Pizzeria Bianco

Like everyone else who watched the Netflix show about Pizzeria Bianco, I wanted to catch a flight to Phoenix just to eat pizza! Thankfully Chris Bianco came to DTLA and opened up in a beautiful space at the Row (where Smorgasburg is held on week-ends), with plenty of parking, and in a patrolled and well lit (i.e., safe) area. It took me months to get a reservation at 5:30pm, but I grabbed the 1st opening and even though I knew traffic would be a bear, my party was still 20 minutes late, taking freeway alternatives.

I got there 1st so I ordered a marvelous glass of Italian red, tried to settle in after the driving derby experience. We started with the little gem salad for $12 that was simply delicious and a perfect portion to share.

The marinara for $22 was a no brainer, with tomato sauce, oregano and garlic; like the salad, it was simply wonderful and every component perfectly complimented each other.

The Wise guy for $27 was a hit with the meat eaters who loved the wood roasted onions, smoked mozzarella, and fennel sausage. We alternated bites of a slice of the marinara and the Wise Guy, and found our happy place:) We contemplated ordering another pie to go, but since we still had leftovers, we decided to just make another reservation instead :)

Pizzeria Bianco is one of my favorite places in Los Angeles for pizza now! The crust is fabulously fermented and crisp, while the toppings are upscale classic. If you live or work downtown, this might be a good spot to pick up a slice during lunch (only slices at lunch for now), but otherwise, I would say it's definitely worth the wait and the drive to make a dinner reservation and enjoy a few full pies and sides.

 

Pizzeria Sei

Sometimes I get a craving for a specific food that sends me on a hunt until I find satisfaction. Fortunately Los Angeles is home to several great pizzerias, and Pizzeria Sei is definitely one of the best. 

It is a tiny place, with counter seats around the kitchen, and literally two tables inside and 2 tables on the sidewalk. If you want to eat outside, you order to go and they will bring it out to you. It's handy to use the Yelp app to see the current wait times and put yourself on the waitlist if you want to dine inside.

I ordered the tricolore salad for $11 which was plenty to share. The second picture shows more of the colors after mixing in the dressing and eating half of it :)

I got a margherita for $19, but wanted some meat on it, so I added Cotto Salami ($6 extra) cooked in and I may have found a new favorite combo. I abhor doughy, tasteless thick crusts, so this chewy, thin crust is my paradigm for an absolutely perfect pizza. The char and chew were spot on, and the quality ingredients were addictive.

The Napoletana for $20 with olives, capers, anchovies, and oregano was a combination of salty, umami, and herby goodness. The only thing missing was some wine to go with it, but they do not have a liquor license, and do not allow BYOB, so take one of these home to enjoy if you wish to imbibe.

They have takeout available only during the week before evening hours, and only take delivery apps orders during the week before evening, so time your visit accordingly, for it is very much worth the planning to please your tastebuds.

Bianca and Pizzana Week-end Encore

It's been nice to revisit local Italian favorites over the week-end now that the crowds from the Super bowl and Valentine's Day are gone. 

The Bianca House salad for $18 is one of my favorites in Los Angeles, combining a simple vinaigrette with arugula, frisée, radishes, carrots, and avocado.

The Kale Minestrone for $18 with pesto is a comforting, filling bowl of vegetable goodness, perfect for a chilly day (in Los Angeles that means under 70 F).

Also the first time I tried their Pollo alla Parmagiana for $26, and it was so perfectly pounded, breaded, and sauced, that I could only finish half of it (I ate the oven roasted string beans and potatoes), taking the other half home. This picture is only HALF of the portion they served!

On Sunday I took out curbside from Pizzana, starting with the Tricolore for $15 with arugula, treviso, endive, cherry tomatoes, candied walnuts, and parmagiano reggiano.

I'm a bit boring when it comes to pizza, going with a classic Margherita for $20 ready to heat and uncut so that I could get a crisp hot crust at home :)

Revisiting old favorites is as important to me as trying new places because without repeat patronage, old favorites fade away....

Endless Color Pizza Topanga

Friends who moved to Topanga introduced me to Endless Color Pizza, and I loved it so much that it's now our go to spot to meet! Every one seems to know everyone and the large patio is dog friendly. Driving up from Los Angeles, look for the post office next door (the sign is hard to see driving north on Topanga Canyon Road, but it's easy to spot the large pink sign driving south).

Their assortment of salads changes depending on the day and time you arrive, but the best thing to do is simply get a bit of all of them on the same plate and go back for seconds on any items that you particularly love. If you want to just eat salad, this could be a very hearty and varied meal in and of itself!

They offer gluten free options which are delicious! Their mushroom pizza is one of my favorites, with a thin crust and lots of garlic confit for $22.

Their Margherita for $20 hits all the classic notes with fresh tomatoes, basil, basil, and oregano.

For meat eaters, the Young Italian Stallion with pork loin, tomato confit, artichokes, olives, mozzarella and fontina is a hearty choice for $23.

Adding arugula to the gluten free mushroom pie makes it a salad and a pizza :)

The kid loved the chicken fingers as the adults ate the pizza and drank the delicious bottle of biodynamic wine for under $30 a bottle:)

Of course no meal is complete without dessert, and the tiny plant based cheesecake heart was devoured quickly leaving the gluten free oat, walnut and golden raison cookie for $4.50 for the adults ;)

San Francisco Sights and Flavors

Coming back as a tourist to San Francisco after more than two decades gave meaning to the adage that no matter how things change they remain the same...the Bay Bridge and the Transamerica building are still iconic monuments although crossing the Bay Bridge now is completely automated with either a fastrak pass/tag or they send a bill to the registered owner...I didn't want to face a $25 late fee penalty so I paid it online through their website with the details of my crossing.

I had plenty of new restaurants to try, and first on my list was a recommendation from a friend who had just been to Sotto Mare and told me it was the best crab cioppino she had ever eaten in her life :) I was very happy that they checked Covid vaccination proof and ID before allowing anyone to eat inside the restaurant. The ones unable to show proof either walked away or ate outside (in SF that means a chilly table even with heat lamps).

I started off with a house salad for $6.50 that looked very simple, but the classic dressing and ripe tomatoes made this a fresh way to start off your feast.

Yes, the crab cioppino lived up to its reputation as the best, for $49.95, it was a cauldron of crab, shrimp, mussels, clams, calamari, and scallops on a bed of penne that could easily be 2 meals if you ate the penne (I did not).

The next day after my appointment at Pier 17, I walked to the Ferry Building Marketplace and got my Blue Bottle oat milk cappucino before exploring all the shops. I ended up at Boulette's Larder at the end of the building facing the Bay Bridge for their fantastic views and food, like their Fattoush salad and one of the best pizzas I've eaten in years!

I made reservations at Monsieur Benjamin in Hayes Valley after doing some research on Yelp, and it was as wonderful! I also told several people at Hotel Nikko where I was going for dinner and they all said it was great, so it seems to be a universal consensus that this was a great French restaurant in San Francisco! 

Seeing steak tartare on the menu was enough to sell me, but the home made potato chips and the tarragon dressed butter lettuce salad were all as simply French as the main courses. 

I chose the flounder stuffed with spinach and it could not have been more delicate and perfectly cooked. If anyone you know says they don't like fish, have them taste this flounder dish and see if they have changed their mind!

A great ending to a short trip, was an after dinner drink at the Anzu bar in the Hotel Nikko, with the professional and personable bartender John, before taking the elevator upstairs to sleep :)

 

Pizzana To Go

The health and safety of my loved ones, both in and outside the service and health industries, has meant that I have not eaten at a restaurant in nearly a year. To support my beloved friends and restaurants, I regularly get curbside pick up or sometimes opt for delivery (not using an app whenever there is an option). Today's post is on Pizzana, which I visited almost exactly 1 year ago today! My previous post was about dining there, but I have gotten curbside pick up of both the meal I ate there and the one in this post, and I wanted to encourage everyone to get curbside pick up of their favorite meals in this post. 

For food like pizza, many places now offer the option of uncut pies so that you can heat it at home in your oven. Do it. It makes all the difference to be able to eat a great pizza HOT!

The salads come packed with the salad dressing separate so the greens are not soggy and wilted by the time you get home:) I chose the tricolore for $15 with arugula, treviso, endive, cherry tomatoes, candied walnuts, red wine vinaigrette, and parmigiano reggiano.

The Bianca for $20 with fennel sausage fior di latte, shaved fennel and red onion  was superb, especially with the shaved fennel topping packed separately to top the hot pizza out of the oven.

The only mistake I made was only ordering one pizza and one salad for pick up ;)

Pizzana and Roberta's

There is good pizza in Los Angeles, but there is also hyped pizza which may not necessarily be great. Fortunately, there are times when both the hype and the food deserve praise. I have never eaten at Roberta's in NYC, so when they opened in Culver City, I looked forward to finally getting a taste of NYC pizza in Los Angeles. Even though we went for pizza, we decided to try the pasta as well since they had one on special that night. Honestly I can't say it was memorable enough to write about since the flavor was more about the mountain of parmiggiano than the duck ragu. At $18 for a small plate, it was enough for a meal for a small eater, or a serving to share as a side dish.

The original pizza is $18 and again could feed one person, or if you order something else, you could split it, but it is too thin and small to really be your only order for 2 people. Nice chewy crust, but burnt and with an unexciting sauce. There were condiments on the table, but for the price there should have been no need for do it yourself seasoning. Service was professional, and the atmosphere is great on the patio, but the interior noise level was so high with the sound bouncing off all the hard surfaces, that my dinner companion and I had to shout to hear what the other person wanted to order. We ended up speaking to the server individually because even she had trouble hearing our order!

Pizzana was so booked on a week-end night that I gave up trying to go to stand and wait for 1 or 2 hours, so one week day evening while driving past, I took a chance and asked at the valet how long the wait was before handing over the car keys. It turned out that 7pm on a Tuesday night is a great time to go, with barely a 10 minute wait for a patio table. The $16 chop salad was full of flavor, Italian salami, and provolone. It was a very hearty savory salad, with chickpeas, avocado, and olives that could easily be a meal for one or is perfect to share with a pizza.

The classic margherita for $19 was worth every penny for their use of authentic quality ingredients like fio di latte and san marzano dop polpa. The crust was magnificently crisp, with nice chew, and served on a metal tray with holes to allow the hot steam to escape rather than make the crust soggy. The flavors were clean and needed no additions to perk up the pizza. It was large enough for 2 to share and if you had a monster appetite, you would be very full if you could finish it.

Nothing in Los Angeles compares to Pizzarium in Rome, but that is why we travel ;)

Elephante View

Some places have wonderful views and terrible food, some places have wonderful food and no view. There is a story told of a few places have that unique combination of both wonderful views and wonderful food. Like a unicorn, the existence of the ultimate view and food combination is a mythical fairy tale that I wish to believe is true, so I keep looking for it...

Elephante was rumored to be one of those places. So on one of the many sunny warm Sundays in Southern California, I went with my neighbors, two of whom had been there before and told me that they enjoyed it. 

We were one of the few tables with a child, and because we had reservations, we got one of the premiere view tables on the patio overlooking the Pacific. The vibe on a Sunday early afternoon was definitely a see and be seen. Younger crowd (at my age that translates to 20-30's) all dressed and groomed to the hilt, and everyone had roving eyes to see who had just arrived and who was to be the center of attention. It was a telling sign of the clientele that the private elevator to the top had a security guard who had just kicked out a young woman with a fake ID because he said she had the same name and birthday as the ID of another woman in her group! Ahhh to be that eager to be part of the "in crowd" and to be that careless in trying to pass off a fake ID!

Our view was spectacular!

One of our group is vegetarian, so our choices veered towards the meatless. The brussel sprouts with a mountain of pecorino for $13 was a fresh but not perky salad. The dressing was lemon and white balsamic, but we could taste neither.

The fried calamari for $14 with balsamic aioli was perfectly fried and tender, and we appreciated that the tentacles were included in the serving.

The whipped eggplant for $12 had a pleasant smooth texture, but gave none of us any desire to order it again aside from the warm soft puff of bread that came with it to be torn apart for dipping.

The mushroom wood-fired pizzas for $20 each were decent with a nice assortment of cremini, maitake, and oyster mushrooms, lemon cream and parmigiano reggiano were decent but not noteworthy. 

This is a good choice for a few bites but do not expect the be awed; 

that is why there is a view :)

Italian Style Pizza in the South Bay

Bonci's Pizzarium is my paradigm for pizza, and there just is no rival for the best of the best. Alas I am thousands of miles away from my favorite, but I found two worthy substitutes in the South Bay.

Locale 90 has two locations in the heart of Riviera Village in Redondo, and on Hermosa Avenue in Hermosa Beach. I loved their Puttanesca with white anchovies, olives, capers, oregano, and chili flakes with a red sauce made with san marzano crushed tomatoes. Although they say the pizza is for one, this $14 plate was two meals for me, so it's not as pricey as it may seem. The crust had the perfect chew, and although it is not as thin as in in Naples, the added bit of thickness helped hold the toppings so you could pick it up to eat it.

I also tried their Sopressata salami with smoked mozzarella and roasted peppers for $15, which had nice flavors, but the puttanesca was my favorite.

Both locations offer a nice selection of beer and wine, and the Smog City IPA was a perfect accompaniment to the pizza.

Il Romanista is one of the few places in Los Angeles serving up Roman style square pieces like Pizzarium. The sell by slice, not weight, but the spirit of the place is like Pizzarium, with varied choices of fresh ingredients for a very reasonable price for the quality at only $3.50-$4.50 per slice. One slice is good as an appetizer, two for a meal, and three if you are very hungry! This mixed mushroom slice was good on its own, but even better with some red pepper flakes.

They had one slice of squash blossom and goat cheese left, so my friend and I shared it :)

The cheesy version of a mushroom slice was just as good as the tomato version.

Although the pizzas are crisp and look flat, the crust has the loft and texture that shows off how the 36-72 hour cold fermentation process has worked its magic.

It's nice to have good places nearby, but LAX is also nearby, so one day I may just have to make the 17 hour flight for a taste of my pizza paradigm :)

Eataly Introduction Part 1

I must confess that I did not like Eataly in Rome. There were beautiful products, from pasta to condiments, many counters serving snacks and sweets, and several options for eating both inside and outside, but it made no sense to me to shop or eat there when I was in ITALY, with authentic local options literally surrounding me. The only people I saw buying and eating anything there were tourists and they were mostly American, seeking perhaps the comfort of a known brand name from the US. The equivalent of this experience would be going to chain lobster restaurant in Maine instead of a local joint, or *shudder* buying a supermarket baguette in France instead of getting one from a boulangerie. WHY?!?!?!?! Just DO NOT do it. Taste at least one peach, ripe, fresh off the tree; you can always open a can of peaches afterwards, if you still prefer them :)

Eataly in Los Angeles offers a few products that are a challenge to find here, but those who know good Italian and European markets can easily find most things for for less. Bay Cities in Santa Monica is still my all time favorite place to shop for any Italian ingredient. A1 in San Pedro has a nice selection, and Eagle Rock Italian Bakery and Deli has many great products. I like keeping small businesses alive, and the personal interactions are as important to me as the presentation, so even though I love to peruse the big name financed stores, when it comes to actually buying, I will continue to spend my money with the smaller shops.

If you prefer one stop shopping with gorgeous presentation, then Eataly Los Angeles is your new mecca. Just as Paris has the gorgeous La Grande Epicerie, and tourist centric Lafayette Gourmet, Eataly is a feast for foodie eyes. My next three posts will be mostly photographic, so enjoy the eyefest:)