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Saturday, June 14, 2008

[Special Report] Beau Jo's Pizza

Beau Jo's
1517 Miners St,
Idaho Springs, CO Map

This is a long overdue special report on some great Colorado pizza. On your next trip out west be sure to schedule a stop at Beau Jo's.

The original Beau Jo's is in Idaho Springs, a small Colorado mining town. And apparently miners take their pizza seriously. I've been to this town twice now and while I've never remembered to bring my pickaxe, I have always brought some friends and a healthy appetite. Average Joe Snowboarder encounters this place by pulling off I-70 between Denver and the ski resorts.

Beau Jo's offers an extensive menu with an incredible number of pizza options.

Pizza sizes are described in pounds. 1-5lbs instead of S-XL, which makes more sense if you're used to weighing the days work.

Crust options are Thick (Mountain Pie) or Thin (Prairie Pie). And while I am from the prairie state, Mountain is definitely the way to go. Options for crust are honey white or honey whole wheat. And I'm happy to report that Beau Jo's rejects the notion of disposable crust ends (Giordano's are you paying attention?!). A bottle of honey is provided as a dip for the large fluffy crust. It's a deliciously sweet way to finish off a big slice.

You'll also have some decisions to make with the sauce. There is regular pizza sauce, garlic/olive oil, basil pesto, garlic cream, barbeque, salsa, ranch, green chili, marinara, ranch/hot sauce. Nice, huh?

Plenty of ingredient choices including the regulars and more rare toppings like salami, andouille sausage, meatballs, red hot chicken, smoked salmon, pepperoncini, green chili, tofu, sun dried tomatoes, scallions, and artichokes.

Choices of cheese include mozzarella, low fat mozzarella, fontin-provolone, dairy free mozzarella, montery jack, provolone, cheddar, feta, ricotta and swiss.

You could eat here every day for ten years and never have the same pizza. And while the indecisive are already getting overwhelmed, Beau Jo's also has a list of 46(!) specialty pizzas with their favorite combinations.

Lastly, Beau Jo's also has the John-Candy-from-the-Great-Outdoors-esque pizza challenge. THE CHALLENGE is their Grand Sicilian weighing in at 12-14lbs with hamburger, sausage, green pepper, onion, mushroom, and pepperoni. Two people try to finish in one hour. Winners take home $100, t-shirts and the pizza is free. Even those who epically fail (i.e. two teenage girls with daddy's credit card) will have a Polaroid picture placed on the wall to commemorate the attempt.

Our group ordered two Mountain Pies specialty pizzas, which were excellent. My wife, Kelly, especially liked the Beau Taco pizza. Everyone enjoyed the honey-dipped crust ends. Service and wait time were reasonable. We had leftovers and everyone could still afford their lift tickets the next day.

Highly recommended. 8/10.

Ryan


Ryan, Chris and Paul eating at Beau Jo's


Crust on the taco pizza


Honey for the crust!


Chis polishes off a slice


Polaroids on THE CHALLENGE wall of fail

Posted by Ryan at 3:10 PM
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5 comments:

  1. arod(class of 06)Jun 22, 2008 07:23 PM
    dude, as a pizza club alum i must say that i've been to this places many many times since i was a kid. it's one of my favorite pizza places of all time. glad it made the review board!! thanks ryan!
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  2. This is not yo mama's pizza! That is for sure! People that don't eat crust shouldn't even be allowed in this place! We loved it and will visit every time we head back to the mountains.
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  3. Good find Ryan. I made it to Beau Jo's last weekend while visiting my older sister. My slice review is here.

    The honey for the crust is genius and it should be standard at pizzerias. It's certainly more needed than jars of red pepper flakes and crappy parmesan.

    Also, I must defend Giordano's. While the end crusts would be made better with some honey to dip them it, they are far from disposable. I eat my crusts at Giordano's every time I go.
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  4. Fair enough. However, I've been involved in enough informal Giordanos pizza eating contests on 2 for 1 mondays to know that after slice two the crust is a bit of a chore. By slice five you really start wondering why they make it so thick since its sort of dry and tasteless. People should start bringing their own honey.
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  5. Im from Boston and love both Chicago and NY-style pizza and find Beau Jo's to be inedible.
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