Boulder Organic Pizza, a.k.a. "The BOP," serves up one-size-fits-all pizzas with thin, Southern Italian-style crust baked in a brick oven. General manager Christopher Odde says house specialties also include the calamari (already pegged by some customers as the best they've ever had, Odde notes), caprese salad, and the "Mama Rosa" meatball pizza (inspired by chef Giuseppe Monaco's mother).
"We chose from the arsenal of his best," says Odde of Monaco's culinary repertoire. Odde, one of several financial backers of the restaurant, says he originally envisioned it as a New York-style pizzeria. Once he met Monaco, however, that all changed. "It just melded so well with Giuseppe and his background," Odde explains.
The BOP will have a seasonally-rotating menu. Chef Monaco (formerly of Loveland's Monaco Trattoria), who hails from the Italian island of Capri also emphasizes local, organic and sustainable ingredients. Local products include Hazel Dell mushrooms from Windsor and produce from Abbondanza; two of the three beers on tap are local; all 37 wines are organic, biodynamic and/or sustainable.
The restaurant also features intriguing "Mezza Luna" calzone/pizza hybrids, composed of a pizza crust half-folded and stuffed with ricotta and other ingredients, the other dressed as a pizza. (The dish is currently becoming popular in Naples, Monaco says.) Monaco also makes his own limoncello, lime cello and other Italian liqueurs in flavors including blueberry and walnut.
Bonus: The BOP is foregoing faux cheese in favor of more inventive options. For example, its vegan roasted beet pizza (which already sounds pretty terrific on its own) replaces cheese with a cannelini sauce (and comes topped with beet tops as well).
The BOP has daily meat, pasta and appetizer specials, and almost all menu items can be made gluten-free at no extra charge. Pizzas run $9 -14. The restaurant is open from 11 a.m to midnight daily. For more info, call 303-999-3833.
And unfortunately, the name in fact has nothing to do with Lauper. "It's a fusion of old world cuisine and new type of environment," Monaco says. "It's great food, authentic food but with the fun atmosphere of 'bopping.'"
Well, ok, but nonetheless:
