Taste

Distinct flavors make Yukon Pizza’s brick-and-mortar something special

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Yukon’s Stewart pizza, confit Buffalo wings and smashburger
Photo: Wade Vandervort

If they made only pizza, it would be enough. It would be more than enough.The Neapolitan-style, wood-fired pie at Yukon Pizza—in a permanent location at last at Downtown’s Huntridge Center, following a smash engagement at Vegas Test Kitchen—is utterly superlative. It floats on a pillowy crust made from 125-year-old heirloom sourdough, covered with good stuff such as San Marzano tomatoes and dollops of creamy ricotta. The price is right, too: A 14-inch pie ranges from $11 to $22, depending on what and how many goodies you get on there. Slices are $4-$6 and are plenty big enough to satisfy.

The Yukon Pizza team, from left: Alex White, Dani Garcia-White, Cameron White and Justin Ford

I need to come back to that sourdough crust for a second. It’s a blissful, mildly tangy wonder—strong enough to stand up to a New York fold, tender enough to nibble delicately like artisan bread. It’s an active flavor participant in Yukon’s specialty pies, from the confit garlic, mozzarella, Parmesan and ricotta-laden Grandpa White; to the feta, mozz, red onion, dill, parsley, gyro and tzatziki-topped Last Action Gyro; to the Wise Guy, a hearty combination of NY red sauce, mozz, provolone, basil, sausage and roasted peppers and onions. Plus, many of Yukon’s specialty pies can be made vegan.

Yukon ventures beyond pizza elsewhere on the menu. It’s not always available—“If you don’t see it, we don’t got it,” the kitchen advises—but if you can order items from chef Justin Ford’s “Yukon Outpost,” consider ordering all of them. Start with the one-pound order of confit chicken wings ($15), or the vegan cauliflower option. They’re delicious and almost impossibly tender; you can lollipop ’em with ease. Ford offers them in classic Buffalo, sweet chili and as a truffle-Buffalo hybrid that was doubtlessly popular during the big game day, when Yukon sold out of wings before they even opened their doors.

And is it weird to tell you to go to a pizza place and try the burger? Yukon’s cheeseburger ($10 single, $14 double) is messy perfection, piled deep with house-made pickles, caramelized onions and Ford’s own sauce, which you’ll mop up with the spicy fries without a second thought. If that idea awakens something in you, try the Grizzly Fries ($9), which come doused in the sauce and crowned with caramelized onions and American cheese.

Like the territory for which it’s named, there’s lots of gold to be mined at Yukon.

YUKON PIZZA 1130 E. Charleston Blvd. #160, 702-509-6691, yukonpizza.com. Wednesday-Thursday, noon-10 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, noon-midnight; Sunday,

noon-10 p.m.

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Tags: Dining, Pizza, Food
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