“The name comes from chi non risica, non rosica, which means, ‘If you don’t take a chance, you’re gonna regret it,’” explained chef Andrea Frizzi when I sat down with him recently in an as-yet-unfinished dining room less than a mile from his much-missed prior venture, Il Posto. “To do this, I risk everything. I believe that if you want to be successful in any business, you have to be delusional. You have to believe in it in a way that doesn’t make any sense.”
Without downplaying Frizzi’s pre-opening jitters—“I wake up in the middle of the night with panic attacks and shit,” he half-joked—I’d argue that his vision for Risica, which officially opened October 19, actually makes perfect sense. A “casual but classy” pizzeria and cocktail bar set in a RiNo apartment building with 400-plus tenants on a block teeming with foot traffic? The business plan writes itself.
In fact, Frizzi has been drafting it in his head for years, adding a salumi (charcuterie) program to the mix for good measure. “I’ve always thought about this concept [as] a very good expression of Italianity,” said the native of Milan, where his own family operated a salumeria for decades.
But timing is everything, and it wasn’t until the pandemic began to “change how people eat and the way they go out” that he decided “fine dining might not be possible anymore.” Luckily, the opportunity arose to open “an affordable, accessible neighborhood staple” for lunch, dinner, and everything in between, as the chef put it. “I want this place to be always active, like a Starbucks.”
Risica Offers a Simple But Smart Selection
Specializing in one of the world’s most popular foods is a surefire means to that end. Plus, as the original owner of Vero in the Denver Central Market, Frizzi obviously knows his way around a pie. There, he explained, “I developed a pizza that was 13 inches: beautiful, thin, not too Napolitano, [which] for me is a little too bready and chewy.”
At Risica, he’s offering 10 topping combos, ranging from the simplest Margherita to more elaborate creations like the Zucca with acorn squash, truffled sottocenere, grana padano, thyme, and hot honey and the Figs with ricotta, fior di latte mozzarella, walnuts, and arugula as well as the namesake fruit. To the latter, you can also add speck, a lightly smoked ham from Alto Adige—which brings us to the salumi boards.
“I’m bringing in so many different cheeses and cold cuts from Italy, “ Frizzi said, “and I’m doing like a sushi list and charging by the ounce. Some things will be a little more expensive, because they’re more rare or difficult to find, but you can build your own selection.”
On the more familiar side are prosciutto di Parma and 24-month-aged Parmigiano-Reggiano; among the less commonplace options are braesola (air-dried beef), lardo (cured fatback), and ubriaco (a wine-soaked cow’s milk cheese).
Other snacks and starters include calamari stuffed with tomatoes, capers, anchovies, and breadcrumbs; beef carpaccio with parmesan and arugula; and oysters—a buck a shuck on Tuesdays. That’s in keeping with the value proposition of the menu as a whole, which doesn’t crack the $20 mark.
And it doesn’t end there. Salads, the sandwiches on folded pizza crust that Frizzi calls portafogli (“wallets”), and desserts such as tiramisu also await. Eventually, so will grab-and-go entrees like lasagna and eggplant parmigiana.
As for the bar program, Frizzi promised “really nice cocktails, nothing crazy—no bubbling, smoking, fireworks bullshit.” Think classic Aperol spritzes and Negronis for aperitivo hour and espresso martinis as a nightcap to bookend the all-Italian selection of wines come dinnertime, from Piedmontese Erbaluce to Sicilian Frappato. They’re also very well priced, by the way: The sweet spot for bottles is $40 to $60, while most of the by-the-glass pours are $14 or less.
A Milan–Meets–Mile High Vibe
“I need a space that is energetic but not fast, like Milano,” explained Frizzi. While a mounted black-and-white photo of his mother straddling a Vespa circa 1958 will encapsulate that urban Italian spirit, green hues will cast “a softness in a way that you can come in, calm down, and take a deep breath.”
But the wall of picture windows lining the 80-seat dining room on Walnut Street serve as the biggest clue to Frizzi’s vision for Risica: They’re an invitation to passersby to stop in at all hours. Couples can cozy up in the lounge area at the entrance, groups can grab a booth, and anyone who wants to catch the chef in action can belly up to the bar in view of the pizza oven.
“I’m gonna be there all day, so I can talk to everybody,” he vowed, adding, “I’ve been doing this all my life; I got my accolades. [Now] I’m at a point where I want to do something that I really like.”
Being out of the kitchen for the past three years “has been really hard on me,” he added, “because I need this—to [cook] my food and make a connection with people. I love what I do. It’s who I am.”
Visit Risica Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. 3463 Walnut St., Denver, risicadenver.com
