Pizza Today - February 2016 - 16

conversation

JEFF SMOKEVITCH
BROWN DOG PIZZA - TELLURIDE, COLORADO
BLUE PAN PIZZA - DENVER, COLORADO

"SMOKE" SPEAKS
ON PIZZA STYLES
AND GLUTEN FREE
World Pizza Champion Jeff Smokevitch opened
Brown Dog Pizza in Telluride with Dan Lynch
in 2001. Last year, he expanded his concept of
multiple pizza styles to Denver with the opening
of Blue Pan Pizza with co-owner Giles Flanagin.

ON DIFFERENT PIZZA
STYLES, DIFFERENT MARKETS

- Brown Dog Pizza in Telluride,
Colorado, has a much larger
menu and offers a variety of
items in addition to pizza. We
offer five styles of pizza (Detroit,
American, New York, Chicago,
gluten-free). Brown Dog Pizza
has house-made pastas, subs,
salads, burgers, and wings. The
atmosphere at Brown Dog is
sports themed with more than
100 seats.
Blue Pan Pizza in Denver is a
pizza driven restaurant with five
styles of pizza, but we also offer
salads and appetizers. Blue Pan
has 20 dine in seats, with a full
bar and table service. But Blue
Pan is more carry out than Brown
Dog.
The neighborhoods in Denver
and Telluride are very similar in
terms of demographics. With
that being said our pizza menus

have a lot of the same offerings.
In Denver, our best selling pizza
is the "Parma Italia" which has
burrata, prosciutto, soppressata,
scarmorza cheese and arugula.
Telluride's best selling pizza is
the "313" with genoa salami,
ricotta, garlic, sweet piquante
peppers, Calabria chili peppers,
fresh arugula, basil and Parmesan
Reggiano. Those pizzas are very
similar in that they both are
Detroit-style pizza crust with
mostly imported Italian toppings.
ON PIZZA STYLES -
Although our signature style of
pizza in Denver and Telluride is
Detroit style, we firmly believe
that variety creates nostalgia
(which, in turn, sells a lot of
pizza). A lot of transplants live in
Colorado, so by offering different
regional styles of pizza we are
able to satisfy our many different
customer tastes.

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ON GLUTEN FREE - I cannot
stress the importance of our
gluten-free (GF) menu. It is very
difficult to account the additional
sales we get because a group
of eight may choose Brown Dog
Pizza over other Telluride eateries
because one person in their
group is GF. But I can tell you that
I would not open a restaurant
without a gluten-free menu, that
is how important it is to us. GF is
not a trend or fad, it is not going
away, ever.
We execute our menu by first
having a "cross contamination
disclaimer" on the GF menu. In
Telluride, we offer GF pizzas,
burgers, wraps and calzones.
Denver has GF pizzas and salads.
All of our GF food is prepared
in the same kitchen as our
regular food but we do practice
extreme caution in terms of cross
contamination.

What's the
biggest menu
trend right now?
Multiple styles of pizza.
We have proven success
in two markets by offering
five styles of pizza at each of
our pizzerias. We take great
pride in selecting regional
ingredients for each of the
styles of pizza crust. All of our
flours, water quality, salts, fats,
yeasts and sugars are carefully
tested for months before
selecting the best options for
each style.
Additionally, I see more and
more bread bakers entering the
pizza industry. Bread bakers
will raise the bar for the quality
of pizza crust in the industry.
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Pizza Today - February 2016

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