Fast food for the modern man

There are solar lights on the ceiling. Hypoallergenic hand-dryers line the bathroom. A computer screen is embedded in the wall, allowing customers to sign up at their leisure for email coupons. The modernity at Modmarket is so evident that diners may wonder whether they should send their orders telepathically.

The 5-week-old café isn’t quite that advanced, although its concept is certainly one step forward for mankind. Located in a strip of stores just south of the 29th Street Mall, Modmarket offers a simple menu of healthy salads and whole-grain flatbreads that customers order in a quick-service setting.

“We wanted to create food that you could eat every day that wouldn’t negatively impact your health,” said Modmarket’s co-founder, Anthony Pigliacampo.

The idea sprung from Pigliacampo’s travels through Europe and Asia, where he noticed a certain innovation surrounding fast food that didn’t seem to exist in the U.S. He proposed the concept of healthy fast food to his high school friend Rob McColgan, who partnered with Pigliacampo to establish Modmarket.

“We wanted to serve healthy food at reasonable prices, combined with a nicer interior,” Pigilacampo said, emphasizing the café’s clean atmosphere that is conducive to staying and relaxing over a meal.

Just as the frosty-white walls and streamlined furniture offer a refreshing reprieve from the dingy interiors of most fast-food chains, Modmarket’s food is a pleasant deviation from those mysterious grease-laden entrées.

In fact, it doesn’t get much healthier than fresh salads and whole-grain bread. A far cry from the wispy piles of lettuce often found in restaurants, Modmarket’s salads offer a meal within themselves.

“We thought by combining the salads with grilled toppings, we could create a hot salad that people would want to eat as a meal,” Pigliacampo said, referring to the selection of proteins one may opt to include on their salad – grilled tri-tip steak, chicken, tofu or Portobello mushroom at a $1.75 to $3 additional cost.

On our Saturday lunchtime visit, my friend and I tried the Mongolian salad, a potpourri of mixed greens, red cabbage, Napa cabbage, soy nuts, green onion and wontons soaked in an orange-mint-chili dressing. I was disappointed to learn they were out of the edamame usually included in this salad, though the omission didn’t make a huge difference. The dressing was spicy and tantalizing, though it proved to be too much of a good thing; next time I’ll be sure to ask for less.

Customers who don’t spot the salad they fancy may build their own, with up to seven toppings and one of eight homemade dressings. Ravenous stomachs may prefer the regular size ($6.50), a heaping platter of greens, while a more modest hunger may be eased with a side salad ($4.50). This smaller version is an ideal accompaniment to a half-size flatbread, which measures at approximately half of the 9- by 12-inch “single” size.

The idea for flatbreads sprung out of Pigliacampo’s desire for a healthier, lighter-weight pizza.

“I’ve always loved pizza, but never found one that wasn’t super greasy or didn’t have a ton of cheese,” Pigliacampo said.

He took matters into his own hands. Modmarket’s dough is made fresh each day and includes eight different grains, a feature Pigliacampo says lends a nuttier flavor to it than the simple whole-wheat dough they started with. In the cavernous brick oven behind the counter, the flatbreads cook in just one or two minutes.

We ordered the Pom flatbread, which had chicken, mozzarella, Parmesan, grilled Portobello mushroom, red onion and a balsamic-pomegranate glaze. The crust offered a flavorful alternative to the doughy whiteness that most mainstream pizzas possess, and was astonishingly thin and crispy. The toppings were tasty, although I found myself secretly wishing they’d thrown in just one more handful of cheese. Healthful stops being a good idea as soon as it results in flatbreads that are dry. Yet the balsamic-pomegranate glaze was a unique and welcome addition.

“(The flatbreads) have a more gourmet taste to them than your traditional pizza,” Pigliacampo said.

This is evidenced by ingredients like goat cheese, basil-pesto spread and uniquely-spiced vinaigrettes, along with the flavorful brown flatbread itself. Menu items are the collaboration of Pigliacampo, McColgan and Denver chef Troy Guard, of Tag Restaurant in Larimer Square. According to Pigliacampo, Guard helped incorporate specific ingredients into their greater vision of simplicity and healthfulness.

Such a vision has been popular among many Boulderites, but Pigliacampo has noticed that most of his customers are women.

“We see everything from groups of female college students, to moms with kids, to working women out for a working lunch,” Pigliacampo said, attributing the pattern to the fact that women seem to care a bit more about what they eat.

“Women aren’t generally too psyched about eating Papa John’s. Our flatbread is a nice alternative to that,” Pigliacampo said. “But usually, if a group of guys and girls come in, the guys will get flatbreads and the girls will get salads.”

Those with gluten allergies and vegan diets need not turn away, as gluten-free dough and vegan cheese are both available. Nor has Modmarket neglected the sweet tooth; we listened to ours and ordered the dessert flatbread topped with Nutella, strawberries and powdered sugar. The bread’s nuttiness wonderfully complimented the sweet flavors, although a softer, less crispy vehicle would have better accompanied the sugary mélange.

Also on the menu are organic soup selections from Boulder Soup Works, healthy beverage alternatives like Boylan cane sugar sodas and a modest selection of beer and wine.

According to Pigliacampo, the salad and flatbread varieties change constantly – the result of their desire to source the menu as locally as possible.

“For example, avocados will only be on the menu for a little while longer until they come into season again closer to us,” Pigliacampo said.

He added that since Colorado’s growing season is approaching its winter hiatus, many of the ingredients will now come from Arizona, Texas, or California.

“Fortunately, both the flatbreads and the salads are canvases that you can put something new on and change with the seasons,” Pigliacampo said.

In addition to seasonal integrity, Modmarket maintains a commitment to naturally raised meats. The chicken contains no hormones or antibiotics, and is, Pigliacampo said, “true free-range, where (the chickens) actually walk around in fields.”

Transparency on the meat supply chain is important to Pigliacampo and McColgan.

“We’ve researched the farms and talked to them about the various methods, so that we are sure everything we’re buying is raised in a way that we agree with,” Pigliacampo said.

Perhaps the commitment to fresh, healthy food is what keeps customers coming back to Modmarket. Whatever the reason, they’ve managed to overcome a not-so-central location.

“Admittedly, this is not the busiest part of 29th Street,” Pigliacampo said. “But we’re drawing more people into this part of the area every day.”

Modmarket also offers take-out, and with an online ordering system launching in about a week, foot traffic should increase considerably. According to Pigliacampo, people have responded well to the modern aesthetic and healthful offerings.

“People like the modern, West Coast feel,” Pigliacampo said. “And you don’t feel sick after you eat (our food), which seems to be uncommon in the fast food world.”

Given the success Modmarket has already seen, Pigliacampo has high hopes for continuing the trend.

“If this one does well, we’re hoping to seek out some other locations and open more Modmarkets,” Pigliacampo said. “Our end goal is to feed as many people reasonably healthy food as possible.”

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Lauren Duncan at Lauren.Duncan@colorado.edu.