One of Colorado Springs’ favorite pizza spots is expanding to downtown.

Slice 420 is bringing its New York-style pizza to 107 N. Tejon St. in the heart of downtown. Co-owner Christian Patriarca hopes the new spot, a Slice 420 Express, can cater to the late-night crowds that frequent downtown, especially on weekends, with closing times between 2 and 3 a.m., he said.

“It’s going to be as simple as possible, I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel,” he said. “We’ll do delivery and pickup (and) have some seats outside.”

The downtown location will be the third for Slice 420. It opened its first location in Old Colorado City, 2501 W. Colorado Ave., in 2017; a move is planned to a larger space a half-block away formerly occupied by Jorge’s Mexican Restaurant at 2427 Colorado Ave. Slice 420 opened a second restaurant in 2022 at 3725 Oro Blanco Drive.

While dough won’t be made and mixed on site at the downtown location, it’ll be the same that is used to make pizza at Slice 420’s Old Colorado City location, just transported a short 2.5 miles to downtown, Patriarca said.

“People don’t realize what we put into our product,” Patriarca said, highlighting the Italian flour, Wisconsin mozzarella and Colorado meats the restaurant sources. “Everything we make is from scratch, our bread is handmade every day. Nothing is premade.”

Residents voted Slice 420 as the best pizza place in the city in the 2025 edition of Best of the Springs.

With the downtown location, Patriarca is looking to bring high-quality pizza to late-night crowds hitting the quartet of night clubs on Tejon and Kiowa, Street, especially on the weekends, as well as those at the myriad events hosted by the city through the summer. It won’t be the only late-night food spot downtown, however.

Gaia Masala and Burger, 12 S. Tejon St., opened in 2024 after Marco’s Pizza shut down, and is open until 3 a.m. every day. Fat Sully’s, a pizza joint inside the Atomic Cowboy at 528 S Tejon St. is open till 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Patriarca anticipates the new Slice 420 location will open within 90 days, adding this is the long end of his estimate.

The Slice 420 Express is moving into the former home of Bento Heaven. A Japanese restaurant, Bento Heaven was known for sushi burritos, miso ramen and poke bowls.

It closed in October after the owners retired, according to staff with the Downtown Partnership. The business had been operating since March 2016, according to a report from the Catalyst, Colorado College’s independent student newspaper.

SLICE SHOWDOWN

Slice 420 is competing against Fargo’s Pizza in The Gazette’s Slice Showdown. Voting in round two will be open through Tuesday. Head over to the bracket online at gazette.com and cast your vote.