Pizza
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Worth the Drive: DeSano Pizza Bakery in East Hollywood
Jul 17 2014
The idea that L.A. doesn’t have good pizza is an antiquated one. Sure, the perception was mostly true ten years ago—though there were always a few gems, like Village Pizzeria, Casa Bianca, and Mulberry Street, to name a few—but ever since Nancy Silverton opened Pizzeria Mozza (What, like eight years ago now?), the LA pizza floodgates have opened, bringing our fair city delicious pies of every regional persuasion. Think: 800 Degrees, Settebello, Hollywood Pies, Bestia, Tomato Pie and, now, DeSano Pizza Bakery in East Hollywood, a casual neighborhood eatery filled with communal tables and legit wood-burning ovens, serving up handmade pies that follow a strict Napoletana pizza-making process.
Locavore DeSano is not. The 900-degree ovens are Italian imports and so are many of the ingredients, including Mozzarella di Bufala, olive oil, and San Felice flour, which are all flown in from Naples and Campania. Adding to DeSano’s authenticity is the fact that the operation is run by actual, born-and-bred Italians-Marino Monferrato, former general manager at Cecconi’s, and pizza maker Massimiliano Di Lascio. The result is a menu of beautiful pizzas with high-quality ingredients and a slightly charred crust—the kind you find in cute, outdoor restaurants in the alleyways and piazzas of Italy.
DeSano offers traditional Napoli pizzas, including such standards as the Margherita and ricotta-laden Bianca, as well as their own house specialties, like the Verdura with broccoli rabe, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and garlic. The Pomodorini (pictured at the top), dotted with sweet and juicy Vesuvian cherry tomatoes, is as simple as it is delicious. A meatier venture, the San Genarro (pictured below) has a crowd-pleasing, spicy mix of sausage, peppadews, carmelized onions and garlic. Oh, and they also offer calzones with similar ingredients combinations.
As good as the pizza is at DeSano, they really could get away with so-so desserts, but instead they go all out. The canolli are some of the best in town, and a big reason why is that they’re stuffed to order, an almost impossible feat in LA. And because they are stuffed to order, the shell stays crispy—not soggy like most cannoli we’re subjected to. You also get your pick from seven different fillings. The Tradizionale is done the way I’ve seen it done in Italy, using the chocolate chips as a garnish on the outside, rather than mixing it with the creme, which is sweet-tooth-pleasing perfection. The Cocco Cioccolati, chocolate and coconut, is really to die for and just rich enough that you won’t be able to stop until, tragically, there’s no more.
If that scares you, try the gelato. It’s not made in house, but it is hand-crafted in small batches by local artisan Alessandro Fontana.
-Valentina
P.S. They don’t have a liquor license yet.
DeSano Pizza Bakery
4959 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles
Pasadena: Rustic Italian from Trattoria Neapolis
Oct 03 2012
Trattoria Neapolis, Pasadena’s new Italian restaurant, has just made my list of favorites in the South Lake District (this esteemed list also includes Cham Bistro and Pie ‘n Burger in case you were wondering). There are plenty of reasons to love this restaurant. For one, the ambiance is fantastic with high ceilings and natural lighting on the patio. Two, they have a wood burning oven. And, three, they make everything from scratch, from bread to salumi.
They also have an impressive drink program, full of American and Italian classics. Prosecco cocktails abound and the wine list is extensive. If you’re a beer drinker like me, they even have an in-house beer sommelier to help you choose from local and Italian brews. Pictured here is The Doctor, a smooth and smokey mix of rye and Italian bitters.
I’m such a sucker for those giant ice cubes.
Antipasti options include hand-crafted cured meats, Sicilian meatballs and wood-grilled octopus. We went for the Arancini with lobster and pickled fennel. The crunch was perfect, but the flavor wasn’t as intense as it could have been, causing the lemon aioli to be the peak of the dish. This is often the case with arancini, but I did appreciate its creamy texture and the sizable chunks of lobster.
Highland Park: Maximiliano Brings “Kinda Old School Italian” to York Blvd.
Nov 14 2011
If you revile “the hipster”, don’t worry. You aren’t doomed to confront swarms of them at Maximiliano. Even though Highland Park’s new Italian restaurant, with its modern decor and valet stand, sits a little conspicuously on the 99-Cent-Store end of York Boulevard, it still manages to attract a mixed-bag crowd and not look (or feel) ridiculous.
Attribute that to the fact that owner Andre Guerrero, also responsible for The Oinkster in Eagle Rock, isn’t some carpetbagger restaurateur—he grew up in Glassell Park and seems to have nothing but love and keen understanding for LA’s northeast corner. Consequently, Maximiliano, from menu to waiter, brims with authenticity.
The tagline for the menu at Maximiliano is “kinda old school Italian”. Translation: Guerrero is doing here what he’s known to do best, which is take accessible (Italian-American, in this case) favorites and give them upgraded oomph. For instance, the Meatballs Pomodoro starter looks like your basic meatballs in red sauce, but these are made with a mix of veal, beef, pork and pancetta for juicy, fork-slides-through-like-butter results.
This extra effort also comes to play with the pasta. According to our waiter, all but one of the pastas is made in house, which was evident with the spaghetti and mussels special we tried. Cooked al dente, the spaghetti was able to stand up to spicy chorizo and a smoky tomato broth that we made sure to soak up with our pizza crust.
Echo Park: A Big Slab of Pizza from Two Boots
Mar 09 2011
Restaurant chains aren’t always bad. My proof? Two Boots Pizza. Mostly scattered around New York City for the last 20 something years, the pizzeria chain’s Los Angeles station has become a mainstay on Echo Park’s Sunset Blvd. It’s taken me awhile to get myself there—two years to be exact—but as of this weekend, I’m a fan.
Pizza is a touchy subject, but I have no beef with Two Boots. The giant-slab slices (a pizza style that’s hard to come by in LA) have a crispy crust with a scattering of cornmeal grit—a pizza quality I love. As far as comparisons go, I preferred Two Boot’s lighter, less chewy crust to the bagel version at Abbot’s Pizza in Venice, another well-respected proprietor of great big slices.
Eat at Home: Cube-Inspired Peach, Heirloom Tomato and Burrata Salad
Jul 05 2010
I recently enjoyed a delicious dinner with friends at Cube on La Brea. If you’ve never been, I really recommend it, especially if you’re a cheese lover-they feature 85 different varieties from all over the world. It’s where I first fell in love with aged gouda, so I’m forever grateful.
Cube’s always-seasonal menu is filled with plenty cheese-centric dishes, including the Heirloom Tomato and Fresh Peach Salad, which was such a standout of the wine and small plates feast we had, that I had to recreate it at home.
This is a very simple salad-peaches, heirloom tomatoes, fresh basil, olive oil and balsamic vinegar-but the flavors are out of hand. The salad at Cube includes buffalo mozzarella, but we went full-force with burrata, which is more decadent. When the cream spills out, it mixes so nicely with the oil and vinegar. Make sure you have some bread on hand to sop it up!
Believe the Hype: Deep Dish Pizza at Masa of Echo Park
Jun 13 2010
Good pizza doesn’t exactly run rampant in LA, and deep dish pizza is particularly hard to score. Once in a while we order a few pies from Lou Malnati’s in Chicago, but at $40 a pop, it’s not exactly ideal. That’s why I was excited to hear good things about the deep dish at Masa.
I can’t exactly say it’s as good as Lou Malnalti’s or others I’ve had in Chicago, but it was definitely worth the hype. Masa makes their dough and sauce fresh everyday, and it shows. The crust is buttery and flaky. It would be perfect if it were slightly less pillowy-I prefer a denser, crispier edge. That said, it was still excellent.
More so than any other food, I think a pizza can be judged on whether you’re compelled (beyond all logic and good sense) to gorge yourself on it. And based on that barometer, I can tell you this one was a success.
Eat at Home: Don’t-Hold-the-Anchovies Pizza
May 08 2010Anchovies get a bad rap. I’m convinced most of us have an aversion to them because, as kids, we always saw them being vilified in sitcoms and cartoons—“yuck, hold the anchovies!”
Well, I for one won’t stand for it because I know the truth about these salty little guys. Please allow me to convert you.
It never even crossed my mind to eat an anchovy until I went to Rome, where a traditional pie includes tomato, mozzarella, anchovies, oregano, and oil. Since I wholeheartedly subscribe to the “When in Rome” philosophy, it didn’t take long for me to try this combo and fall in love.
Once I got home, I started insisting on anchovies every time I went out for pizza—they do it really well at Casa Bianca in Eagle Rock and, of course, at Pizzeria Mozza. Soon, my anchovy fever became so intense that I began to wonder what they could do for our weekly homemade pizza. The answer: a lot!
Here are the goods on my “Don’t-Hold-the-Anchovies Pizza”:
