March 24, 2019 by seanbernard Leave a Comment (Edit)
June 27, 2017
Yeah, groan-inducing pun. Anyway: pizza: we’re done with our quest! While there is great pizza in Los Angeles … did we have any this summer? Not so much! Read on.
(Context: our goal was to find the rightest and bested pizza in our neighborhood. The rules: localish. Highly rated non-chain pie houses our town and those adjoining. Cost & order: no more than $20 for a medium 10-14 inch half-cheese, half-pepperoni pizza (or, and preferably, margherita if it’s clearly an option). Rating system: basic discussion of crust, sauce, cheese, pepperoni … with extra attention being paid to the overall ratio of these ingredients and much higher value given to crust and, though to lesser extent, sauce.)
So here’s our final list, followed by a quick overall recap and more detailed assessments:
The Best
Quite Good
Fine in a Pinch
Il Mattone Trattoria (Claremont)
Eat At Your Own Peril
Sal’s Pizza and Bagelry (La Verne)
Overall recap, or that part at the end with all the moral lessons.
#1. Eating pizza gets tiresome in a way that eating tacos does not.
#2. One must choose one’s food-quests based on area-culinary strengths (turns out, pizza is not a culinary strength of our area).
#3. Flaccid, flabby doughy “crust” (“American,” or “Trump,” pizza, as it’s called) is now off the table for us.
#4. Margherita pizza is the gold standard; (yes, delicious) pepperoni clouds one’s judgment, (yes, delicious) pepperoni hides the pie.
#5. Fresh mozza that burbles into a cauldron of saucy-cheese mixture? Check.
#6. Bright, acidic, just slightlysweet tomato sauce? Check.
#7. A crust should be snappy, charred … yet pliable, give a soft chew.
#8. Go to San Biagio in Upland. Too far? Union on Yale.
#9. Pizza is coming.