Business: Denver Pizza Company
Address: 309 W. 11th Ave.
Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Tuesday, 11 a.m.-11p.m Friday-Sunday
Founded: 2008
Contact: 720-475-1471,
Employees: 20
Interview with Mark Huebner, founder
Q: How did you get involved in this business?
A: I grew up in the North Suburbs of Chicago and was always surrounded by great pizza. In 2001 I moved to Colorado to attend college at University of Colorado. In my freshmen year, my family and I took a trip through Cripple Creek and tasted some of the best pizza I had ever had. For the next eight years I bugged those owners about buying their recipe and opening a store in Denver. Eventually, unable to take my annoyance anymore, they gave in. Myself, Phil Coan, Matt Huebner, Eric Coan and Andrew Dunlop started what is now Denver Pizza Company. The recipe has evolved since the beginning and we now own and blend all of our proprietary spice blends, which is one of many things that makes our pizza unique.
Q: What distinguishes you from other businesses in your category?
A: Everything. We have our own proprietary spice blends that we blend all in-house. We make our dough in-house fresh daily. We blend all of our own cheeses; we go out of our way to use the best ingredients of everything (including hand-cutting pineapples).
Q: What do you like best about your line of work?
A: I think the thing that still keeps all of the partners excited about being in the pizza business are the satisfied customers. From time to time we will get notes or reviews online that just bring smiles to our faces. We are all very passionate about our product and it is very satisfying to know that other people are too.
Q: What is your business’ biggest challenge?
A: Figuring out where to put our next location. We are ready to go for another store and just can’t decide what direction to move.
Q: Something people might be surprised to learn about you or your business:
:We actually opened our doors on July Fourth 2008 as we are all quite patriotic and thought it appropriate. We probably did about $100 bucks in sales that day. We are the only pizza place that we know of that uses a local favorite beer in our dough. Beer helps create a much more unique dough that water alone cannot create. Also, we recently won the Denver Pizza Wars that were held on South Pearl. I believe we took first in best specialty and best cheese pizza. We are looking to add locations next year so hopefully we will be coming to a neighborhood near you.