While being a chef was always a dream for Rogal, "I have a lot of friends who are in the industry, and they all told me not to do it," he shares. So instead, he spent most of his adult life working in the creative industry.
"I originally came to Colorado in the late ’80s and did four years at CSU. Then I moved back to New York City and went to the School of Visual Arts and then worked in advertising before moving back to Denver in the late ’90s," Rogal says. For years, he continued working in advertising for the homegrown sporting goods company Gart Brothers before striking out on his own.
"I discovered 3D printing before anybody knew what 3D printing was," Rogal recalls. "Back in, like, 2010, I bought a 3D printer. I kind of engineered and developed a 3D scanning matching, where you get in a booth and I 3D-scan people. This was when Comic Con was huge. I would go to Comic Cons all around the country, 3D-scan people in their cosplay and make figurines of them. That was an amazing business, and I loved it. But then COVID hit."
With his business at a halt, Rogal reflected on childhood memories. "My mom and grandfather taught me how to cook and eat pizza my whole life. ... So I got back in the kitchen and started doing that," he says. He also moved to New Mexico to look after his parents, bringing along an old rusty trailer he'd bought in Greeley for $500.
Mark Rogal spent two years building out a vintage trailer before launching his business in 2023.
Chris Byard
After spending two years fixing and building out the trailer, Rogal returned to Denver in 2022 with a new plan. "I was like, I can do this, and it's time to get into the food world. I always wanted to do it," he says. So he started going through the inspection process and fine-tuning all of his recipes, doing a couple of pop-ups here and there to make sure everything was coming together before officially launching Char Stone Fired Pizza on January 1, 2023.
While honing his pizza style, "I did a lot of homework, researching online and calling old friends in Jersey," Rogel explains. "I found out what all the old-school New York pizza joints use — what kind of flour they use, what kind of tomatoes they use, what kind of cheese they use. I just wanted to keep it authentic. ... I landed on old-school, Bari Italian-style pizza mixed with a little Jersey. It's a very quick cook, very charred up, and a very thin style of pizza."
Char's menu features seven different pizza options. Rogal says his mom is his inspiration for all of his food, but there's one pie that truly embodies her. "The Jersey tomato pie is an homage to my mom," he says. "It's kind of the original, original, original pizza. It's super thin dough, really good sauce, shaved garlic, olive oil and oregano. It's just the basics. It reminds me of my mom cooking a pot of sauce on the stove and me taking a piece of bread and reaching up, not being able to see the inside of the pot, and dipping the bread in there. It takes me back."
Rogel's current favorite is a new addition to the menu called the Genoa. It's topped with Genoa salami, housemade pickled red onions and housemade Calabrian chile oil. "It's salty and savory and a little bitey," he notes. "Everybody else's favorite is the Diavolo, which is a pepperoni and jalapeño pie drizzled with housemade fire honey."
Denver was recently named America's best city for pizza, and whether you agree or not, there are a lot of great slices in the city, including the pies from Char.
To find its schedule and get a taste, follow @charstonefired on Instagram.
