Basil Doc's Pizza, Denver

It might be obvious, but basil is a signature ingredient at Basil Doc’s Pizzeria. The restaurant’s staff members use the green leaf for just about everything, whether it's blended into their sauce, scattered atop their pies, and thrown at weddings if they run out of rice. Basil Doc makes their pizzas, calzones, and panino the same as they have since 1996, when the original location opened in the Washington Park neighborhood. The operation has expanded to include three additional spots, all of which exemplify Basil Doc’s philosophy of serving the freshest ingredients and minimizing their environmental impact. At each location, vegetables are sliced fresh daily, and sauces and dough get crafted from scratch to create specialty pies ranging from the Florentine, a combination of eggplant and spinach, to the Fargo, a white pie topped with grilled chicken, pine nuts, and green chiles. Additionally, the Crestmoor location now houses Basil Doc's Bistro, which offers a unique catalog of hand-rolled breakfast burritos, baked treats, espresso drinks, drip coffee, and waterfall teas.