summation is that the people of the city of Denver do not care about making pizza. I used to think it was the altitude or some sort of conspiracy (Denver is so cool, lets make one SUPER ANNOYING thing to **** off transplants, the Masons are likely involved).

Hey quick money making tip. Someone fly to someplace OTHER than Denver work at a pizzeria, get the owner, chef, guy who orders supplies, etc. drunk and/or high, write down the recipe and the ingredients, order the EXACT same ones, have them shipped to Denver, and make the pizza (for bonus points just hire the chef, guy who orders supplies and fly him/her out to Denver) the sell it to people like me for $80 a pie.

Don't put avocados on it. Don't make it gluten free. Don't make it artisan. Just please do what I outlined above. I would do it, but I'm generally a pretty lazy person.

I'll be angry, I'll complain to my family, I'll write ranty forum posts, but I will buy your $80 pizza.

This is what I was talking about when I cited the Golden Rule of moving to Colorado.

Pizza is made up of crust, pizza sauce, meats and cheeses.

A crust is a type of bread, and bread is baked. Baking at higher altitude requires modification in baking time, recipe, and/or baking temperature (sometimes all three must be modified) because water in the dough evaporates faster and leavening gases expand more with less atmospheric pressure. Those modifications will make things bake better, but it will NEVER be the same as baking at or near sea level.

One of the main ingredients of pizza sauce is water. Tomatoes have a lot of water content. At our altitude water boils and simmers about 12 degrees lower than at sea level (for comparison, water in Chicago, at an altitude of 580 ft, boils and simmers only about 1 degree lower). Plus, because it is so dry, the water in the sauce evaporates faster. This makes creating a sauce pretty hard because a person must use more water and simmer the sauce for a longer time. Finding the perfect variation is hard.

As for meats and cheeses, they have the same water content issues.

It is not as if there has never been a pizza chef who makes great pizza in New York or Chicago who moved to Colorado and opened a pizzeria. They have, and they have found out that pizza is one of those items that just can't be the same here as it is there.

For the record, the same is true for bagels, many types of baked desserts and different types of bread.

Also, even if you had a person make a pizza in New York, flew it here on a jet, and then baked it in Denver, it still would not come out the same.

Quit complaining and order a bowl of green chile stew.

[davidv]

Originally Posted by otterprods

Beezle's point is dead-on. I lived in San Diego for a number of years when I was a 'kid' and I can't find that sort of Mexican food anywhere. But It's just a difference in style. For example, to me, a carne asada burrito is flank steak browned on a grill with a bunch of spices inside of a nice, soft, flower tortilla with some cheese and some guacamole on the side AND THAT'S IT. Go anywhere outside of SD and everyone seems to think 'Burrito' = a tortilla stuffed with rice to the size of a nerf football and a little bit of boiled meat in there somewhere. What do people not understand about NO RICE or RICE ON THE SIDE?

Fortunately, some people moved to Monument from San Diego a few years back and opened a great place called 'Rodolfo's', which they told me was basically just Alberto's of SD with a different name'. They do it right in my book.

For the record, I never had a burrito here with rice until Qdoba and Chipotle opened up.

The type of Mexican food here is much different than that of California, because the ingredients here are different.

Traditional Mexican food here has more chile peppers, more potatoes, no seafood and no avocados. You will find more stews/soups (green chile stew, menudo), stewed beef and pork (barbacoa), pinto beans (I didn't have black beans in a restaurant until I was 18), corn tortillas and posole.