quote:

Originally posted by yumbo

I know I’m making a broad generalization, but why is pizza on the west coast (California, Oregon, and Washington) such a pale imitation of what you can get back east?

Am I the only one that thinks this?

-Yumbo

Because it’s not tomato pie.

quote:

Originally posted by danspeca

west coast pizza sucks for the same reason that you can’t get a good loaf of italian bread on the west coast – the water…

the water is too hard, and when they soften it up, it just doesn’t do the job that east coast water does…

so you see, the dirty schuylkill & east rivers both turn out to be good for something!

danspeca is right. I’ve heard it’s the water too. makes a huge difference in the way the dough rises…

Other good thin NY-style pizza in LA: Damiano’s on Fairfax and Del Cor on Venice Beach.

I’ve only had the New Haven Pizza a few times, but it was awesome. Pepe’s was good although I had a really good one in West Haven (name of the place escapes me) but I think it may be Ischia. In LA, best pizza I’ve found is at Brooklyn Pizza in Manhattan Beach. He greaw up in the pizza places in New york and even has the containers of oregano and powdered garlic at the tables. Great thin crust.

When we visited our son in Santa Monica last fall, he ordered a take out pizza via the phone, turned his oven up to 500, and drove around to the pizza place. When he got home he popped the uncooked pizza into the oven and we enjoyed a really good pizza. This sort of service is unknown in my neighborhood here in the Hudson Valley. We can , of course, buy frozen pizza, but they’re awful.

BTW: when I was a youngster, pizza became first known to us sometime in the early ’40s. I assume it was available in Italian neighborhoods, but the rest of the population was unaware of its existence. Sometime in ’41 or ’42 I became aware that an Italian restaurant we sometimes visited for spaghetti and meatballs, was doing a brisk takeout business in some kind of very large tomato pie. It was called APIZZA, and not long thereafter I began to see signs advertising APIZZA along the highways. Question: what ever happened to the prefixing "A"?

For the same reason you can’t get a decent burrito in Alberta.

Good LA Pizza: D’Amore’s Pizza Connection in the San Fernando Valley. Patsy D’Amore’s (no apparent relation?) in the Farmer’s Market is pretty good too.

Also, Guido’s, a small chain, is not bad at all… http://www.guidospizzaandpasta.com

I basically keep my pizza stone in my oven. In the time it takes to heat to 500, I can make an easy crust with quick rise yeast. Stretch and top with torn-up canned tomatoes, a LITTLE fresh mozzerella, extra-virgin olive oil and some fresh basil. All it takes is about four or five minutes in the oven, and it is 100 times better than frozen. You can keep your dough in the fridge or freezer once it is made.

Never Settle!

Another good Portland OR pizza is Golden Crust Pizza.

Interesting to note: the best pizza place in Ann Arbor, Michigan is called N.Y.P.D. — New York Pizza Depot. And the best pizza place in Portland, Oregon is called Escape From New York. EFNY’s is the closest thing on the west coast to Ray’s Famous Original #1 whatever. They even have a photo of the Ray’s on Sixth Avenue and 11th Street up on the wall.

quote:

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Originally posted by AndyNYC1

I think the point missed here is this: Pizza, like a lot of other foods, is regional. Chicago pizza is only good in Chicago, California pizza is only good (well, passable) in California, and the granddaddy of them all, the Neopolitan slice, is only good in New York. My personal favorites in no order:

1. New Pizza Town- 78th and Broadway
2. Ray’s- 6th Ave and 11th Street
3. Luigi’s- 1st Ave. and 88th Street
4. Sal’s- Court Street, Brooklyn
5. Pizza Cove- Seaford, Long Island (where I had my first thousand slices)

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[:D]ummm, Ray’s Pizza….

By the way, if you’re in New Haven and can’t handle the lines at Sal’s, Pepe’s, or Modern, go to BAR (downtown on Crown Street between Park and High — across the street from Louis Lunch). Very good thin-crust pizza, and I can’t recommend enough the topping combination of red sauce, mozzarella, bacon, and mashed potatoes. Weird-sounding but exquisite. They do their own microbrews as well.

quote:

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Originally posted by yumbo

The one exception to the bad westcoast pizza rule is Zachary’s Chicago Pizza in Berkeley, CA. I wouldn’t call it a real Chicago pizza, but the pies are deep, and the sauce is something else. I haven’t eaten there in 4 years, though. Anyone been there recently?

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Oh, it’s still good! I just moved to Berkeley from the (relatively) undisputed pizza capital of the world, New Haven, and had a Zachary’s experience within days of my arrival. It’s delicious. It’s not "Apizza", but something more like a very flat calzone cut into square pieces.

I have had my share of the Lynchburg water. It comes out of a cave, into the vats and out of my pocketbook. I have done that tour several times. Always enjoy sniffing the vats to get my sinus’s cleared. Old Jack and Lem Motlow had a pretty decent idea.