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Blue Pan Pizza
Blue Pan Pizza opened in 2015 in Denver's West Highland neighborhood, founded by Michigan natives Giles Flanagin and chef Jeff "Smoke" Smokevitch as an intimate, 18-seat pizzeria built around a style Denver hadn't seen much of before: Detroit-style deep dish, with its thick, square crust and famously crispy, caramelized cheese-to-edge crust. The founders brought that pan-pizza tradition directly from their home state rather than adapting a more familiar Chicago or New York format. That Detroit square format is the whole draw — a rectangular pie baked in a well-oiled steel pan, producing a crust that's simultaneously airy in the middle and deeply crisp along the edges where the cheese caramelizes against the hot metal, a genuinely different eating experience from the round, thin-crust pizzas that dominate most of Denver's other pizzerias. Since opening, the restaurant has kept that Detroit-style focus as its core identity even as the menu has grown around it. National attention followed the local reputation Blue Pan built in its original 18-seat space — the restaurant has been featured on Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, recognition that's helped support real expansion beyond the original West Highland storefront into a Congress Park location and, eventually, Golden. For a Denver pizza list, Blue Pan Pizza is the essential "Detroit-style done right" entry — a thick, square-cut, crispy-edged deep dish from two Michigan transplants who brought a genuinely different pan-pizza tradition to West Highland in 2015 and have since grown it into a small, Food Network-recognized local chain.
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Hops & Pie
Hops & Pie opened in September 2010 in Denver's Berkeley/Highland neighborhood, founded by Drew and Leah Watson after they'd developed the concept while living in San Diego and spending time around its craft beer scene. Their core idea was simple and, at the time, still fairly novel in Denver: a genuinely good pizza built specifically to pair with serious craft beer, rather than beer treated as an afterthought to the food. That pairing philosophy shows up in the numbers as much as the menu — 22 rotating taps of craft beer sit alongside a pizza program that draws on both Detroit and New York traditions, built on a sourdough crust that gives the pies a tang and chew distinct from a standard pizzeria dough. Both Watsons had worked in well-regarded restaurants around the country before opening Hops & Pie, and that broader food background shows in a menu that treats pizza with more creativity than a typical taproom kitchen usually attempts. The restaurant picked up national attention when it was featured on Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, with Guy Fieri specifically calling out the kitchen's inventive approach to pizza and beer pairings — recognition that validated a concept the Watsons had built somewhat against the grain of Denver's pizza scene at the time. For a Denver pizza list, Hops & Pie is the essential "pizza built around the beer list" entry — a sourdough-crust, Detroit-and-New-York-influenced pizza program paired with 22 rotating taps, a taproom-first approach to pizza that's earned it a loyal following and a Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives feature since opening in 2010.
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