Stars coach weighs in on Rocky Mountain pie

DENVER -- Here is a slice of life in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Pete DeBoer knows Denver well from years of coaching against the Colorado Avalanche, and he’ll be back with the Dallas Stars for Game 6 of the Western Conference First Round on Thursday. Dallas leads the best-of-7 series 3-2.

Asked about his routine the other day, he told the media that he likes to walk from the team hotel to Ball Arena and back.

“I really enjoy downtown Denver, and it’s a nice walk to the hotel,” he said in the press conference room at the rink. “There’s a pizza place about halfway between here and our hotel I try and stop at a lot.

“It’s got a Big Mac pizza that tastes exactly like a Big Mac. It’s unbelievable. I’ve never had anything like it.

“And it has a jalapeno popper pizza with grape jelly. Sounds crazy. It’s maybe the best thing I’ve ever tasted. Try it out.”

Hmmm.

OK. I decided to try it out.

In the spirit of investigative journalism, of course.

The place is SliceWorks, a joint in a brick building on 17th Street two blocks from Union Station. Bags of flour and cans of sauce are stacked against one wall, and an Avalanche logo is part of a graffiti-like mural on another.

I walked over from my hotel Tuesday, and I ordered one slice of the Big Mac pizza and one of the jalapeno popper pizza for lunch.

My sophisticated foodie review:

Yummm.

The Big Mac pizza does taste exactly like a Big Mac, with chunks of all-beef patties, a drizzle of special sauce, cheese, pickles and onions. But instead of a sesame-seed bun, it’s on a crispy, sesame-seed crust.

The jalapeno popper pizza with grape jelly doesn’t just sound crazy. It is crazy. Cream cheese. Jalapenos. Mozzarella. Cheddar. Grape jelly. The sweet heat is delicious, and you can dip your crust in the extra grape jelly that slides off onto the paper plate.

Pro tip: Get extra napkins.

“I had no idea about this,” said Austin Falter, who has worked at SliceWorks for a little more than three years and was at the register Tuesday. “This made my day. This is pretty cool.”

I played Falter a recording of DeBoer’s comments. Turns out, DeBoer doesn’t just know hockey. He knows pizza too.

“He’s not wrong,” Falter said. “Those are my two favorite pizzas as well. Those are my go-tos.”