Denver Pizza is a new Chicago style pizza shop that opened up just down the street from Thomas Jefferson High School earlier this year, promising better pizza for great prices.
Photo by Mia Nogueira
Driving around the Happy Canyon plaza is pretty dull, to be honest. I remember my first time seeing the logo for Denver Pizza in the plaza. I was taken by its great orange mountain above the restaurant; it is very eye catching, and the logo makes you wonder what’s on the inside, and what this new pizza shop is all about. And it delivers.
Senior Mitch Mankoff told me the food was good and the price was cheap, so I wanted to see for myself. As I approached the doors I saw a sign that read, “Lunch Special: Personal Pizza + two toppings and a fountain drink.” The greatest part about this sign is the lunch special is true, and it is extremely cheap: $5, plus tax. This is an amazing price for a personal pizza, and I immediately walked in and ordered the lunch special. My toppings were sausage with extra sausage.
Before I sat down and began the wait for my pizza, I took a quick glance around the place. It is pretty easy-going, almost dull. There is an orange background that gives off an eccentric glow to the place, and a wall with a bunch of pictures about Denver Pizza, and the areas for the drinks. It would be nice to have some artwork or paintings, but let’s hope that can come within the next year.
I sat down with my fountain drink consisting of brisk raspberry iced tea, and waited eagerly for my pizza. Every time the pizza man – well we will just call him that for now – came up and announced a pizza, I was jumping up and down hoping it was my sausage pizza. Sadly, my pizza was the last one to come out, and it was a good 15-minute wait. This can be expected, as there were a group of kids who all ordered around the same time, and with one guy working, he had to get all of the pizzas together. My pizza finally came, and I held it, staring at the sausages like I was about to conquer Europe.
I took a bite and savored every moment. It was a long gradual process of bringing the pizza to my mouth. I took a slow bite, and immediately I tasted quite an almost overwhelming garlic taste with a hint of some meaty sausage. It is not your typical sausage, the small and insignificant little pork chunk. No, this was a slice of some really nice sausage, like the perfect breakfast sausage that you wake up to on your greatest day.
The pizza in its entirety was good; it was not something great or the perfect pizza, but it was good. It is definitely better than Aurelio’s, the old pizza shop that used to occupy that spot. For the price, the pizza is great. Spending under six dollars and getting pretty full is quite a great deal. The calzones are a favorite of mine for pizza shops, and they did not disappoint. The calzone is huge, and for $7.99, it is quite the package. After eating one I felt like my stomach had an entire medium Domino’s pizza inside it, for less money out of my pocket.
Denver Pizza is a new pizza shop that opened in 2010 in the Happy Canyon Shopping Center crossing the streets Hampden and Happy Canyon. Denver Pizza opened up in downtown Denver last year in 2009, as a pick up only pizza shop. The new shop is just up the street from Thomas Jefferson High School, and will soon be a new hit lunch spot for the price and quality of the pizza.
