Aiming for a late 2023 opening, Sexy Pizza is making a move back into Capitol Hill. After a yearlong battle, the hand-tossed, scratch-made pizzeria shut down its celebrated store at 1018 E. 11th Ave. when property owner Katherine Diane MacRossie refused to renew the pizza chain’s lease without explanation, per Denverite. Now, there’s no lease needed as the celebrated neighborhood eatery has purchased the property at 1660 Pearl St. with plans to develop a new restaurant.
“The idea is that we won’t ever have to worry about people pushing us out,” co-owner Kyle Peters told What Now Denver. “This eviction provided us the spark we needed to buy our own location.”
Peters indicated that “Pearl Street is going to be a long process” to build out the property. First off, change of use provisions have to go through before construction can begin because the property’s previous business was not a restaurant.
Until that time (and maybe beyond), Sexy Pizza will cover the Capitol Hill delivery area out of its Lincoln Park ghost kitchen at 810 Vallejo St. The Pearl Street renovation will be its fifth brick-and-mortar restaurant and sixth overall. The new locale will primarily be a delivery, pick-up, and slices made-to-order business with little seating inside.
What will likely not change is the local pizza chain’s rabble-rousing philosophy. After the Sexy founding team campaigned for marijuana decriminalization in Denver in 2005, the first Capitol Hill store in 2008 became “a gathering spot for activists, artists and business entrepreneurs looking to collaborate on community projects” (per Sexy Pizza). In addition to being a vocal advocate of drug-policy and homelessness reform, owners proclaim that it offers “employees one of the best benefits packages in the city.”
“We coined the term ‘PhilanthroPIES’ in correlation with our hyperlocal support for certain Denver neighborhoods,” Peters said. “We’re always looking to support communities in whatever way we can.”
This means at least one fundraiser per week, per location, with 20% of total daily sales donated to local organizations. On top of delicious pies with “fresh ingredients and hand-cut veggies,” what more could Capitol Hill ask for in a local business?
