Beau Jo's Pizza is Tops in the Colorado Rocky Mountains

There are so many choices today. New York style verses Chicago style. Red sauce or white sauce? Meats or vegetables? What about both?

Choosing pizza has become nearly a scientific endeavor these days. In the Rocky Mountains, the choice is simple. Despite popular choices of brands like Black Jack, Papa John's, and Domino's, there is only one option Colorado natives and the lot turn to when it comes to pizza - Beau Jo's.

Dotted along the Front Range, from Fort Collins to Denver, the award winning Beau Jo's serves up Colorado-style pizza, offering a third choice of pizza little known on the East Coast and in the Midwest.

What became reality in 1973 for owner Chip Bair, is now a legendary franchise in Colorado. Beau Jo's pizza opened its doors in Idaho Springs, nearly 37 years ago. Bair had an 18 seat, tiny store in the small mountain town nestled 30-plus miles west of downtown Denver. His idea to attract outdoor enthusiasts returning from the slopes in the winter time and the trails in the summer slowly took off, and now includes six locations.

Besides providing an unique option for pizza, each restaurant features a casual dining atmosphere where the Old West and the mining past of Colorado meets. The walls of each restaurant are canvassed with a combination of a RockyMountain silhouette, wood paneling accents, historic black and white pictures and relics of the Gold Rush era of 1850s Colorado.

Conversely, customers come for the pizza pies and the legendary Mountain Pie, not necessarily for the décor and unique themes. Truly a pizza lover's dream, it becomes very tough to categorize this kind of pizza. Midwesterners who love Chicago-style deep dish might say this is the best alternative in this part of America. However, Mountain Pie pizza is not measured in inches in diameter, but in pounds.