Crosscut Pizza has been around since its soft opening in October 2015. The business is currently hosted in a historical building that has been around since the 1890s. Crosscut was originally started by Dawn Dennison and her husband Tom Plant, who came up with the idea after driving a food truck to various locations and selling pizzas. They started a partnership with Shannon Tupa and Peter Marshall, but the partnership fell through. Dennison and Plant ultimately left the business. One night, Tupa and Marshall spoke with Seth Colter about plans moving forward, and they ultimately decided that Colter and his wife, Jessica, would buy into the business, taking out an 11-year loan and 38% of the company. Later, Scott Raderstorf would buy 7% of the business.
The Colters have over three decades of experience working in kitchens, with Seth Colter, in particular having worked in various kitchens across the United States and Europe since 1989. Every one of the owners has a passion for cooking and for pizza, and they love being able to own a business that puts so much love and care into making woodfired pizzas from local ingredients. Seth Colter describes the business as a “somewhat traditional” pizzeria, as they stick to a general formula, but it’s not as regimented as traditional Neapolitan pizza.
Crosscut uses organic Colorado mill flour as a part of their dough, with a fermentation process that takes three to four days. They use a woodfire oven from Maine Wood Heat to cook their pizzas, and the oven contains interior bricks imported from the French company Le Panyol. Crosscut is particularly proud of their dough, their quality fresh ingredients, and their woodfire oven, which combined with the techniques they use to make their pizzas makes them unique.
Their current record of pizzas in a day is 646 as their business grew from serving only 100 pizzas a day. They also take pride in the ingredients used in their rotating list of Colorado beers, wines, and sodas (as the pizzeria is also a taphouse) and their quality of service, which took years to attain.
Seth Colter says of the business that the friendly vibe of the service allows for an incredibly comfortable environment in the restaurant.
Currently, the pizzeria hosts around 50 employees, some of whom are part- time and some of which commute from places such as Longmont, Arvada, Broomfield, and Boulder. They employ high schoolers, college students, long- time Nederland locals, and many more. All of these employees are paid at least the living wages for their service to the restaurant. They have also worked with a labor lawyer to manage discrepancies between those who work in the front of the house and those who work in the back.
As with many other businesses, COVID greatly affected Crosscut, but they stayed open from the very beginning despite having times when they made no money as a business. They started utilizing to-go orders and limited seating to the outside of the restaurant instead of the inside. Even now, the pizzeria still allows employees and customers to wear masks and follow the guidelines given by the county, state, and country whenever new guidelines are implemented. Seth Colter believes that without the staff of Crosscut, the business would not be what it is today.
Seth Colter is proud of the fact that Crosscut also hosts the works of local artists on the walls of the building, that dogs are allowed on the patio of the building, and that Crosscut continues to make food that is “simple, but good.” He hopes that the passion and love that the owners have for the pizza, food, and drinks in Crosscut comes through and is shared by the staff and the customers. The owners in general hope that the people who come to Crosscut walk away happy with the service, happy with the food, and invested in the town of Nederland as a whole.
If you want to visit Crosscut Pizzeria, head to 4 East Main Street in Nederland. The pizzeria is open Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 3 to 9 p.m., Saturdays from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sundays from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. If you want more information before visiting, be sure to head to their website at crosscutpizza.com, message them on Facebook at crosscutpizzeria, or contact them by phone at 303-258- 3519.
Sponsored by the Town of Nederland, with funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.
