Former IT worker opens Colorado’s first Hungry Howie’s in Aurora

AURORA | Move over, Pizza Hut. The flavored crust game in Colorado just got a little more crowded.

The ephemeral favorite of late-night Mario Kart aficionados is no longer the only Colorado pizza joint using a slew of particularly palatable crusts to lure in fans of yeast, tomatoes and rennet-filled milk.

Joel Alford is the state’s first franchisee of Hungry Howie’s Pizza, a Michigan-based ‘za brand that claims to be the originator of flavored crust pizza. Rivaling Pizza Hut’s recent brand overhaul and addition of eight unique crust profiles, Howie’s offers eight crust varieties of its own: cajun, sesame, butter, butter cheese (piquing questions as to the similarity to Cheese Whiz, here), garlic herb, ranch, onion and asiago cheese.

Alford said his new outlet at 6040 S. Gun Club Road served about 800 customers during a May 19 VIP, family and friends soft opening.

“It’s still early, but things have been going really well, and we seem to be getting a nice welcome from the community,” he said.

After nearly 30 years in IT management, Alford decided to branch into the packed arena of quick turnaround pizza following some preliminary online inquiry.

“I lost my job in January of last year and was having some trouble finding an equivalent position, so I figured why not control the process?” he said. “I did some research and was very impressed by the company.”

Despite Aurora already boasting a healthy arsenal of cheese-on-sauce-on-dough outposts, Alford may have found a niche by setting up shop on the periphery of the city, just a tomato’s toss from the Aurora Reservoir.

“We like the demographic of this location because there are a lot of houses, schools and businesses, and we’re just across from the freeway,” he said. “It’s a growing area still with a lot of opportunity.”

While Alford is currently the only proprietor of a Hungry Howie’s in Colorado, there was another in the metro area in the early 2000s, but it shuttered about six years ago, according to Kevin Dittrich, marketing and brand ambassador for the pizza company. He said the chain has about 600 restaurants across the country, with the majority of those located in Florida and Michigan.

“(Colorado) is a good market for us, and we’re definitely going to try to build more stores here,” Dittrich said.

Hungry Howie’s is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, 303-627-4694. And yes, they deliver.