All concessionaires but one are owned and operated by SSA Group, a Colorado-based company providing food, retail and admissions services to 79 cultural attractions across the country. It recently brought on a local chef to launch one of the new food concepts in Denver. The outlying vendor is Simply Pizza Truck, a local small business that launched its Denver Zoo residency restaurant this summer season.
“At Red Rocks, the Pepsi Center or the Denver Broncos stadium, you're going to find an Aramark or an SSA or somebody [similar] that's heading those contracts,” says Melinda Carbajal, Simply Pizza Truck co-owner and CEO. And while such corporate entities can withstand the large cuts that venues take from concession sales, she explains, “it's hard for a small business. Huge percentages make it almost impossible for us to really move into that territory.”
Fortunately, Carbajal had an in. Todd Langfield, vice president of special projects at SSA Group, provided Simply Pizza Truck a vending opportunity at the National Western Stock Show, which the hospitality group has partnered with since 1971. “They see us as a value to their entity,” says Carbajal, who leveraged the open door and began pushing for a space at the zoo two years ago.
In part, Carbajal’s interest in the location comes from a place of personal sentiment. “For me, [the Denver Zoo] is nostalgic," she says. "The idea that we could take our product there and be a part of people’s memories was really important to me.”
Carbajal adds that pizza is appealing to the high-traffic zoo’s most common crowd: families with young children. A mother of five herself, she comments, “Even though we're doing high-level ingredients and coming up with new flavors that meet the needs of adults, kids love pizza.”
Carbajal describes Simply Pizza's strawberries and cream as “a treat that's healthy and exciting for kids.”
Simply Pizza Truck
Carbajal purchased Simply Pizza Truck in 2019 with her husband, Amando, and her sister, Mary Rose. “I got them all drunk on my birthday and said, ‘Hey, guys, let's quit careers and make pizzas instead,’” she jokes. They agreed, and in March 2020, Simply Pizza Truck made its first appearance under new ownership at a festival in Steamboat.
“It was amazing. We made all this money, and we're like, ‘Yes, we made the best business move ever!’ And then a week later, COVID happened and the world shut down. We had to rewrite the business in our own way. That is really where the idea of building the boxes came from,” Carbajal says.
During pandemic-era service, she explains, there was a demand from places like breweries that wanted the truck to be left on the premises long-term. “We were like, ‘We can't leave our truck, but maybe we could design these kitchens that could be left places.’ We built two of them right out of the gate. One of them is at the Denver Zoo. The other one is at a brewery in Brighton called Something Brewery.”
Another residency restaurant will open at Buckley Space Force Base at the end of the year. Kate, the original food truck, is primarily used for private catering these days, but still appears annually at the National Western Stock Show and the Adams County Fair. Even with its rapid growth, Simply Pizza Truck is committed to quality. “I think what makes us stand out is that we never settle when it comes to the ingredients that we use," says Carbajal. "We're importing our [Caputo] flour from Naples, Italy. We're using Grande cheese, which is, in my opinion, the best in the business." Corto olive oil is sourced from California, and local ingredients such as Canino's sausage are used, too. All of the house-smoked meats are free of preservatives and additives, and the flavorful, scratch-made sauce involves an eight-hour cook in a Le Creuset pot.
These tasty components come together to form classic Neapolitan pies, as well as creative takes like Hatch green chile chicken pizza, which was featured on an episode of the Cooking Channel's Food Truck Nation.
Carbajal describes her husband as the concept’s “culinary master,” adding that his exposure to Mexican cooking techniques results in some fusion flavors. “We’re following the trends and making sure that we're staying on point with what we're bringing to our audience," she says.
Local trends also influence the menus and programs of SSA Group, which brought on executive chef Nick Graves eight months ago. His résumé includes fine-dining experience and opening Lea Jane's Hot Chicken at Avanti Food & Beverage in 2020. Born and raised in the South, the chef’s expertise helped launch SSA Group’s newest program at the Denver Zoo: Scratch.
The mobile food concept specializes in hot chicken, served in the form of its top seller — garlic fries loaded with crispy chicken nuggets, white queso, green onion and pickled shallots — and in towering sandwiches with slaw and charred-onion ranch.
The dressing appears on other concessionaires’ menus, too, as the recipe is a favorite of Graves and executive sous chef John West. The two began working together eight years ago, and West spearheaded the Craft Fine Street Foods concept at the zoo, which currently serves three varieties of Korean corn dogs — including the Cornflake Dog, which comes with the signature savory condiment.
“We char the onions, and we ferment the vinegar and the eggs together to allow the thickening of the sauce. Then we blend it with salad oil and a lot of black pepper,” explains West. “So it's kind of creamy, kind of sweet, lots of acid — because as you know, it's a hot dog. It's predominantly fat. So you need something bright but that still has an immense amount of flavor.”
Other options at Craft Fine Street Foods include the Crispy Rice Dog and the Flaming Hot Dog, which is half beef, half mozzarella cheese, rolled in Flamin' Hot Cheetos and drizzled with spicy mayo.
Graves says that he and West worked on the corn dog recipes for months. “Coming from our background, it should be easy, but this is one of the hardest concepts we ever had to do. Because [of the] high altitude, things fry differently. We had to figure out the right batter ratio, and it was pretty difficult, actually.”
General manager Emma Blackman notes that the zoo aims to provide options that go beyond the typical hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken tenders — though those items are available at the sole indoor eatery, Samburu Grille. Still, its menu is elevated by fresh ingredients and unexpected offerings, like vegetarian grain bowls and an impressive mushroom Swiss burger.
“We take a blend of creminis and buttons, roast them off to pull out all the flavors, and then we mix them with seasoning," Graves says of the patties, which are grilled and topped with melted Swiss cheese, roasted garlic mayo, mushroom ketchup, lettuce, tomato and onion.
Just about everything served at the Denver Zoo pairs well with a cold one, which SSA Group sources from local breweries, including Coors, Great Divide and Odell. “Alcohol hasn't always been a huge thing for family establishments like this, but it's a big part of what we do,” notes Blackman.
Booze is available daily, but imbibing is even more popular during the ongoing Adulting With the Animals event, during which zoo hours are extended to 9 p.m. on select Thursday evenings from June through October.
“The zoo has put an emphasis on trying to build programming around that younger generation — they’re the next generation of fundraisers," Blackman adds. "They’re the ones that are going to continue to support the zoo, so they have started to home in on things that are not necessarily family-oriented that we can do at a venue like this.”
Concludes Carbajal: “If you haven’t been to the zoo in years, it's something that you should check out."
