A Passion for the Pie: Local Spot Makes Italian List of Top Pizza in U.S.

Rosalee’s Pizzeria in Longmont has landed on the Italy-based 50 Top Pizza list, landing at number 14 on their 2025 ranking of best places to grab a slice in the United States.

The international recognition — the only listing for Colorado on the group’s top-50 pizzas or top-50 slices — is a reflection of owners James and Amy Ross’ approach favoring quality and balance. The establishment was also named by Westword as 2022's Best Destination Pizza.

“My style is less is more. I think it's ultimately all about dough, sauce, and cheese,” James Ross says.

Their dough, in particular, gets a lot of love and attention, and Ross wants it to cook properly, not coming out of the oven soggy and overloaded with toppings. He feels it can be overlooked — an underappreciated member of the bread family.
“For me, the perfect pie is gonna have an element of crisp, soft, and chewy. It should remind you, particularly the end crust, of really good bread because I don't think pizza's an inferior family member to good bread,” he says. “A good pie is gonna look vibrant and glistening and juicy, but it's also gonna have some char bubbles. And it's not always perfectly round. I like it to like look like it was made by a human being and with love and intention.”

Ross says they’ve pulled inspiration from multiple regions and numerous great pizzerias on the East Coast, eschewing being pigeonholed into one category or another.

“Our inspiration runs the gamut. Like the bottom of our ticket receipt says, ‘East coast pies under Western skies,’ and I still stand by that,” Ross says. “We'll get people that'll come in that are from Jersey and be like, ‘Oh, it's just like Jersey.’ And then you might get someone that doesn't like what you do and they're like, ‘I’m from Jersey. That doesn't taste anything like Jersey.’ I would never call us New Haven style, we don't call ourselves New York style. We call ourselves East Coast style.”

“I think more and more, we're our own style. I'd like to think that we're just Rosalee's now, but certainly inspired by East Coast. Nowadays, I feel like great pizza, it's made everywhere, so I try not to get too hung up on the style thing, and I just hope it's good and it's made with soul power.”

The couple met in 1999 as students at Denver’s defunct School for Culinary Arts. They bounced around the local food scene until 2014, when they opened Rosalee’s on Main Street in Longmont, tapping into a love for pizza that goes back to childhood.
“I think the passion comes from, from being a kid and it just never went away,” he says. “Some of my fondest memories were going sledding and then going to the local pizzeria where I lived, getting a cherry Coke with crushed ice and a slice of pepperoni and a plain slice.”

That simple, timeless appeal continues to inform their approach. He’s worked in fine dining, but all the “razzmatazz” didn’t really grab him or impress him any more than a loaf of finely crafted bread.

“Getting a crazy baguette, that floors me as much or more than any lobster tail, filet dinner. I think the same thing about a cheese slice. The simplicity is key. It’s good ingredients and let everybody speak their say,” he explains. “I can totally appreciate an incredible dining experience, but at the end of the day, that's not really what speaks to me the most or the loudest or the clearest.”

He says he and Amy still get excited about pizza all these years later, and continue to explore what’s available wherever they go. He said if they’re oAbaigaiut somewhere and they come across a pizzeria, even if they’ve already eaten, he has to stop.

“It's absolutely essential. Even if it doesn't look awesome, if it's a place where I can get a slice, I always do. It's without question," Ross says. "And it's not about comparing it, it's just 'cause we genuinely love pizza. I can't get enough of it, and I do like to have other people's pizza besides our own, almost more sometimes because it just seems fresh all over again.”

Rosalee's Pizza is at 461 Main Street in Longmont, and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m.-8 p.m. For more information, go to rosaleespizzeria.com.