A year after James Beard Award-winning restaurateur Alex Seidel reopened Frontroom Pizza in Lakewood as Roca’s Pizza & Pasta, the chef is throwing in the towel.
“Since we opened in April 2022, it was incredibly tough for me to put the right team together, which ended up causing a lot of inconsistencies in the restaurant’s service and quality,” Seidel wrote in a statement to The Denver Post. “I love making people happy through food and, as a Lakewood local, I love this neighborhood, so I was always committed to making things work.
“However, after months of continuous challenges, it was too hard to keep things going and provide our customers with a consistently good dining experience,” he continued. “As I shared in my Instagram post, we also care deeply about our team and customers, so it was a really hard decision, but we know it’s the best choice given the circumstances.
Roca’s last day of service will be Sunday, April 30. Seidel said he sold the business to a new undisclosed owner.
Seidel (Fruition, Mercantile, Chook, Fudmill) and chef Tim Bender (Comal, Osage Cafe) took over the space that had been occupied for more than three decades by Frontroom Pizza in January last year after the restaurant announced it was closing its doors. Seidel has lived in the neighborhood for 20 years, and spent four months updating the kitchen and dining room and overhauling the food menu before reopening as Roca’s in April 2022.
“[Frontroom] was the closest thin-crust pizza I could find that brought memories of home in Wisconsin. I loved Frontroom, and we ordered pickup once a week,” Seidel wrote. “Once the original owner sold the business, it went into decline. As a chef and a dad with a family in the neighborhood, of course, I wanted to try and help. However, it was a huge responsibility for me to make Roca’s one that everyone enjoyed and felt like home to this community.”
The Lakewood pizza joint served thin-crust, tavern-style and thick-crust Sicilian-style pies as well as house-made noodles in classic preparations such as strozzapreti alla diavola and spaghetti alle vonghole.
This is the second restaurant that Seidel has closed in the last few months. At the end of February, Seidel and Adam Schlegel, owners of Chook, closed the fast-casual, rotisserie chicken restaurant’s underperforming Stanley Marketplace location.
