After years of cutting her teeth in her home kitchen, backyard, friends’ parties and even time as a pop-up pizza caterer, Melina Felix, USPT member and owner of The Pizza Bandit in Littleton, Colorado, is taking the next step and getting some wheels!
In the quiet corners of Littleton, Colorado, a pizza revolution is unfolding, and it’s not making noise—it’s making waves. Nestled in this unassuming town is The Pizza Bandit, a culinary gem that’s redefining what it means to serve extraordinary pizza. Behind this delicious disruption are Melina Felix, a stalwart member of the US Pizza Team, and her husband Federico. These two have not only set a new standard for quality but have also stirred up a local pizza frenzy that’s impossible to ignore. With their pop-up venture having soared to impressive heights, the Felixes knew it was time to elevate their game. Enter the next chapter: pizza trailers. The USPT’s Brian Hernandez had the pleasure of catching up with Melina to dive into her pizza lineage and explore how The Pizza Bandit is rolling out its latest venture in style and taking their pizza passion on the road!
Hernandez: How did you get into pizza making?
Felix: My pizza journey really started when I was in my early 20’s and working for my uncle Pino Piroso in his pizzeria, Pizza Rustica in Miami. They opened in 1996 and have grown to numerous locations across the US and Europe since. I started there basically doing counter stuff, and working for him got me to see that pizza really isn’t just fast food. He used top quality ingredients, made everything from scratch and people came from all over to hit up his pizzeria because they knew it was good. Even the basic cheese pizza was good. After my 20’s I veered off into creative arts, but every Friday morning, I would still wake up at 5 a.m. before my corporate job to start making pizzas for myself and the family. The love of making pizza and wanting to eat good pizza was planted in me and wouldn’t die. I literally spent about 15-20 years making pizzas every week. Making dough in the morning, coming home after an 8 hour day and experimenting and feeding the family and getting opinions. I moved all around the country doing that. I’ve lived in California, Minnesota, Colorado, Florida, and it was helpful trying to make good pizzas in all these different environments. At the same time my husband is a professional chef by trade, and he can’t turn that off. All the little critiques and suggestions, that made me better. We both always had in the back of our minds that one day we were going to open a pizzeria. Then in 2022 after the lockdowns, we asked ourselves “what are we waiting for?”, and that was it.
Hernandez: What was the first step?
Felix: I would often sit at work listening to podcasts about being an entrepreneur and marketing and so on, and at one point I heard someone say, “build your audience before you launch your brand or product”. So, I started posting pizza videos online and started following and commenting on other pizza accounts and started getting attention online before we even knew The Pizza Bandit was going to be the brand. By the time we launched and did our first pop-up here in Littleton, we had a line waiting outside because they had been following us. I would love to give credit to whoever gave that advice, if I could remember who it was, but it was a game changer for us.
Hernandez: There is so much color on all your pizzas. Do all the flavors make sense together, or are some ingredients there for color’s sake?
Felix: I believe color is an ingredient. People eat with their eyes. Color is always something I’m thinking about when I’m putting a recipe together. People see something bright and beautiful, and it catches their eye, it’s just nature. It doesn’t have to be a rainbow of colors on every pizza, but if you can get something contrasting, or just to pop, that gets peoples’ attention. One of our best sellers is The Sweet Heat. It has pickled onions that I drop in hibiscus tea while pickling them and they are literally bright pink. They glow, and people comment on them all the time. We try not to do anything that’s pointless, so if I’m adding something for color, it also has to bring flavor. Sometimes you don’t even realize until you’re pumping the pizzas out that a certain ingredient isn’t really adding anything to the flavor. Then you should simply remove it.
Hernandez: Are the ingredients and flavors that give the pizzas so much color Colorado inspired?
Felix: We’ve been testing a special for a couple of weeks and are adding it to our permanent menu. Before launching The Pizza Bandit, I started asking the people in Colorado what flavors they like, since I wasn’t from here, and people kept saying cream cheese. And jalapeño poppers are strangely popular here too. So, we’ve been testing those flavors together and people love it, so we will officially be adding the Jalapeño Popper and Cream Cheese pizza.
Hernandez: Tell us about your unique use of Instagram.
Felix: We actually use it in a couple ways. We of course showcase our events whenever we go out to customers or festivals, but we also just make tons of pizzas only to take pictures of and post. I’m very responsive to what people say if they are going to be a customer of mine. If I post a picture of a new recipe and a local customer says I want to come eat that, I will put it on the menu as a special, within reason of course. Instagram serves as a vehicle for creativity and to expand the brand. My long-term goal for this brand is to become national and possibly one day international. That’s why we’re not limiting ourselves to only showing the same 8 pizzas on our main menu. And at heart, I love doing it and I want to have fun with it. Maybe that’s silly and wasteful, but we do eat all the pizzas.
Hernandez: How did you get involved with the USPT?
Felix: The year we opened, we attended the Expo and saw the team there, competing and working together with matching uniforms and I turned to my husband and said I want to do that. I want to be on that team and be a part of this. Then I made it into the REAL California Pizza Contest, and we met there. We started the process and here we are, and it’s been great!
Hernandez: What’s next for The Pizza Bandit?
Felix: We started as a pop-up mainly for financial reasons. I didn’t have the cash lying around to just open a brick and mortar, so we decided to test the market and the brand with the pop-up. The next step for us is a pizza trailer that we had custom built. We upgraded our ovens and built an opening in the back of the truck for them so that we can hopefully bake all through the winter. The truck just got its final licenses a month ago, so we are brand new. Now we can hit more festivals and events, and everything is organized and where I left it. I’m a very organized person. I label my label makers. My long-term vision is pop-up, food truck, restaurant, and hopefully franchise. It may be ambitious, but that’s the plan.
Hernandez: Your pizzas are very indicative of a Neapolitan style. Did you have to educate your local Colorado customers on this style of pizza?
Felix: When we first launched and people began trying us, people loved our pizza. They didn’t know why, they just did. We took that opportunity to explain to them about our process and the quality ingredients we use. Eventually we started doing Roman style as well and we had to educate people on that one, but they have been very open to learning, and even teach us things as well. They come back with reheating tips and ideas for other pies and such. Right now, we are experimenting with making square Sicilians at customers requests. Sometimes I will even just make 5 or 6 pizzas not on the menu, put them out on a cart and let people choose their favorites. Pizza making often becomes a creative outlet for me.
Hernandez: You only launched the pop-up 2 years ago and now you have your trailer. Is this following the schedule you had in mind?
Felix: It’s been way faster and better than I could have ever imagined. The biggest game changer for us was the REAL California Pizza Contest. I am eternally grateful for being a part of that and meeting all the great people.
For a more in depth interview, be sure to watch the video above.
