Monarch Pizza only serves pepperoni on Sundays. That’s not because the owners, Justin Freeman and Danny Matthews, hate classic pies. And it’s certainly not because they have any ill feelings towards their customers. For them, Monarch is about doing the things that they want, not the things that they have to.
Fortunately for us, what they like to do is make pizzas with toppings like roasted leeks and béchamel, pork belly and Pueblo chiles, and beef cheek with red wine, shaved onions and ricotta salata. Perhaps even more luckily, the duo have a penchant for keeping things fresh. Each week, Monarch’s menu is brand new. On Sundays, Freeman chucks the previous handwritten list into the spot’s wood-fired oven for a brief flash of kindling. The message is clear. No repeats.
It’s now Monarch’s 24th week slinging pies from the kitchen inside the Public House at Urban Cowboy. It’s also been just about a month since Freeman and Matthews started serving lunch. While the evenings are all about pizza, the sandwiches offered between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., Wednesday through Friday, are prepared with just as much love and attention. The current roster features a chicken salad with Tropea onions and lemon garlic aioli, an eggplant parmesan, and a Tempesta mortadella made with slabs thick enough to leave whole pistachios intact. The dinner menu will continue to change weekly, while lunch options will likely rotate every month or so.
Freeman says that most of his inspiration comes from outside the world of pizza. “My favorite restaurants have been stuff like yakitori,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to do something small and intimate.”
Monarch’s front-facing nature seems right at home at Urban Cowboy. Freeman and Matthews are there most nights, keeping an easy rapport with a growing flock of regulars. “Their service style, and the way they treat food and community go hand in hand with how the hotel and bar program are run,” said Urban Cowboy’s General Manager of Hospitality and Events Coco Valdez.
Where cooking is concerned, both lunch and dinner color outside the lines. But Monarch isn’t necessarily middle finger food. Both Freeman and Matthews have other stories to tell that go beyond just being confrontational.
Freeman, who’s also the executive chef at Somebody People, has been particularly adamant about using local produce. No menu is complete without hand-selected items from spots like Esoterra Culinary Garden, Toohey & Sons Organic, First Class Fungi and Croft Family Farm. Freeman never shies away from shouting out individual purveyors when he writes dishes. “Working with the farmers and being able to tell their story is just as important to me as being able to tell mine,” he said.
Matthews takes hospitality seriously. A graduate of the Chicago hotel scene, he brings Monarch the kind of service he wishes he would see more of in Denver. “I wanna take care of you and turn this into a curated experience,” he said. He also co-owns and cuts hair at the Dark Rose Club, a Wash Park barbershop, that he approaches with the same level of cordiality and attention to detail that he brings to the restaurant.
Monarch’s menus reflect Freeman’s fine dining training. With a deep-seated love of Italian delis that stems from his East Coast upbringing, the chef still credits much of his technique to the nearly three years he spent working at Nobu in Manhattan. “A lot of my cooking style can be traced back to those roots,” he said.
Freeman uses pizza as a jump-off point to explore and connect disparate culinary ideas. That the sandwiches are equally unrestricted shows that no matter the canvas, Monarch’s focus will remain on letting the ingredients speak for themselves.
Monarch is located in the Public House at Urban Cowboy at 1665 North Grant Street, Denver. It is open for dinner Tuesday through Thursday from 4 – 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 4 – 11 p.m., and Sunday from 12 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Lunch is available Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Photos courtesy of Nosferatune.
