Urban Field Pizza and Market, a pizza spot with locations in Longmont and Loveland, earned high honors at the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, held March 25–27. The restaurant was named fifth-best in the world for Detroit-style pizza and seventh-best for pan-style pizza.
Nick Swanson, culinary director and co-founder of Urban Field Pizza, represented the restaurant in the International Pizza Challenge. Swanson was one of 650 total competitors from across North America, Italy, Japan, the U.K., and beyond, competing across a variety of pizza styles. The expo is widely considered the biggest and most prestigious event in the pizza industry.
This was Swanson’s third year competing at the expo with Urban Field. Two years ago, he competed in the pan-style category and placed seventh. Last year, he placed 18th.
“I am the only one involved in making the pizza in the competition,” he said. “Our staff came up with ideas for the pizzas together before the competition. I only had 30 minutes to execute the pie. You only get to make one pizza. If you burn it, you’re done. You don’t have time to make a second one.”
Swanson made the same flavor pizza for both categories: a play on a gyro. “I see our crust as a vessel,” he said. “I love gyros, so I knew I wanted to do something inspired by that. It’s light, fresh, and herbaceous.”
Swanson said he started with square dough, then added a hummus base, fontina cheese, and lamb gyro meat. After it came out of the oven, he put on a layer of tzatziki sauce, chopped cucumber, heirloom tomato, red onion, feta cheese, an herb salad with parsley, mint, and dill, plus cracked pepper and a lemon wedge on the side.
After making the pizzas within the 30-minute time limit, Swanson brought the pies back to the judges so they could see the final presentation. Then, Swanson had to cut the pie into slices and submit the “three best slices” for the judges to taste.
“For Detroit-style, the crust and the bake are key,” Swanson said about choosing the best slice. “You want to make sure the bottom is crispy, the dough is light and airy, and the frico crust is evenly colored. No sauce should be dripping off, and the color should be even all around. It also comes down to toppings — you want a good flavor profile throughout. You don’t want one judge to have lighter toppings than another. Creativity is huge — you get marks for creative flavors.” Detroit-style pizza is Urban Field’s bread and butter, Swanson said.
The scores and winners of the competition weren’t posted right away. Swanson said he woke up at 2 a.m. the day after the competition, anxiously checking his phone for scores. That’s when he found out that Urban Field had placed fifth and seventh in the world. “It was hard to go back to sleep after that,” he said.
Now that the competition is over, Swanson hopes that the awards might bring some more community awareness to Urban Field Pizza and Market. The Longmont location will turn three years old next month and the Loveland location will have been around for one year later this summer, but he said some people in town still don’t know they exist.
“You’ve got three of the best pizzerias in the state within a five-block radius in Longmont,” Swanson said. “Colorado isn’t really regarded as a ‘pizza state,’ but this might help put us on the map a little more.”
Swanson founded Urban Field with Paul Nashak (CEO), Lindsey Beddard (operations director), and Darrin Gilman (beverage director) three years ago. All four founders have backgrounds in the food and beverage industry and wanted to team up to start their own thing. Swanson had always known that he wanted to open a pizza restaurant.
Urban Field doesn’t cut corners with ingredients, Swanson said, which is part of what makes the restaurant special. They make as much as they can in-house and incorporate ingredients sourced from local farms whenever possible. Plus, the staff are great at what they do and always have ideas for pizza flavors or other new innovations, he said. And, like Swanson, many of them are passionate about pizza.
“Pizza really embodies working with your hands,” he said. “It takes skill to bake a good pizza. And the finished product… there’s nothing better than seeing someone take a bite of your pie and you see their face light up with shock and awe. That’s the icing on the cake.”
