Amicas Pizza and Microbrewery, Salida Colorado

Pizza and beer, a magical pairing of food and beverage found around the world. And no wonder, as they both start their life as grain, water and yeast. Amicas Pizza and Microbrewery in Salida, Colorado brings the best examples of this dynamic duo.

Located in the Arkansas Valley along the world famous white waters of the Arkansas River, Salida is a town of 5500 surrounded by 15 peaks that reach 14,000 feet above sea level. The area is a mecca for outdoor enthusiasts of all stripes, including rafters, kayakers, mountain bikers, fly fishers, and more.

Amicas is located in the historic downtown area that is filled with art studios, shops, and dining establishments of all kinds. On the Friday we visited, the pub was just beginning to come to life at 5:00 pm. 

Amicas uses the European pub system of ordering your food and beverage at the bar and pre-paying. We ordered the Allegro pizza with Balsamic marinara, roasted chicken, portobello mushrooms, artichoke hearts, gorgonzola, mozzarella, rosemary. And of course a flight of their finest brews.
Our flight consisted of:

• Bomber Blonde Ale - a light dry American Blonde ale with citrus notes. We both liked this beer very much.
• Rex's Amber Ale - an English ESB with a malt forward taste. Good marks for this one also
• Headwater IPA - Hoppy with a grassy taste. We hear that all beer drinker will go through an IPA faze. We have not entered ours yet.
• Surprisingly less hoppy than the previous IPA. Not bad.
• Big Brown Ale - A great example of a malty brown ale. Very drinkable
• Black Beard's Delight - A German style Schwartz beer, dark and flavorful with hints of anise.
• Infinite Search Imperial Stout - Creamy stout with a rich dark foamy head. Mari liked it because it did not have the coffee notes that so many stouts have. We both liked this one.

As we sampled our beers, we watched the staff toss the pizza dough high in the air. The wait was worth it, as the pizza was amazing. Thin airy crust with just the right amount of chew, baked to perfection in the wood burning oven. While the menu offers many sauce choices, the balsamic vinegar used on our pizza gave it a unique flavor complimenting the toppings.

We missed out on two beers we were looking forward to trying. The Green Chile Ale was not on tap and neither was the Smoked and Oaked, a brown porter with cherry wood smoked barley and later introduced heavy toast American oak chips. Oh well,  a  return trip to sample more of the dynamic duo of pizza and beer is in our future.

The only way to make the night better was to return to the Mount Princeton Resort and soak in the natural hot springs.