Rosso Pomodoro Opens its Denver Doors

Internationally acclaimed Italian pizza restaurant brings authentic Neapolitan flavors to the city

July 3, 2024

Elizabeth Mehert-Ab,

Photo: Rosso Pomodoro

In 1988, three friends from Naples – passionate about authentic Neapolitan pizza – founded the world’s largest Italian-based multi-unit pizza restaurant, Rosso Pomodoro. Their desire to share their heritage inspired them to curate a selection of pizzas, made with high-quality ingredients, that align with Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana’s certification requirements.

Every bite tells a story with over eight tomato varieties grown by small producers, extra virgin olive oil made from Minucciola olives, 100% whole milk buffalo mozzarella from the Mediterranean Buffalo and slowly ground wheat flour. Pizzas are made to Neapolitan perfection by being proofed for about 24 hours and baked for about 90 seconds in a patented Italian wood-fire oven by professional fifth-generation Italian pizzaiolos.

Photo: Philip Wegener Photography & Video

CH&L had the pleasure of attending the Rosso Pomodoro’s VIP grand opening event at its first Denver location in the Central Park neighborhood on June 19th, 2024. We experienced freshly made Neapolitan pizzas and other menu items including, antipasti, charcuterie plates, bruschettas, salads, Italian desserts, wine, beer, and cocktails. We also had the opportunity to speak with Nicola Saraceno, CEO of Rosso Pomodoro, to learn more about the restaurant.

Photo: Jacopo Raule/Getty Images for Stroili

1. How do Rosso Pomodoro and Eataly work together as partners?

When, in 2010, Eataly opened their first US location near the historic Flatiron building in New York City, they decided to partner with Rosso Pomodoro to offer their customers the authentic Neapolitan pizza experience. Since then, our partnership has evolved, and, thanks to extremely positive customer reception, we opened more locations with them across the US and Canada. Our team of Pizzaiolos makes a curated selection of pizzas every day as part of Eataly’s restaurant offering, with the same quality of dough, ingredients, and expertise that we offer in Italy—the same quality and passion that we now bring to Denver.

Arugula Salad. | Photo: Rosso Pomodoro

2. Why is Colorado the restaurant’s newest location?

In selecting the most attractive market for this project, we took various criteria into consideration: we searched locations that would be complementary to our existing footprint, those receptive to our offer, and a representative base for further franchising expansion. Colorado, and Denver in particular, was an excellent fit. In fact, Denver is a vibrant, growing community with a sophisticated food scene. Its people are curious about food and love pizza in particular – as confirmed by the recent claim as “America’s Best City for Pizza.” Denver is also home to several successful new restaurant concepts, which makes it even more interesting for Rosso Pomodoro as a starting point for our US standalone concept.

Rosso Pomodoro’s Central Park Neighborhood location. | Photo: Philip Wegener Photography & Video

3. What makes a Neapolitan pizza Neapolitan?

The beauty of Neapolitan pizza is its essential simplicity: a perfect balance of a few high-quality, selected ingredients brought together with expertise and care. The dough needs to be made following a specific recipe with the best flours. It is proofed for over 24 hours under controlled temperature to make it light and easily digestible. The dough is spread by our trained Pizzaiolos using an age-old, specific technique that we teach to our kitchen staff.

A true Neapolitan pizza has few toppings, but they need to be high quality, in the right quantity, and matched carefully in order to keep the flavor balanced and clean. And last but not least, it is cooked with expertise in a high-temperature oven in just 90 seconds before being finished and served. As you can see, it’s a simple product accessible to all, but it has a lot of history and attention to detail, which is what we offer to each of our customers every day, and we take a lot of pride in that.

Photo: Rosso Pomodoro

4. What are customer favorites at Rosso Pomodoro?

Our most iconic product all over the world is the Margherita pizza. We offer it in different versions, either with a traditional or a thin crust called “Ruota di Carro”. In addition, we also offer a version called “Verace” with a special Italian Buffalo Mozzarella, that yields an even fuller, creamier taste. Among the other Pizzas, our version of “Pepperoni” is proving extremely popular. Among the rest of our offerings, like our bruschetta boards prepared with bread rigorously baked on-site every day, are also very appreciated.

Photo: Rosso Pomodoro

5. What impact does the restaurant want to achieve in Colorado’s food scene?

There is no shortage of pizza options in any city in the world. Our objective is to give the people of Denver the opportunity to discover and appreciate how an authentic Neapolitan pizza from Naples tastes like. Our ambition is then to become your pizza of choice!