Pizza at Pizzeria Lui

Thanks to Friday night traffic, it took me nearly 90 minutes to get there, but get there I did.

I’d heard rumblings of an incredible pizzeria waaay down Mississippi Avenue in Lakewood. I’d seen the charred, bubbly crusted pictures popping up on Instagram. As a Neapolitanstyle pizza enthusiast, I had to taste what the Pizzeria Lui chatter was all about, even if it meant raising my blood pressure and shortening my life span dealing with our maddening traffic.

Pizzeria Lui opened in July. Its 900-degree, Italian wood-burning oven almost instantly lured both locals and pizza commuters into its small space. I’d heard from those pizza commuters that Lui’s pizza wasn’t just good but great, potentially the best in the state.

Naturally, my expectations were sky-high. For me, hearing that there’s a new pizza to rival my beloved Marco’s Coal-Fired Pizza is akin to a normal person learning that they’ve just become 20 percent more attractive/thin/ rich/fill-in-the-what-society-values-blank. It’s pretty freaking exciting.

I tried a few because pizza, like hot sauce and toilet paper, is not something you want to run out of.

All are 14 inches of chewy/ crunchy crust perfection, topped with more cheese than typically comes on this style of pizza and super-fresh adornments, like roasted eggplant, thimble-sized pepperoni cups and heirloom cherry tomatoes.

The only pizza I didn’t love was the seasonal Bobbin for Apples, capped with bacon, Tillamook cheddar, smoked mozzarella, spicy honey and local apples. I don’t like cooked apples, so this is probably my own fault. What can I say? Pizza clouds my judgment worse than alcohol.

Is Pizzeria Lui the best Neapolitan-style pizza in Colorado? I don’t know that I’d go that far, but it’s certainly a contender. That crust is worth the time, the drive and the traffic.