Backcountry Pizza
20 East Lake View Dr. #212
Nederland, CO 80466
You know what they say about real estate—location, location, location.
And you’d be hard-pressed to find pizza with a better view than at Backcountry Pizza.
Tucked away on the second floor of a quasi-strip mall in the scenic Rocky Mountain town of Nederland, CO, Backcountry Pizza is an unexpected gem.
The mountain towns in Colorado are like visiting a different country. The culture is foreign. Life is slower. And for some people, living that high is a lifestyle, if you catch my drift. There are at least two marijuana dispensaries in this town that has a population of just over 1,400!
Nederland is also home to the Frozen Dead Guy Days, an annual festival where they celebrate some guy who had himself cryogenically frozen, then, at his request, had his frozen body brought up to Nederland.
Sadly, however, with a dying mining industry, many of these Colorado mountain towns are quite economically depressed. I don’t know if I should blame the unions, NAFTA, or the EPA. But probably all of the above.
The people who live here in these rural towns are rugged—you’d have to be when you live 8,000 feet high, far from civilization and harsh winters.
For us, we had just finished a morning of snowshoeing just outside of Nederland, and decided to meander our way into the town in search of food.
Having been here previously, I had a pretty good lay of the land. Wanting to try something new, we found Backcountry Pizza.
As soon as we walked through the door, we knew we were at the right place. The place was packed and smelled wonderful. Thankfully, a table opened up just as we came in.
And after seeing the pizza, we were excited for the deliciousness to come. Of course, considering this was Colorado, they also had a decent selection of craft beers on tap.
I ordered a Gilpin Black Gold Porter from Hogshead Brewing out of Denver. After a morning of hiking through the snowy mountains, a dark malty beer is exactly what I had in mind.
After looking over the menu, we decided to order their chicken tenders and ‘The Works’ pizza—ground sausage, ground beef, mushrooms, banana peppers, feta, and mozzarella cheese. It also comes with olives, but since olives are a communist plot to ruin pizza, we declined.
The chicken tenders came out first and far exceeded our expectations. Here we thought we were just ordering your standard, run-of-the-mill chicken tenders at a pizza joint. Not the case. These were hand breaded and served with a house-made BBQ sauce. So good.
Then came the pizza. I’m not sure what measuring system they use, but supposedly we ordered a 16″ pizza. Maybe they meant 16″ radius instead of circumference.
This pizza was massive. And delicious. We had enough leftovers for the next couple days. Everything about this pizza was great and the crust was perfect.
So if you ever find yourself out in Nederland, CO for some snowshoeing or the Frozen Dead Guy Days, I highly recommend checking out Backcountry Pizza.
It’s good pizza and a brew with a view.
Rating: Bought the Shirt!
