Whether you knew it or not Colorado has its very own style of pizza.
We have all heard of New York style or Chicago style pizza, but have you heard of Colorado style pizza? If not look no further because it’s right here in Fort Collins. While some may argue our style is very similar to Chicago style, just with a ton of toppings, I disagree and believe this is our own style.
To start I’m going to describe two of the most popular pizza types, and will be using them as an comparison, to our Colorado style pizza. Since Colorado style isn’t widely recognized yet, this is just a thought about how our pizza is so different it should be our own style. You may be thinking, who cares? Well, I do for one, but we should all care because this type of pizza is something truly special we have in Colorado, specifically in Fort Collins Colorado, so it should be recognized as such.
New York City Style
To begin let’s talk about the other styles of pizza out there, like the New York Style. This type is known to many as thin crust, typically sold by the slice and is often baked in a wood fire oven. This type of pizza is the easy grab-and-go pizza that will always be there. It’s not overdoing it with toppings, or the amount of crust. The classic, basic pizza that we all know and love. The culture of this pizza is also very trial and error. With such thin it’s often burned on the bottom giving it the smoky favor, but finding that ratio between brunt and Smokey is not easy. While this description may sound so generic. “New York Style pizza is in New York City. If it’s outside of the city then you know it’s just pretending to be New York Style”, according to Nick DeMarinis from Queens. This pretend style is seen all around, mainly in big chains, like domino's and some local restaurants here in Fort Collins like Slyce.
Chicago Style
Next let’s look at Chicago style pizza. This is known as the deep dish style where the dough is smacked into the pan until it’s at the lip of the dish. After that the dough is greased with corn or vegetable oil, and then they add the sauce and cheese. This pizza is typically served as a whole pie, meaning you don’t buy it by the slice like in New York, but that’s just the tip of the pizza-berg. There style also branches off to stuffed pizza and Chicago's pan pizza. What all of these pizza’s have in common though, is the dough is so deep into the pan that it almost resembles a pie. Since the crust is so thick and deep they are basically having to build it backwards. It starts with putting the dough in first, then the cheese, meat toppings, vegetables and lastly the sauce and more cheese. The Deep dish style like this is loosely defined and is widely seen throughout Fort Collins, but just because it looks thick that doesn't mean is Chicago style deep dish.
Colorado Style
Now that we have seen the two other major styles of pizza, let’s see how they compare to the pizza we have here in Colorado, specifically in Fort Collins. To start the image above is taken at Beau Jo’s pizza in downtown Fort Collins where they have invented, Colorado style pizza. This style may look like an ordinary pizza but I can tell you it’s very different. Let’s start with one of the most defining features for different styles of pizza, and that’s the crust. The crust above is very thick, but just because it’s thick it’s not deep dish. The dough is pressed against the pan until it’s all the way to the lip and almost folding over. When here at Beau Jo’s, we have a modified deep dish version. This version braids their crust and dips it in honey. This style was invented by Beau Jo’s. Along with this different type of crust we are also no stranger to different kinds of toppings. In Colorado, specifically Fort Collins, we will put almost everything on pizza, from jalapenos to cream cheese, nothing is out of our limits. Yes even pineapples. Here in Fort Collins we love to try new things and we like to be different. This can be easily seen by asking anyone, who doesn't live in Fort Collins, if they have had cream cheese on their pizza. All the people I have asked have said no, because in Fort Collins we try new things and we love to be different. Colorado also loves to be different, I mean look at us, we were one of the first states to legalized marijuana. This idea of being different means a lot, not many other states have their own pizza, not many other states have taken something, so widely adopted like pizza, and made it their own.
All that being said that is in no way Chicago style. Chicago style and Colorado style may both have deep dish, but here in Colorado we braid our crust and most importantly we dip it in honey giving it that soft flavor. We made this pizza different and with all of these facts pointing to Colorado having our their style, its odd that people still don’t believe it.
According to serious eats, many people who have been the Beau Jo’s believe that it’s just a slightly different version of Chicago style. The main point that these people are making is that, having honey on the pizza shouldn’t make it into a different style. They have also argued that the toppings we put on are just add-on’s that anyone can do, which is false. Colorado is one of the only places that has cream cheese on their pizza. While these things alone don’t make it its own style, having them all together makes it Colorado style pizza.
At the end of the day why does this matter? Why does it matter that we have our own style of pizza? Well, for starters I think it says something about Colorado, it says that we love our pizza and that we don’t want to follow the norms. This is shown in Fort Collins where places like Beau Jo's Krazy Karls, and totally 80’s pizza are. All of these places try new things and have added something different to our culture here in Fort Collins.You can see it all throughout Fort Collins from our atmosphere to our pizza we like to be different, so why should we care? We should care because is uniquely ours.