When Devin Donohoe walked into Babette’s Bakery in Longmont looking for a job in 2020, he was surprised by a question: Do you do pizza?
Donohoe thought to himself: Why does this keep happening to me?
Pizza is foundational to Donohue’s career. He started slinging pies when he was 17 back in his hometown, working at the Memphis Pizza Cafe. After relocating to Colorado, he opened Pizza Bar 66 in Lyons in 2012 as chef and owner alongside friend and business partner Gavin Moore.
Armed with a lifetime of pizza pedagogy, Donohoe ran the takeout program at Babette’s throughout the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic: “I really learned about dough on a new level,” he says.
On April 20 of this year, Donohoe took over the helm at Redeemer Pizza, the Larimer Street eatery considered by many as the best pizza place in the Mile High City.
Redeemer Pizza launched in 2021 under the leadership of the same folks who own and operate nearby temple of all things pasta, Dio Mio. Redeemer’s mission is simple: craft top-notch pizza with the same less-is-more approach that made Dio Mio a hit. They have not only succeeded, but continue to step up their game and hone their technique. While Redeemer was getting in motion, Donohoe was similarly sharpening his talents at OAK at Fourteenth in Boulder. He acted as part of a team of sous chefs, delivering a series of elegant seasonal menus during his 18-month stay.
But Donohoe’s entry point to the Boulder cuisine scene was Mountain Sun, where he met chef John Bissell who was just beginning a career that would eventually find him running the show at OAK. “John’s a unicorn,” says Donohoe, adding that Bissell’s influence has helped shape him into the chef he is today.
While pizza has been an ongoing theme in Donohoe’s career, he also takes his fine dining chops seriously. Early on, he attended the Texas Culinary Academy in Austin, a now-shuttered school associated with Le Cordon Bleu. After graduating he returned to Memphis where he worked at Jarrett’s under chef Rick Farmer doing bread and American regional cuisine. “Bigger and better has always been my get-down. I really like unique stuff and I like a challenge,” says Donohoe.
His approach at Redeemer is similar to White’s. Both chefs have an elevated vision that works nicely alongside their unpretentious philosophy and method when it comes to both deep-dish and New York-style pies. The now-collaborators first cooked together roughly a year and a half ago during OAK’s Italian Week, where White was acting as a visiting chef and making his signature pasta.
New to the menu is the pork shank. The hefty plate arrives tender and bone-in, the meat having been braised, fried, glazed and then coated in a thick outer crust of toasted sesame and pepperoni crumble. It’s a refined dish, one that would have no problem fitting in on one of Bissell’s fabulous menus at OAK. He also updated the sandwich offerings to include the pork banh mi, which has thick slabs of fried pork cutlet, house-made pate mousse, pickled daikon and carrots on top of housemade focaccia. The bread alone is reason enough to visit.
Non-pizza items have always been an attraction at Redeemer, but Donohoe has upped the ante. But his goal for Redeemer is bigger than revising the menu and updating the culture. “I want Denver to be known for fire pizza. I’m trying to make people stoked and have somewhere they can be proud of and hold down when they go somewhere else,” he says. “It’s important to keep your block hot.”
Beyond championing his home turf, Donohoe wants to rank among his idols, like New York’s Scarr’s Pizza and Danny Boy in L.A. “We’re pushing the envelope on what a pizzeria can do,” he says.
Donohoe says there will be plenty to look forward to as he continues to establish his footing at the pizzeria, though he’s been sworn to secrecy on some of the details: “We don’t like to count our chickens, but we do like to cook ’em.”
