From cancer to Quinto: Pizza restaurant aims to build community

BY LUKE ZARZECKI LZARZECKI@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

After looking all over the world, Pedro and Laetitia Cueto decided to move to Arvada. Seriously.

“Love y Neighbor, it’s real here,” Laetitia said.

e couple, along with their three sons, settled down in Arvada in May of 2020 after living in Mexico City.

Laetitia, born in New York City, spent time in the Netherlands and Pedro, born in Mexico City, lived in Spain.

Shortly after the move, their eldest son, Pedro, now eight years old, received a diagnosis of bone cancer in Oct. 2021. He battled for eight months, ultimately beating the disease. e cancer was in his femur, where he now has implants that will grow with him as he ages.

During that grueling time, the two said the community and the kindness of strangers gave the family the ability to get through. To give back, they opened Quinto Neighborhood Pizzeria and Taphouse on Jan. 19 in honor of Pedro. e restaurant is located at 10443 Town Center Dr., just west of US 36.

“People care and they go above and beyond. His Kindergarten teacher had a candle lit for him the entire year he was in treatment, day and night,” Laetitia said.

She explained that even during COVID-19, when people were supposed to stay isolated, their neighbors called them to introduce themselves, and o ered any help they needed. e restaurant’s name also comes from their son, since he is the fth Pedro of their family and quinto means ve in Italian and Spanish. e restaurant o ers a pizza called “ e Little Warrior” with $1 from each one sold going to the Little Warrior Foundation which researches cures for childhood cancer. ey both researched how to make the most impact and they found donating would do just that.

With that in mind, their goal is to open up ten more Quinto’s across the Denver Area to amplify those donations in ve to seven years.

The pizza and cocktails e Cueto’s explained they wanted to open up a pizza shop for a long time, and during that time, they’ve been taking notes on which pizza tastes the best and why. e two do things di erently in their shop, too. A hybrid wood re oven imported from Italy rotates the pizzas two times around the oven, making sure each is cooked consistently.

With their worldwide travels, they came to the conclusion that Chicago and Naples, Italy served up some of the best pizza in the world. Combining aspects of both, they call it the American Artisan Pizza.

It’s thicker than Neopolitan pizza and adds elements of a Chicago thin-crust pizza.

“We created our own hybrid with the best of what we consider the two best pizzas,” Pedro said.

Some of the pizzas include pepperoni, tomato and cheese, chicken poblano, veggie and more. As a nod to Colorado, they also serve up a Western Slope pizza with peaches, Spam and pulled pork.

A self-serve drink dispenser also gives customers the option to choose from over 20 beers, homemade cocktails and wine. ey receive a card that swipes for each tap and pours the drink into a chilled or regular glass.

Sta ng

With the technology — the pizza oven and the self-serve drink dispenser — they were able to cut costs on sta and invest more money into ingredients and keep costs down. ey still provide human services, like bringing food to the table and clearing dishes.

“Chicken went up 140%. I can’t raise my prices 140%,” Pedro said. “ at allows us to invest in the quality of our food without increasing the prices.”

It also allows them to share their tips with the back-of-house workers, like the chefs and dishwashers, depending on how many hours worked and when the tips were generated.

“(Tips) go to everyone equally because it’s as important to have a clean spoon as having the food tasting the same,” Pedro said.

With their hopes set high, they envision the restaurant to be a community gathering spot, for families with children, rst dates and even post-Little League championship games.

“We really want to create a nice, community-based spot,” Laetitia said.