<body><div><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=16s9pN_1Gywsni500" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=16s9pN_1Gywsni500" width="1250" height="937" >From the stories making headlines to the restaurants, music and culture that make Denver one of a kind, Westword is there. Help us raise $50,000 by December 31 to keep independent local journalism going strong in 2027. OK, so we’ve written a lot about Risica lately. It was on multiple Most Anticipated lists over the years, as it took years to finally open. Then we wrote about its opening. So running one more piece may feel like overkill until you consider an important fact — we’ve never actually eaten there. Until now. And let’s be honest, that’s really the most important thing to cover. The good news is that Andrea Frizzi’s passion project was absolutely worth the wait. Sure, on the surface, it may seem like just another pizza joint. But it’s so much more in ways you might not even notice unless you know what to look for. <figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3m4clS_1Gywsni500" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3m4clS_1Gywsni500" width="1024" height="768" ><figcaption>Andrea Frizzi at Risica, a “Milanese pizzeria and wine bar.” Antony Bruno</figcaption></figure>Notice of Collection | Terms | Privacy<h2>An Italian vibe</h2>“I’ve been thinking about this since 2005,” says owner Andrea Frizzi, who many Denver residents will remember from Il Posto and Vero. The vision from the start, he says, was to bring to Denver the kind of dining experience you’d find in Italy, specifically in his native Milan. That’s not so much about the food as it is about the vibe. The pizza, which makes up about half the menu, is traditional Neapolitan style. There really isn’t a “Milan style” of pizza. But what Milan does have is a certain kind of energy — more like a house party than a restaurant. And to accomplish that, you need the right menu and the right staff. So on the service end, Frizzi didn’t want a staff of “professionals” trained in the traditional hospitality style of service. He wanted fun people who know how to create a good time. “I don’t like how performative it’s become,” Frizzi says of hospitality today. “It’s not for the public, for themselves. Some of them they are very successful. Some of them, they are driven by media and a following, but it’s very performative. I like to serve really good food for a really good price in a very energetic environment.”Our server, for instance, didn’t have a restaurant background. He was in tech, got sick of it, quit, and now waits tables. Clad in a college T-shirt and a wool hat, he might not have been as familiar with the wine list or Italian pronunciation. But he was a screaming good time. It’s loud, but a good loud. A comfortable loud. The kind of loud where you feel like you’re in a fun, buzzy place, but you don’t have to yell. <h2>Everything we ate at Risica</h2>Next comes the menu. It’s hard to create an energetic environment with a fussy menu. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a time and a place for fussy. Just not here. Frizzi is a highly experienced chef, familiar with fine dining and fancy techniques galore. But he’s using his talents to make simple food exceptionally well — pizzas, salads, some small plates and salads. “I’m a very fundamentally sound chef,” he says. “That means I was trained properly and I have all the fundamentals. Right. But I want to just do things and inspire myself. I want to flow.”<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3dlLeG_1Gywsni500" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3dlLeG_1Gywsni500" width="1024" height="703" ><figcaption>Risica’s build-your-own-board taglieri program is a smart and refreshing take on the standard charcuterie board. Antony Bruno</figcaption></figure>We started with taglieri, a sushi-menu-style addendum where you mark how many ounces of the available meats and/or cheeses you want, each by the ounce. It’s a deceptively simple format. At first, you may feel a little intimidated by the unfamiliar meat and cheese options. But compared to a classic French charcuterie board, this is pretty accessible. The meats and cheeses all range from $5 to $7 an ounce. Each order comes standard with fresh-baked focaccia. Order three, and you also get pickled vegetables (giardiniera), cornichons and olives. We opted for the mortadella and the prosciutto rosmarino (a rosemary-spiked ham) and the truffle sottocenere (cow’s milk cheese with black truffle) and a soft, luxurious la tur. That and a glass of wine seem like a perfect way to spend a lazy afternoon. But we were just getting started. Next up is a short list of small plates, most called piattini — cast-iron saucer small plates served either hot or cold made for sharing. The signature favorite here is the stuffed calamari ($10), an evolution of the same dish from the Il Posto days, filled with capers, anchovy, and breadcrumbs and baked in a briny marinara sauce that just begs for a side of focaccia for a little post-nosh scarpetta. It was such a table favorite we wound up ordering a second. Other options include a burrata, cannellini bean hummus, eggplant parmigiana, and a 72-hour cured citrus salmon that demands a second visit alone. <figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4QNJql_1Gywsni500" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4QNJql_1Gywsni500" width="1024" height="768" ><figcaption>Risica’s portafogli “pizza wallets” are a unique and welcome addition. Antony Bruno</figcaption></figure>Normally, I’d have gotten a salad to go with the inevitable pizza, and the barbabietola ($14) — with arugula, fennel, and oven-roasted beets on ricotta — is on deck for a future visit. But this was work, and research demanded opting instead for one of the four portafogli “pizza wallet” sandwiches that’s become a popular street food in Italy but not very common yet in the Denver area. It’s a simple concept: bake a pizza shell naked with a little oil till it puffs up, then stuff it with various cold fillings. The must-try is the mortadella ($14) filled with super-thin slices of the fatty namesake Italian cold cut, with a caciocavallo cheese, pistachio arugula pesto, and marinated sundried tomatoes. As a sandwich, it’s huge and easy to split between two people. But logic goes out the window when something tastes this good. Fortunately, we had plenty more food coming, so no fights broke out over the last bites. Finally, yes — the pizza. As noted, all are classic Neapolitan, with equally classic toppings. We chose the salsiccia e funghi (sausage and mushroom) for $17. But others that look enticing are a simple margherita ($15), the capriccioss (with artichokes, trumpet mushrooms, and olives for $17), and the classic combo of prosciutto di Parma, arugula and fior di latte, which Frizzi likes so much he named it after himself — la Frizzi ($18).<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4BQdo3_1Gywsni500" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4BQdo3_1Gywsni500" width="1428" height="1071" ><figcaption>The pizza at Risica leans more on traditional Italian toppings than Americanized versions. Antony Bruno</figcaption></figure>As they do in Italy, you’ll want to start these with a fork and knife, since the crust is thin and the toppings saucy. Just a perfect simplicity of soft and crispt dough, acidic tomatoes, and fatty cheese. Somehow, we saved room for dessert, a stellar tiramisu ($10). “I make the best tiramisu,” Frizzi says, while making fresh espresso to whip up another batch after already running out early in the evening. We’re not arguing. Most tiramisu served in this country is an abject crime. This was divine. He goes old school with this, whipping meringue into sweet mascarpone cream over espresso-soaked ladyfingers. <h2>The bill at Risica</h2>Anyone who’s ever been to Italy had at least one meal where, when the bill came, there was some confusion over whether the restaurant forgot to include everything ordered. It’s just too damn cheap. How could this be? “This is how you eat and what you pay in Italy,” Frizzi says when we got our bill. “I’m trying to make a point. Everything else is so expensive. I don’t want that.”<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4cQOsC_1Gywsni500" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4cQOsC_1Gywsni500" width="1024" height="768" ><figcaption>The tiramisu looked so good we started eating before getting a photo. Antony Bruno</figcaption></figure>The four of us had ordered five glasses of wine, followed by a bottle (hey, it was a fun night). We then had one pizza, one portagogli, two stuffed calamari, four ounces of meat and cheese, a side of bread and butter, and a tiramisu for a total of $225. That’s about $50 a person before tip. Take away the wine and it would have been half that. That’s total madness in this city, in this day and age. “I know what I’m fucking doing,” Frizzi assures. This is a chef and a businessman using his experience and talent to create a menu designed not to increase the average check cost, but to lower it, without sacrificing quality or cravability. It very much feels like the right restaurant at the right time. But it is a risk. It takes volume for this model to work. Turnover. Covers. Risica opens at 11 a.m. and doesn’t close until 9 or 10 p.m., and the menu is meant to serve all those hours, with Frizzi so far working every single one of them (and then some). “This is the way I want to do it,” he says. “I have no fear. I do things that make me happy, and I take risks like crazy.”But the risk is all on him. For diners, there’s no risk at all. Risica is located at 3463 Walnut St. and is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. For more information, visit risicadenver.com. </div></body>

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From the stories making headlines to the restaurants, music and culture that make Denver one of a kind, Westword is there. Help us raise $50,000 by December 31 to keep independent local journalism going strong in 2027. OK, so we’ve written a lot about Risica lately. It was on multiple...

First Look: Risica punches far above its weight

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From the stories making headlines to the restaurants, music and culture that make Denver one of a kind, Westword is there. Help us raise $50,000 by Decembe

First Look: Risica punches far above its weight

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