When you are in Beaver Creek or Vail, the place for pizza is Blue Moose Pizza. It just may be my favorite pizza joint in the Rockies.
The atmosphere is casual, comfortable and yes, you can just roll in from the mountain in your ski gear. They are open for lunch, après ski, and dinner.
They have great specials daily include a slice and soda for lunch or slice and beer for après ski. They don’t deliver, but you can call in a to go order.
Their motto is “Life is short, eat more pizza!” Blue Moose Pizza has been opened since 1995. They feature a New York style pizza, along with salads, subs, and hot Italian entrees.
With the butcher paper and crayons on the tables, you can let your inner artist out while you wait on your pizza.
I first discovered Blue Moose in Beaver Creek when some girlfriends from Texas came up for a long ski weekend in December 2010. I’ve been a fan ever since. It isn’t a trip to Beaver Creek for me without a stop at Blue Moose.
On a busy night, Blue Moose will go through 700-800 pounds of dough. They feature a regular crust and stone grounded whole wheat crust. Each pizza is hand-tossed and made to order. They also do a gluten free option in a 10″ personal pizza. One of the special ingredients in the dough is basil. It takes 4 minutes 20 seconds for each pizza to cook in an oven at about 570 degrees.
The pizza combinations are in a word – unusual.
Olympic Gold Medalist and World Champion Lindsey Vonn created The Vonnderful pizza with grilled chicken, artichoke hearts, roasted garlic, sundried tomato, pesto, and sprinkled with mozzarella and goat cheese. From each of these pizzas sold, Blue Moose donates $1 to the Eagle County SOS Outreach. The hearty combination is very popular in the winter.
Ironically, the Winter Pizza is most popular in the summer with the light combination of roma tomatoes, fresh minced basil, garlic, olive oil, and mozzarella.
The Autumn Pizza is popular year round. It’s made with sauteed crimini mushrooms in garlic and olive oil and goat cheese. After cooking, a Parmesan cheese and parsley mix is sprinkled on it then drizzled with truffle oil. The extra added touch is brushing the crust with a garlic butter.
This past weekend I stopped in Blue Moose as part of a shoot on Beaver Creek as a foodie town for Beaver Creek Food and Wine Weekend happening this coming weekend, January 25-27th.
If you can’t make it to Beaver Creek or Vail, try making the Autumn Pizza at home. Blue Moose is sharing the recipe, along with the recipe for their whole wheat crust and sauce.
Just click on the link: BCBM Autumn Pizza w Wheat
