Food/Drink

Try This Week: Traditional Calzone @ Lefty’s Gourmet Pizza

Lefty's Gourmet Pizza in Niwot is a throwback pizzeria — a classic red sauce joint with pizzas warming on top of the oven and a friendly, neighborhood feel. Order anything off the menu of pizzas, salads, subs and calzones and you’ll get something similar to what you’d get back East. We opted for the traditional calzone on a recent visit — ricotta, mozzarella, spinach and red onions tucked into a pizza crust and baked to melty perfection. The crust is crispy and charred on the ends, soft and pastry-like in the middle, and the filling is creamy, slightly sweet and salty... a perfect balance. The red onions provide a welcome snap of acid.

Drink this: Oskar Blues Brewery Wild Basin Hard Seltzer

2019 was the summer of seltzer, and the bubbly stuff is already the oddson favorite for a back-to-back repeat. Oskar Blues’ latest line of boozy water, Wild Basin, is a combination of cane sugar, Champagne yeast and natural flavoring: Blueberry Mango, Black Raspberry, Strawberry Coconut and Yumberry. Black Raspberry reigns supreme, fruity and bright, but if you’re looking for something light on a sweltering hot day, Strawberry Coconut wins the crown. Each weighs in at 5% ABV, 100 calories, zero grams of sugar and one gram of carbohydrates per 12-ounce can. Non-beer beer is getting better by the day; more on page 25.

New Boulder food hall announced final concepts

Avanti Food & Beverage, which is slated to open in the old Cheesecake Factory location on Pearl Street in August, recently announced the final three concepts to fill out its roster of food stalls. Joining Rye Society, New Yorkese and Rooted Craft American Kitchen are: Quiero Arepas from Igor and Beckie Panasewicz, who built their business from a food truck to a stall at the Denver Avanti location, selling gluten-free arepas — corn flatbreads stuffed like a sandwich; Boychik, from Charles Troup and Chase Devitt (who runs Miner’s Meat & Cheese in Golden), which will serve a Middle Eastern-inspired menu; and Pig and Tiger, serving modern Taiwanese cuisine from Darren Chang and Travis Masar, who competed on season 11 of Top Chef.