by Susan Dugan

Born and raised in Fargo, North Dakota, Mike Miller – founder of the HandleBar & Grill and current owner of Basil Doc’s Pizzerias – grew up riding his bike back when nobody rode.

RESTAURATEUR, CYCLING FANATIC AND YOGA TEACHER MIKE MILLER sees adherence to core values as the key to his success as an entrepreneur, and his enjoyment of life through its challenges and successes. What keeps the busy businessman going? “Your passion, your focus and staying true to your inner desires. That’s what brings you back around.” Photo: Paul Kashmann

The self-described “cycling fanatic” later chose to attend the University of Denver for its hotel/restaurant management program but also because of a sport nearly as close to his heart as cycling: hockey. He graduated in 1978 and worked a variety of corporate restaurant venues before heading to Alaska to work in the restaurant industry in 1982.

Miller returned to the lower 48 in 1989 and went back to DU to earn an executive MBA. “You have to remember, that in 1989 if you wanted to get an MBA all you really needed was a pulse,” he quips. Upon graduating in 1991 he took up various local and regional restaurant industry positions before developing, creating, and launching the former HandleBar & Grill at Alameda and Downing in late 1996/early 1997. The restaurant closed in 2006.

The HandleBar oozed Miller’s passion for cycling and quickly became a fixture for all things cycling-related in Denver. “It really was a clubhouse for the cycling community. It catered to people who were very competitive, hard-core racers, but also to people who wanted to get on their bikes, clad in spandex or not, and just be in a welcoming environment where you could talk cycling – and if you had a question –we could answer it. And you couldn’t have asked for a better location, considering the cycling community in Washington Park.”

The restaurant not only sponsored races and events but offered a website: handlebargrill.com, brimming with information of interest to avid cyclers. “This was just when, what was then referred to as the World Wide Web was getting developed. My desire was to be a portal for everything cycling-related in Colorado, if not the Rocky Mountain region. You could find out everything you needed to know, about this race and that race.”

Miller credits sticking to his core concept for the restaurant’s success, a concept based on a sport he knew inside and out. “We were not posers,” he says. “It would have fallen on its face otherwise. If I had created a golf concept restaurant when I don’t play golf or care about golf, I couldn’t have pulled it off. But I knew cycling and was already connected in the cycling world, and had the good fortune of knowing a lot of the competitive cyclists back in the day. And we participated in things like the MS 150 and the Courage Classic that benefits Children’s Hospital.”

In 1999, on a friend’s recommendation, Miller sampled Basil Doc’s pizza on E. Virginia Ave. in Washington Park, and was smitten. “I fell in love with it, and understood what they were doing. And I was at the right place at the right time.” Former owners David and Hillary Allen were looking to sell the business and return to Connecticut. Miller bought Basil Doc’s and opened another shop at 3rd and Holly the following year. In 2004/2005, he opened Basil Doc’s at Florida and Holly, followed by a shop at 32nd and Perry in the Highlands neighborhood.

Miller’s creativity, sound business sense and flexibility enabled him to expand his business and protect and maintain it during the rocky economic times of the past few years. “At one time I had five Basil Doc’s, now I have four. I had two licensed properties, now I have one. So it’s not that we haven’t been through the economic roller coaster. But we’ve stayed true to our core concept, which is primarily pickup and takeout, no delivery. I tell people, ‘You can’t deliver perfect.’ If you want Saks Fifth Avenue, you’re going to have to go there. That’s not being pompous; it’s just understanding who we are, what we are, and staying true to what we do. We don’t do chicken wings, or pasta, or any other collateral foods. We use deck ovens, very old, that cook pizza incredibly well. In my humble opinion, the reason people have not weathered the economic storm is they did not stay true to their core values. Period.”

An unwavering commitment to sticking to the basics has kept customers coming back for more. “People ask me, ‘What makes your pizza so special?’ And I turn it around to, it’s what we don’t do to the pizza that makes it so special. We don’t add preservatives, additives, binders, extenders, sugar. We are very natural, not to be confused with organic because remember, there are no standards for organic foods. We simply provide what I consider to be the best pizza you’ve ever eaten.”

Basil Doc’s has also avoided passing gimmicks and expanding beyond its means. “And our four locations are not in high-rent districts,” Miller adds. “They are neighborhood locations. Our typical footprint is somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 square feet. I don’t lie awake at night wondering how I’m going to make rent this month.”

And at three of four locations, the restaurant shares space with other entrepreneurs to better utilize resources. “At the 3rd and Holly and Highland locations, we share space with Rise & Shine Biscuit Kitchen and Café (riseandshinedenver.com), created by fellow cyclist Seth Rubin. The location had been built to be a quick-service restaurant and we were underutilizing, so I invited him to look at it and six weeks later he was up and running. A year ago he expanded to our Highlands location.”

In the Wash Park East space, Miller has a similar arrangement with Raj Dagstani (dagstaniandsons.com), who makes natural jams, jellies, and marmalades. “People say, ‘You’re brilliant to come up with the idea of sharing space.’ But I’m not brilliant. I just understand entrepreneurs; I understand how hard it is; I understand capital investment; and more importantly, I understand providing an opportunity for like-minded people. It works for us, it works for the customer, it works for everybody.”

In what passes for spare time, Miller, a longtime yoga practitioner, recently became certified as a yoga instructor at the suggestion of a longtime friend. “I thought, great, now I have to find a school and manufacture some more hours in the week because when you work for yourself, you pretty much fill up those hours. But I said, ‘OK, I can do this.’”

He found a school with a philosophy that fit and completed the labor-intensive training. “And trust me: a guy at 56 is not the normal yoga student. A 22-year-old woman is your normal yoga student. So it was an interesting journey.”

Miller now teaches a beginning class three times a week at the Denver Athletic Club and one night a week at Harmony Yoga at Leetsdale and Holly. “It’s fun and I like the way yoga benefits your life. It’s a way to give back a little and expose people to yoga in a non-threatening, non-traditional, non-matching yoga-top-and-bottom way. I’m not going after young professionals; I’m going after the north of 50 or 60 professional that understands they probably need to do a little bit of yoga. The benefits are very personal. And I’m keeping it all in focus. No way am I giving up Basil Doc’s or joining an ashram. I haven’t had to have my knees or hips replaced and I’m doing everything I can to not have to make that decision.”

And he remains a force in the cycling community. “It is growing, not diminishing. A lot of people know I used to have a fairly large cycling community out of the HandleBar & Grill, and now with Seth Rubin of Rise & Shine we have created a cycling team. So it’s come full circle. What brings you back around? Your passion, your focus, and staying true to your inner desires.”