For something relatively simple at its core, pizza can simultaneously spark debate and provide comfort like few other foods.

Its range of fans is impressive, from picky kids who sustain on cheese pizza to connoisseurs with impressive wood-fire pizza ovens in their backyards. But no matter where you fall on the pizza spectrum, there’s always room to improve. Enter King Arthur Baking Company’s new “The Book of Pizza: Recipes for Every Pizza Maker,” with more than 250 pages of tips, tricks, recipes and serving suggestions to level up your pie game.

Learn how to make (and the difference between) New York style, Detroit style, Chicago style, Neapolitan and Pizza alla Panna. Perfect a tomato sauce with only two ingredients, and give yourself a cheese education. Wonder what flour to use? No worries — King Arthur is baking royalty for a reason.

Find scratch pizza solutions for lazy weekends or weeknight dinners. Not sure where to turn? The book’s pizza flowchart will tell you what style is best for you at the moment. Have you embraced sourdough? That makes good pizza, too. The options really are limitless, and the in-depth instructions are suitable for both beginner and experienced cooks. No need to already be a dough pro.

While the majority of the book is pizza-centric, it goes a step further by guiding users through dipping sauces (make your own hot honey or ranch), side dishes and more, making it one-stop recipe shopping.

For dessert, we turned to another new cookbook, “Bittersweet: The Five Tastes of Dessert and Beyond“ by Thalia Ho. The book explores those five tastes — bitter, sweet, sour, salt and umami — and offers recipes incorporating them. It����ap a luscious and introspective book that����ap as much about feeling as it is cooking. And we thought Ho’s Walnut and Honey Semifreddo was the perfect exclamation point on our pizza party.

Butter Lettuce Salad with Herby Buttermilk-Avocado Dressing

Serves 4 to 6.

Here, billowy butter lettuce is speckled with all the soft herbs of early spring. Slivers of radish and cucumber provide crunch, a handful of peas adds pops of sweetness, and the avocado adds creaminess — both in the salad itself and in the tangy dressing. From King Arthur Baking Company’s “ ” (Simon Element, 2026).

For the dressing:

• ½ c. buttermilk, well shaken, plus more as needed
• 2 tbsp. fresh lime juice
• 1 clove garlic, grated
• 1 small avocado, halved, pitted and peeled
• ½ c. fresh soft herbs of your choice, such as cilantro, basil, parsley, dill and/or chervil
• 1 tsp. honey
• ¾ tsp. fine salt, plus more to taste
• ½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste

For the salad:

• 2 heads butter lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces (about 10 c.)
• 8 radishes, sliced paper thin
• 1 English or 2 Persian cucumbers, sliced ¼ in. thick
• 1 c. shelled fresh peas
• 1 small avocado, halved, pitted, peeled and diced
• Fine salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Make the dressing: Combine the buttermilk, lime juice, garlic, avocado, herbs, honey, salt and pepper in a blender and blend until creamy and emulsified. Thin as needed with additional buttermilk, 1 teaspoon at a time, if desired. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper. The dressing can be made ahead and stored in a lidded container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

For the salad: Spoon ½ cup of the dressing into the bottom of a large serving bowl. Top with the lettuce, radishes, cucumber and peas. Toss together until evenly coated. Add the diced avocado and toss gently to combine. Season the salad with salt and pepper and serve right away, with additional dressing on the side.

Popeye

Makes one (11-inch) pizza.

Spinach is the defining feature of a Popeye pizza, of course, but this is sneakily also a three-cheese pie featuring ricotta (for creaminess), feta (big flavor) and mozzarella (for stretch!). If your ricotta is at all wet, place it in a fine-mesh sieve set over a bowl and drain for 15 to 30 minutes before using. The fresh basil leaves seem like they should be optional, but here they really aren’t: They add a vital freshness to the pie, not to mention some pretty greenery. From King Arthur Baking Company’s “ ” (Simon Element, 2026).

• ⅓ c. (75 g) whole-milk ricotta
• 2 cloves Garlic Confit (see below), mashed to a paste, plus more cloves for garnish
• ¼ tsp. fine salt, plus more to taste
• ¼ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1 ½ c. (42 g) fresh baby spinach
• ¼ packed c. fresh basil leaves, chopped, plus small leaves for garnish
• 1 scallion, thinly sliced crosswise
• 2 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• All-purpose flour, for dusting
• 1 ball Weeknight White Dough (see recipe)
• Semolina flour or cornmeal, for dusting
• ½ c. (57 g) low-moisture whole-milk mozzarella, shredded
• ¼ c. (43 g) feta, crumbled
• 1 tsp. Garlic Confit oil, for finishing

Directions

Arrange racks in the lower and upper thirds of the oven. Place a baking steel or stone on the lower rack and preheat the oven to 500 degrees for at least 1 hour.

In a small bowl, stir together the ricotta, mashed garlic confit, salt and pepper. In a medium bowl, combine the spinach, chopped basil and scallion. Drizzle with the olive oil and toss to coat.

Shape the pizza: Dust your work surface with flour and place the dough on it. Without distorting the round dough, flip it over so that both sides are coated with flour. Use your fingertips to gently depress the center of the dough, being careful not to touch the outer edge of the crust. This step is important — leaving the circumference untouched at this stage will result in a beautiful bubbly outer crust postbake. Continue using your fingertips to press the center of the dough outward until you have an 8-inch circle. Again, taking care not to touch the outermost edge of the crust, lift the pizza from the work surface and use your knuckles to gently stretch the dough into an 11-inch round. If the dough is at all sticky, use more flour. Use two hands at once to gently move the dough in a circle, allowing gravity to do most of the work for you, rather than pulling on the dough. If the dough resists stretching, return it to your floured work surface and let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes to allow the gluten to relax, then try again.

Lightly dust a peel or an overturned baking sheet with semolina and transfer the shaped dough to the peel. If the dough retracts when transferring it to the peel, gently re-form it. Shimmy the dough on the peel to ensure it����ap not sticking; if it is, lift the edge of the crust and add more semolina.

Spread the ricotta mixture over the dough in an even layer, leaving a ½-inch border. Top with the spinach mixture, piling it more heavily on the outer edge (but avoiding the crust), then distribute the mozzarella and feta over the spinach.

Bake: Use the peel to transfer the pizza onto the steel or stone, then bake for 3 to 4 minutes. Check the bottom of the crust — it should be spotted and charred in places, and the edge crust should have some color. If not, rotate the pizza and bake for another 1 to 2 minutes.

When the bottom has sufficient color, use the peel to transfer the pizza to the top rack, switch the oven to broil, and broil for 2 to 3 minutes, until well charred in spots. (Don’t walk away–pizza can go from perfectly charred to burnt quickly.)

Use the peel to remove the pizza from the oven and slide it onto a wire rack. Drizzle with the garlic confit oil and scatter whole basil leaves over. Top with additional whole confit garlic cloves. Slice and serve.

To make garlic confit: Combine 6 ounces of garlic (about 36 cloves) and 1 c. olive oil in a small oven-safe baking dish or loaf pan. The garlic cloves need to be completely covered by the oil; if they aren’t, add additional oil to cover. Bake the garlic in a 300-degree oven until the cloves are very tender, about 90 minutes. Let cool to room temperature in the oil, then use immediately or transfer to a lidded jar and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

Weeknight White Dough

Makes enough for two 11-inch pizzas.

When we say “weeknight pizza,” we’re referring to homemade pizza that you can get on the table for dinner — even if you don’t give a single thought to dinner until 5 p.m. Granted, a little foresight never hurts. Though it can be on the table in as little as two and a half hours (most of it downtime), its real superpower is that it can be kept in the refrigerator for 24 hours. From King Arthur Baking Company’s “ ” (Simon Element, 2026).

• 300 g (2 ½ c.) unbleached all-purpose flour or 00 flour, plus more for dusting
• 6 g (1 tsp.) fine salt
• 4.5 g (1 ½ tsp.) instant yeast
• 19 g (1 ½ tbsp.) extra-virgin olive oil
• 222 g (¾ c. plus 3 tbsp. and 2 tsp.) lukewarm water (85 to 90 degrees)

Directions

Make the dough: In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt and yeast, then add the oil and water. Mix to combine, then knead the dough by hand in the bowl until you have a rough but cohesive dough. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Uncover the dough and perform a bowl fold: With a wet hand (which will help keep the dough from sticking to you), grab a section of dough from one side, lift it up, then press it down into the middle. Repeat, turning the bowl 90 degrees (a quarter turn) after each stretch, until the dough won’t elongate easily and forms a smooth, tight round ball, 4 to 6 times total. Turn the dough over, placing it seam side down in the bowl. Cover and let the dough rise at room temperature (70 to 75 degrees) for 1 hour, until puffy but not necessarily doubled in size. Toward the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 500 degrees with a baking steel or stone placed on a rack in the lower third and an empty oven rack in the upper third.

Divide the dough: On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough into 2 equal pieces (about 275 grams per piece). Form each piece into a tight ball and place seam side down in a lightly greased container. Cover with a lid and let it rest at room temperature while the oven preheats, 20 to 60 minutes. The dough is now ready to use. Alternatively, the dough can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours; remove the dough from the refrigerator 1 hour before shaping and baking your pizzas.

Walnut and Honey Semifreddo

Serves 6 to 8.

From ” “ by Thalia Ho, who writes: “For me, few things are as sweet and sentimental as semifreddo. It����ap simple but elegant, and it has a power that lasts long after a mouthful has ended. I like mine with praline and honey, in addition to Nocino, an aromatic bittersweet liqueur that����ap made from unripe walnuts.” Note that the recipe requires a candy thermometer, and you’ll need to prepare the dessert a day ahead to give it time to freeze. (Harvest, 2026).

For the praline:

• ¾ c. plus 2 tbsp. (125 g) walnuts
• ½ c. plus 2 tbsp. (130 g) granulated sugar

For the semifreddo:

• 2 c. (480 ml) heavy cream
• ¼ c. (85 g) honey
• 2 tbsp. Nocino liqueur
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
• 6 large egg yolks

Directions

Adjust a rack to the middle of the oven, then preheat it to 350 degrees.

Make the praline: Scatter the walnuts into an even layer over a lined baking sheet. Roast for 8 to 10 minutes, until golden brown and fragrant. Cool completely.

Next, combine the sugar with ⅓ cup water in a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil and cook, without stirring, until an amber-hued liquid has formed. Remove and pour over the roasted walnuts. Set aside to harden, then chop rough or fine, depending on your preference.

Make the semifreddo: Line an 8- by 4- by 3-inch loaf pan with a few layers of plastic wrap, leaving an overhang over the sides.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the cream, honey, liqueur and vanilla to stable peaks on medium speed. Be careful not to overdo it; you want it supple enough to fold in later without too much resistance. Transfer to the refrigerator and chill until needed.

Next, put the sugar and ⅓ cup water into a medium saucepan. Attach a candy thermometer to the side. Heat over medium heat, swirling occasionally, until the granules have dissolved. Raise the heat to high and bring to a rapid boil. Continue to cook until the syrup has reached thread stage, around 230 degrees. Meanwhile, start whisking the egg yolks in the bowl of a stand mixer. Start on low at first, then increase the speed as the syrup nears temperature. Carefully stream the boiling syrup into the yolks, between the whisk and the side of the bowl. Turn the speed to high and continue to whisk until pale, thick, and tripled in volume. All the steam will have escaped, and the bowl will no longer be hot to the touch.

With a large rubber spatula, gently fold thirds of the whipped cream into the yolk mixture, trying to retain as much lightness and air as possible.

Fold in the praline. Scrape into the prepared pan, smoothing out the top with an offset palette knife. Cover with aluminum foil and freeze until firm, at least 8 hours or, preferably, overnight.

Unmold the semifreddo onto a serving plate. Slice with a warm, sharp knife and serve soon after. This will keep, covered, in the coldest part of the freezer for 5 days.

©2026 The Minnesota Star Tribune. Visit at startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

This time around, it’s a new outpost of Soda Club, a wine bar that Death & Co.’s Ravi Derossi and wine director Drew Brady first opened in Manhattan in 2021. Soda Club is a Michelin Guide-rated “Bib Gourmand” restaurant for its price and quality.

The pair will also add handmade pastas at the hotel, 1260 25th St., in a space last used by Super Mega Bien, which shuttered this year amid a legal dispute. They expect to open for business by August.

“When we decided to expand Soda Club, Denver was our first choice,” Derossi, who is from Colorado, said in a statement. “It����ap exciting to bring this vision back to my home state in such a vibrant location.”

The name Soda Club, according to the Michelin Guide’s , “is derived from Italy’s tradition of hand-crafted sodas; and its spirit from the turbulent Prohibition era.

“There are also natural wines to accompany the seasonal, deftly executed vegan dishes,” the guide says of the original East Village restaurant, led by executive chef Amira Gharib.

Fresh pasta dishes that change seasonally and “pinsa”, a traditional pizza with a lighter crust made from rice and wheat flours, will be on the menu at the Denver location. At some point, Derossi and his team would like to conduct lessons on pasta-making.

Death & Co. opened in 2018 as the inaugural cocktail bar of the Ramble Hotel. Like the bar in New York City, it has earned nods for its stylish approach, including being named one of North America’s 50 best bars by the World’s 50 Best rankings in 2022.

“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 that����ap 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. That����ap 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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“We believe reducing wages for tipped workers would undermine the years of work Denver has done to move toward a fair and equitable wage structure,” the Denver Independent Restaurant Coalition Against Wage Cuts wrote in a letter sent to Denver City Council on Tuesday afternoon.

“Our city has made meaningful progress, and reversing that progress would send the wrong message to workers, small businesses, and the broader community,” the letter says.

The recipients of the message are the only ones who can adjust Denver’s tipped minimum of $16.29 an hour, among the highest in the country. That figure is more than double the $8.08 hourly wage restaurants could pay their workers in 2019, when the city passed an ordinance to start raising minimums.

The letter pushes back against a recently released report, authored by two Denver restaurateurs, detailing the state of the city’s restaurant industry. That report found that increased labor costs are ​​“the most frequently cited challenge” among restaurant owners and the “most destabilizing factor” for Denver’s full-service establishments.

The report also called for the city to return to the state’s tipped minimum wage of $12.14.

But the Coalition Against Wage Cuts says other rising costs should be on the chopping block rather than employee pay.

“Costs are unpredictable, persistent, and increasing across every area of operations,” the letter says. “But the solution cannot be to offset those pressures by reducing pay for workers who are already among the lowest-paid members of our local economy.”

The group cited safety, a “confusing” licensing process, rising rents and unfavorable lease structures as areas riper for the city to fix. They also highlighted a disconnect between Denver’s desire to “cultivate a thriving community of independent businesses and the actual support, incentives, and practical relief available to help them survive.”

“These are the systemic pressures that continue to strain independent restaurants across Denver and deserve thoughtful policy attention,” the letter reads. “We urge you to reject any proposal that would lower wages for tipped workers in Denver.”

Kristen Rauch, the executive director for independent restaurant industry group EatDenver, noted that the majority of the signatories were either limited or counter-service restaurants rather than the full-service sector, which has lost 15% of its jobs since 2019. Some, she added, aren’t located in Denver or don’t take the $3.02 tip credit, which allows restaurants to pay employees below the base minimum wage of $19.29, though they are required to make that amount up if tips don’t get them to that number.

“I’m appreciative of any small business perspective and people advocating for the industry, but we’re looking to represent the whole industry,” Rauch said. Her group, and the sector as a whole, comprises mostly full-service spots.

The coalition’s letter also called into question the validity of the restaurant report authored by Big Red F co-owner Dana Query and Snooze A.M. Eatery founder Adam Schlegel.

“This report was authored by restaurant owners who stand to financially benefit from the very policy changes being discussed,” it reads. “This presents a serious conflict of interest and raises concerns about bias in the policymaking process.”

But Query, whose group operates Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar and The Post in Denver, said she has “no skin in the game.” Her restaurants pool tips and don’t take the tip credit, she said, which means her serving staff is paid a base of at least $19.29.

“We were asked to do it because the city knows it has a problem and wanted to hear from the industry,” she said of how she and Schlegel came to author the report, which was based on qualitative and quantitative analysis of data and interviews with restaurateurs. She and Schlegel said the report was not based on a “single data point or perspective.”

“I don’t benefit from the tipped wage changing at all,” she continued. “It����ap misinformation to try and villainize Adam and I.”

Rauch, the EatDenver director, said that, despite the industry report recommendation, dropping the city’s tipped minimum wage to the state’s tipped minimum is not something restaurants want, nor is it on the table for potential city council proposals.

She expects her group to make an official policy endorsement in the coming weeks.

“That was something when we were reviewing and starting conversations,” she said of the report����ap recommendation. “But it was pretty much an immediate no.”

The signatories on the letter are Annette Scratch to Table, Aguanile, Art Club Coffee, Bar Max, Capital Thai, Convict Coffee, Copper Door, Corner Beet, Crema, Dio Mio, Easy Vegan, Farang Thai Kitchen, Finn’s Manor, Fort Greene, Ginger Pig, Good Bones Colfax, Hearth Denver, Hi Dive, Hooked on Colfax, Hudson Hill, Johnny Bechamel’s, MAKfam, Maiz Denver, Middlestate Coffee, Monarch Denver, Moon Raccoon Baking Co., Mother Other, Neon Cowboy, Outside Pizza, Peach Crease Club, Portside, Procession Coffee, Queen City Coffee Roasters, Rebel Bread, Redeemer Pizza, Rooster Cat Coffee, Rougarou, Sap Sua, Sesame Sandwiches, Sfoglina, Somebody People, Stella’s Coffee Haus, Stokes Poke, Stowaway Kitchen, The Cake Bar, The Crypt, The Denver Coffee Co, The Pearl, The Wild, Torpedo Coffee, Town Hall Collaborative, Traveling Mercies, Velvet Lasso, Weathervane Cafe, Yacht Club and Yuan Wonton.

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Monarch, his “pizzeria-meets-bistro,” will move into the Urban Cowboy boutique hotel at 1665 Grant St., replacing Little Johnny B’s, whose owners have decided to focus on their full-kitchen iteration, Johnny Bechamel’s, the free-wheeling Italian restaurant they opened last December at 81 S. Pennsylvania St.

Freeman and co-founder Danny Matthews will assume full-time command of the wood-fired oven in the hotel bar on Saturday, May 9, after first hosting a series of pop-ups inside the space (the first is April 13).

“I’ve been there a bunch when it was Roberta’s and Little Johnny’s, and I always just thought the place was super cute,” Freeman said. Roberta’s was a Brooklyn-based pizza restaurant that ran the space before Little Johnny B’s.

Little Johnny B’s stay at Urban Cowboy was always seen as temporary in the lead-up to Johnny Bechamel’s opening, said Devon Klug, a spokesperson for restaurant owner Mamas & Papas Hospitality Group, which also owns Dio Mio and Redeemer Pizza. Their exit was an opportunity for Freeman, who has been looking for a permanent space since 2023.

“Little Johnny B’s totally came in and saved us when Roberta’s left,” said Nicole Valdez, Urban Cowboy’s general manager, adding she is excited by Monarch’s “new, fresh program.”

Freeman will remain executive chef at Somebody People, 1165 S. Broadway #104, Denver. Owners Sam and Tricia Maher were aware of his property search since they started working together, he said.

“It’s all something that he’s worked for and that we encouraged him to do,” Tricia Maher said.

He just onboarded a new sous chef, Nicole Zell, and will continue to help plan the restaurant’s menu and source its ingredients.

His mind’s eye is now on Monarch, though. Soon he and Matthews will be there cooking every day, he said, baking sourdough pizzas and pastries. He expects to make plates of seasonal veggies and rotating salads, too.

“We want no printed menus. It will all be handwritten,” Freeman said. “Maybe one or two mainstay items, but other than that, really letting people and nature tell us what’s good.”

Specifically, the Rockies are welcoming Colorado-born “Birdcall” chicken to what they are calling the “Birdcall Deck.”

Birdcall, which offers all-natural craft chicken sandwiches, tenders, nuggets and tots, has 16 other locations, including one at Empower Field at Mile High.

If chicken isn’t what you are craving, don’t worry. Coors Field has lots of options.

The Sandlot Brewery in right field, which has undergone a makeover, features the Mamalona.

What is a Mamalona? A red chile tortilla, shredded romaine lettuce, shredded cabbage, house-smoked BBQ brisket, hot Cheetos dusted pork belly, Chihuahua cheese, Carolina gold BBQ sauce, avocado crema and fresh avocado.

If that sounds like a lot, it is. The monster-sized taco is meant to be shared by two or three people.

Aramark District Chef Billy Sims when asked how you eat it: “One bite at a time,” he replied.

While we are talking BIG, check out the Glizzilla (Section 157). It’s a one-pound, 23-inch all-beef hot dog on a 19-inch sub roll. It practically needs its own seat!

Though the hot dogs are smaller, the 9/9/9 Challenge (Section 139) is still a huge eating endeavor. It features nine slider hot dogs and nine four-ounce beers to be consumed over nine innings.

“This a fun play for us,” Simms said at Thursday’s media preview.

Another tasty option is “Mac on Deck.” The new food stand (Section 115) has five different mac and cheese options. Loaded Mac fits its name with bacon bits, cheddar jack, blue cheese crumbles, green onions and sour cream. Buffalo Mac features Buffalo chicken. Ballpark Mac is a twist on classic stadium fare with hot dogs, green onions and shredded cheddar cheese. There is, of course, Classic Mac, and there is also Vegan Mac.

“Wit Love,” which also has a location in Empower Field at Mile High, serves up Philly cheesesteaks. The shaved ribeye with Cooper sharp cheese and caramelized onions on an 8-inch Amoroso roll is available near Section 134.

And last, but not least, is the Pizza Donut. According to Sims, this is not what most people are expecting. “It’s a savory item, not a sweet,” Sims said. “In your mind, you’re thinking donut, and that it’s going to be sweet, and it is not. It will surprise you.”

The plain glazed donut has garlic butter, grated parmesan, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, marinara sauce, and is topped with pesto sauce and Italian seasoning.

Joy Hill

I stumbled upon Joy Hill, a pizza restaurant on South Broadway, intrigued by its lunch menu of 8-inch “pizzettes.” The specials ranged from $9 for a margherita pizza to $14 for one topped with prosciutto and gobs of burrata cheese, pictured above. It was a great size for one, and a substantial lunch. An employee there let me know about its happy-hour special, too, a 12-inch margarita pizza for $10.

1229 S. Broadway, Denver; 

Mici Italian

Here’s another lunch deal: At Mici Italian, a Colorado-based pizza and pasta chain, the “Pick 2” option lets you combine two entrees from the menu. The options were delightful. My plate of marinara penne pasta, two slices of “Giardino” veggie pizza and garlic bread, which came to $14.40 without tip, was hot and filling. The marinara sauce in the pasta was fragrant. The cheese stretched as I bit into the pizza, and the crust was crisp and delicious on its own.

Multiple locations across Front Range; 

Chook

The Chook on South Pearl Street looks discreet from the outside — a flat, black entry — though its interior is warm and open-air, and the rotisserie that spins in the back of the room makes the place smell heavenly. The Chook for You ($12.99) is an easy choice for a single person and includes your choice of white or dark meat, side and dipping sauce. I opted for the dark meat, macaroni and cheese and Big A’s BBQ Sauce, carving the chicken and marinated skin off the bone with a flat-bladed knife and dipping it straight into the tangy sauce. It’s an engaging eating experience.

1300 S. Pearl St., Denver; 

Hong Kong Station 3

The Denver Post’s Beth Rankin has already written about Hong Kong Station 3, which opened along East Colfax late last year, praising it as an ideal place for Cantonese, Szechuan and American-Chinese takeout. I’ll let you in on another deal available there and at the other locations in Centennial and southeast Denver’s Hampden neighborhood. The lunch special, which runs from 11 a.m. to 2:45 p.m., consists of a prepared beef, chicken, shrimp or vegetable entree with fried or steamed rice, a fried egg roll and wonton. The options listed online run between $12 and $13. It’s a lot of food, even if it’s nothing fancy, and still a foot in the door to the rest of the massive laminated menu.

2205 E. Colfax Ave., Denver; 

It was over a year ago that Reunion Bread founder Ismael De Sousa had announced the bakery’s eventual relocation from the Source Hotel in RiNo to South Pearl Street in Platt Park.

He hoped to open his expanded store last May, he said Tuesday, seated in front of his existing shop inside the Source’s market hall. But it was a newly partitioned property without any plumbing or electricity, he said. A lengthy period of construction and permit approvals with the city of Denver would push back that opening date and tack on thousands of dollars in renovations.

The space, at 1240 S. Pearl St., is almost ready for business and could be open as soon as the end of March.

“This is just not the same Reunion,” De Sousa said of the new space, which is more than twice the size of his stall at the Source. “You’re in a bakery that feels a little bit like a restaurant.”

The pastry chef, 42, was born in Portugal and raised in Venezuela before he moved to the United States. Reunion sells goods inspired by these countries, such as the Nata, an egg custard tart popular in Portugal, and the Golfeado, a Venezuelan sticky bun.

The bakery drew a big rave in its opening year from Bon Appétit magazine, and De Sousa was nominated for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker at the 2023 James Beard Awards.

On top of De Sousa’s mind for his new location is the cold display case, which will allow his staff to make and refrigerate cakes, eclairs and other “cream-based things” he didn’t want to reveal yet.

He expects to make savory items, such as a focaccia-based pizza, and slowly introduce new pastries. Lastly, he said he hopes to acquire a liquor license to sell wine in the afternoons.

The building Reunion Bread is moving into is also the new home of Food Lab, a cooking school.

But the bus, which is too tall to drive and has some of its electrical equipment clipped, wasn’t headed anywhere: Its driver is a giant stuffed teddy bear who sits buckled into the driver’s seat. Instead, the girls were joined on board by their parents who sat in one of the booths to drink their coffee.

Alice Choi, who opened Red Bus Coffee in November, got the idea for the setup from her father, Ricky Choi, who grew up in Hong Kong, where the double-decker bus was introduced during the British Empire’s lengthy rule of the region, and where it remains a mode of public transportation. So she commissioned a functioning bus to be built “from the ground up.”

It was manufactured from different parts in Asia, complete with an engine, and was shipped by boat to California. After that, it took four days to transfer by truck to Denver because of its height. Once there, Choi and her family remodeled the interior, Alice said.

Her original goal was to drive the bus and set up shop in the mountains. She learned she’d risk running into utility poles and be unable to drive through mountain tunnels, however, halting the idea.

Instead, Choi and her parents opened a pizza shop, Metro Pie Pizza, in the storefront next to where the bus is parked, at 890 Wadsworth Blvd., close to a U.S. 6 on-ramp. It came online this month.

Together, Choi refers to the two businesses as Red Line Station. Her parents run Metro Pie, while Alice serves coffee through a window on the first floor of the bus. The long list of drinks also includes lemonades and dirty sodas. It also sells breakfast pastries and croissant sandwiches.

Metro Pie Pizza has seven 12-inch pizza creations (all but one are $13.89) that are large enough for two and include some classic combos, like sausage and hot honey, and Canadian bacon and pineapple.

But the Choi family’s signature pie is the Kowloon Express (named for one of the three main areas in Hong Kong) and is similar to a style of pizza in Hong Kong, Alice said. It combines shredded, grilled chicken, mozzarella and green onions served over a Chinese sweet bean sauce known as tian mian jiang instead of tomato sauce.

While the pizzas are a little different for Choi’s father and her mother, Anna, the restaurant industry isn’t. They have decades of experience owning restaurants in Wisconsin, where Alice was born, and in Colorado, including Purple Ginger Asian Fusion in Lakewood and Sidewok Cafe in west Denver.

“They have tons of experience with Chinese food, to be honest, but this is their first adventure doing something a little different,” Alice said. Her father decided to stave off retirement and support her first foray into the food industry.

Red Bus Coffee opens at 5 a.m., while Metro Pie Pizza opens for lunch at 11 a.m. and stays open until 9:30 p.m. on weeknights. The grand opening of the pizza shop is Saturday, Feb. 21.

There’s Hop Alley, the first restaurant project he and his partner took on. The owner, Tommy Lee, later hired him to design Uncle Wash Park and Molino Chido, the latter a chef-driven taco shop that debuted inside Stanley Marketplace in Aurora late last year.

Then there was Spencer White and his partners, who brought Nguyen on to design River North hot spots Dio Mio and Redeemer Pizza. Both had their challenges: The fire department didn’t love their initial idea of hanging paper planes from the ceiling at Dio Mio, and Nguyen had to execute a difficult job at Redeemer Pizza, opening the front for sit-down diners and the back as a pickup and takeout order counter.

But a good relationship meant they would work together again on Johnny Bechamel’s, an Italian restaurant that opened next to Uncle Wash Park in December. With Molino Chido decked out in lime green chairs, and Johnny Bechamel’s chairs a subdued shade of seafoam, Nguyen’s wife has started referring to this as his “Green Era.”

Nguyen’s firm has also designed three of the seven restaurants in Denver with Michelin stars: Beckon, Bruto and the two-starred The Wolf’s Tailor.

Altogether, he’s responsible for the interiors of more than three dozen concepts.

“He’s probably been the architect of every one of your favorite restaurants,” said Mike Waldinger, CEO of the Colorado chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). “If it����ap got a Michelin star, there’s a darn good chance that Kevin was the designer of that restaurant.”

His contributions to the city’s literal culinary landscape were recognized in October by AIA Colorado, which named him its architect of the year. It’s the institute’s top honor, one that Nguyen is chalking up as a win for the city’s dining scene at large.

“I’m excited, probably more so, to see that Denver as a food scene is still growing,” Nguyen, 41, said of his ever-expanding list of clients. “And then secondarily, it means that I can still have a business and do the work that we love doing.”

His firm, Regular Architecture, is currently at work on a handful of projects, including Dear Emilia, the sister concept to Michelin-recommended Restaurant Olivia, which will open in late January at 3615 Delgany St., Denver.

Nguyen’s love of food developed when he was a child, eating the dishes made by members of his large Vietnamese-Mexican family in Aurora. Now food and drink have become his vocation.

“I don’t really want to admit this, but I have sort of become like the ultimate foodie,” he said, aware of the term’s archetype — an enjoyer of the finer things — and the spoils that come with his chosen line of work.

One of the first jobs Nguyen took after his studies at the University of Colorado was with Galloway & Co.. There, he was tasked with designing prototypes for fast-food franchises, including Jack in the Box and Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers. The job, Nguyen said, familiarized him with the inner workings of restaurants and their safety regulations.

Following a lead from a former professor, he and Scott Lawrence, his friend and peer in college, earned a contract to design Hop Alley. It’s where he first met Lee. They formed a firm, Nguyen Lawrence, and secured projects from restaurant owners looking for sleek designs for their own kitchens and dining rooms.

Nguyen continued the firm when Lawrence left for an academic position at the University of Idaho, changing its name to Regular Architecture. He hired two junior interior designers and rented an office, graduating from the early days of late nights crouched inside job sites, he and Lawrence working under the laptop light.

“What he’s doing now is so much more at a different level than what we were doing,” Lawrence said.

In recent years, Regular Architecture has designed the lively interior of Xiquita Restaurante y Bar in Uptown; the bagel shop/Japanese food counter of Odell’s Bagel and its owner’s new restaurant, Florence Supper Club; the storefront of dumpling hotspot Yuan Wonton; and Insee Father Noodles House, a noodle shop whose owner wanted to make it look like a 20th-century house in Thailand and decorated it with her own mementos of home.

His restaurant design is similar to his personal style: minimal, clean edges and bold, solid colors. The restaurateur’s identity is represented via cultural adornments, family photographs or artwork plastered along the walls. Bars are prominently featured, as is natural light, which he said improves working conditions for staff.

He prioritizes the work of chefs and other employees. It’s perhaps one of the reasons why so many chefs and restaurant owners keep hiring him to spruce up their interiors.

“He’s always super willing to deal with curveballs,” said Dio Mio’s White, noting his willingness to listen to feedback and redraw layouts.

Johnny Bechamel’s space was previously used by restaurateur Jared Leonard, who flipped through several concepts before abandoning the property. Nguyen’s main renovations brought the bar from the back of the room to the front, an open window into the buzzing new restaurant.

The owners of the European-inspired BearLeek called Nguyen up last year to ask for his help redesigning the basement used for years by Osaka Ramen.

“Probably the biggest failure of Osaka was that it was a basement restaurant that didn’t feel like you were in a basement,” Nguyen said. “That was our entire thing from day one. We were like, ‘I just want to make a freaking crazy night dungeon that just feels exciting.'”

The basement is now painted in dark colors and features splashes of blue and red neon lights. His firm custom-made light fixtures that are shaped like giant cigarettes — a nod to the restaurant industry’s iconic cigarette break — and hover over the dining tables. Framed photos in one section of the hall document the city spots where BearLeek chef Harrison Porter takes his own mid-shift smoke breaks.

“I was surprised how well they were able to envision the changeover,” BearLeek general manager Tara Marcellus said. “It’s kind of a hard thing to get into a space that’s already so well established.”

One project put him in touch with his roots. While designing the interior of Sap Sua, a modern Vietnamese restaurant on East Colfax Avenue, Nguyen reached out to one of his Vietnamese aunts for advice, someone he said used to get out of bed at midnight to fix up bowls of pho for her relatives.

The magnified life of the “ideal minority”: that was his upbringing, he said. He was named AIA Colorado’s Young Architect of the Year in 2019. In a career that’s largely white and male, Nguyen’s recent win for Architect of the Year led to other people of color reaching out to him over Instagram and asking how he grew his business to where it is today.

Nguyen is happy to help, serving as an ACE Mentor at local schools and volunteering Friday mornings at Food for Thought, a Denver nonprofit where he packs groceries for the children of low-income parents to take home from school.

Mentorship and continuing education are ingrained in the architecture career path, partly because of how intensive it is to get an architecture degree. Nguyen has taken that attitude to the restaurant world, developing relationships with hospitality workers and eating well while he’s at it.

“As architects, we have an inherent responsibility because of the impact and influence we have on every space that everybody walks into,” he said. “We have an inherent responsibility to do our best to push those boundaries in the use of those spaces as far as we can.”

When Lawrence visited Nguyen recently, the pair went out to eat, hitting up to six restaurants in one day, Lawrence said. He noticed how Nguyen would ask the staff not just about business, but about their life outside of work.

“It was very clear that there was a community there, that he was there building a community,” Lawrence said.

While he says he’d rather be behind the scenes, the AIA Colorado win has given him confidence going into the new year. He’s also pondering a major goal he’s yet to cross off his list: designing the exterior of a building.

“We haven’t done a building,” he said, the thought left lingering in the air.