Broadway is getting a new pizza joint run by a West Coast native who insists he can win over those from out East.
“Once you try it, it’ll speak for itself. We’re getting rave reviews, especially from the East Coasters,” said store owner Jamey Cutter, 56.
Cutter is franchising Denver’s first Slice House by Tony Gemignani at 555 N. Broadway, set to open later this year.
The spot will have whole pies, pastas, wings and salads for sale, though its pizza by the slice is the standout. Nine choices will be on display, six New York style, one Detroit, one Sicilian and one “grandma” style — a pan-fried thin crust pie thatap a family recipe from Gemignani, the chef who started the brand.
There will even be a special Colorado-style pie, a hatch green chile pizza with a pineapple salsa and Cholula-soaked chicken, topped with a cilantro lime sauce. A slice of cheese pizza will run $6 to $8.
“Tony’s pretty amazing. He’s got his flagship concept, Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in North Beach, San Francisco. Great concept, well-known, full-service. Thatap where he started out,” Cutter said.
Gemignani founded the brand in 2010, and it now has locations from Tennessee to Idaho. His roots run deep in Colorado, mentoring the chefs who later started Boulder’s Audrey Jane’s Pizza Garage and Denver’s Blue Pan Pizza.
Cutter’s first interaction with Slice House came a few years ago, when he was visiting his brother in California.
“I went over for lunch and I was absolutely blown away, hadn’t tried anything like it,” he said.
In January, he opened a location in Boulder. Another franchisee has locations in Longmont and Loveland. Cutter’s contract is for seven spots in the state. Two or three will be in the Denver area.
“For this concept, I think it works better on the outskirts of downtown,” he said.
Cutter said the location, by the intersection of Sixth Avenue and Broadway with easy access to Speer Boulevard and Interstate 25, made it ideal. There’s plenty of parking for take-out, and the nearby neighborhoods will keep business going on weekends, he said.
The $750,000 build-out will be wrapped up later this year, with doors opening in the fourth quarter, he said. The franchise group consists of just him and his wife, and the two are working to secure loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration to help finance the new spots.
This isn’t Cutter’s first time franchising, though. He owns the Corner Bakery at 717 17th St. and used to also run its two 16th Street Mall locations before the pandemic shuttered them. Before coming to Denver 20 years ago, he was a regional manager at Jamba Juice, overseeing 80 locations across five states.
“I’ve been in the restaurant business since I was 15 years old,” he said. “I was born into it.”
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