We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jake Rothey a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jake, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

They say “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” but “Nothing worth having comes easy”. I love cooking and there’s nothing easy about that, so where does cliche bull shit end and solid advice begin? In my culinary career and after array of positions, titles and cuisines, the natural progression was bigger, better, faster. I started washing dishes in 2005 and found myself as a Sous Chef at a Michelin awarded French/Japanese joint 17 years later, when covid threw a wrench in a machine that was never all that “well oiled” to begin with. I fell back on what I knew and what I loved which is pizza. The restaurant industry was shook and the way people eat had changed. Why couldn’t a five star meal be “to-go”? We enjoyed our local favorites on a bench in the park. A friend of a friend had purchased a bar that was a covid casualty and I began renting the kitchen space as “The PZA” my homage to pizza and hip-hop. Naturally leavened dough daily with locally sourced ingredients. A concept I created because of passion and working for myself and offering quality food at an honest price to my community, was the most moral occupation I could think of. The PZA has now grown to its own independent location and my pursuit of happiness continues…

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

The PZA is an upscale/quality product presented in a casual environment. I make naturally leavened dough daily and source ingredients locally. With help from my family and friends working the counter and personally preparing/cooking every bite of food that leaves my kitchen, I am able to pass those savings along to the customer.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I scraped, saved and turned over couch cushions to come up with the initial $20k investment. A local non-profit backed by the SBA “Colorado Enterprise Fund” matched my investment. It wasn’t glamorous, I ate three square meals a day and even caught some sleep at The PZA in the beginning.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Im old school and swear by word of mouth. I knew grinding and never compromising on quality would grow the business to where it is today. Never give up this will take years of commitment.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thepzadenver.com
• Instagram: @thepzadenver

Image Credits

Elizabeth Bergstrom aka @dizzylizzydigital