Support for LAist comes from
Local and national news, NPR, things to do, food recommendations and guides to Los Angeles, Orange County and the Inland Empire
Stay Connected
Listen
🗳️ Voter Game Plan: We're here to help you make sense of your ballot

Share This

Food

Yes, LA Pizza Is A Thing, And It Beats Out All The Other Pizza In The World

A close up of a pepperoni pizza against the back ground of a blue sky with two palm trees in the background
We love L.A.-style pizza !
(
Tommy Brockert
/
Courtesy LaSorted's
)

Los Angeles is in the midst of a pizza renaissance.

Pizzaiolos across the city are slicing up unique takes on pies that pull from multiple influences — local, global, and everything in between — just like Los Angeles itself.

It's like when you create a playlist for your friends with all your favorite songs. There’s a little jazz, rock, hip-hop, country, pop.

That’s L.A.-style pizza.

Support for LAist comes from

Because the region isn't beholden to any specific standards for pizzas, chefs get to use all the best parts of what makes for a great pie. And, I would argue, that means L.A. is currently making pizza which is better than any other city across the globe.

Fighting talk, I know, but this is a hill I'm willing to die on.

Now, as LAist’s food editor, I’m often asked where to go to get pizza. So I’ve put together a list of my favorite picks. It's clearly not exhaustive, and it's not a list that tells you where to get "the best" pizza. Instead, it's a snapshot of L.A.-style pizza right now — my take on what stands out in terms of creativity and skill.

How To LA logo (graphical text) with LAist Studios logo (graphical text) with 6th street bridge in the background; with red to orange vertical gradient as background color
Listen 24:56
Listen 24:56
#265: It's time for another Food Fridays! And that means Gab Chabrán is hitting the streets with HTLA host Brian De Los Santos to grub on our favorite food: Pizza. L.A. is going through what many artisans are calling a pizza renaissance right now. Hundreds of gourmet pizzerias have popped up around L.A. in recent years, taking advantage of the abundance of fresh produce in the region and marrying uniquely SoCal flavors and influences.

LaSorted’s: Silver Lake

Tommy Brockert was an L.A. event photographer when his then-girlfriend, now wife, gave him an Ooni pizza oven. That led him to enroll in a one-day pizza-making class, where he was hooked and began stumbling down the rabbit hole of crafting his own naturally leavened sourdough pizza crusts.

Support for LAist comes from

When his income dried up at the start of the pandemic, he had the crazy idea of selling his homemade pizzas off the front porch of his home in Echo Park.

In the picture, a fair-skinned man wearing a blue baseball cap and a black T-shirt with brown hair is standing with his arms around a woman with dark skin and dark hair wearing a long light blue dress, a straw sun hat, and sunglasses. They are surrounded by a group of other people in the background in front of a small storefront with a light blue sign with red and white letters.
Tommy and Erin Brockert started selling pizzas during the pandemic. The pizzeria recently have celebrated their four year anniversary.
(
Daviston Jeffers @davefotogram
/
Courtesy LaSorted's
)

It was so successful that he now runs his own pizza shop, LaSorted’s, in Silver Lake, just down the road from where he used to sell his porch pizzas.

A good place to start is the Mamba, prepared as a regular cheese slice or with pepperoni. Its name comes from the late Laker great Kobe Byrant, who once said he ate a pepperoni pizza before scoring 81 points in a single game in 2006. Brocket, who grew up worshiping the Lakers and Dodgers, chose the name.

The Upside Down Mamba is perhaps the most texturally interesting pie on the menu.

A close of slice of pizza covered in red tomato sauce with a scant of amount of cheese on top on well cooked brown crust.
The Upside Down Mamba at LaSorted's in Silver Lake. One of the most texturally exciting pizzas in all of Los Angeles.
(
Tommy Brocket
/
Courtesy La Sorted's
)

According to Brockert, this style of pizza has roots in Philadelphia, which he learned about from some of his Philly-born employees. The name is exactly what it is: their cheese pizza, with its toppings, flipped, with a three-cheese blend serving as its base, then topped thoroughly with tomato sauce, sprinkled with flaky sea salt, and Sicilian oregano. The thin layer of cooked cheese underneath the sauce forms a buffer between the sauce and the pizza crust, making for a uniquely excellent texture that many West coasters, such as yours, truly haven’t experienced before visiting LaSorted’s.

Support for LAist comes from

Another standout is the sausage and pepper pie. It's topped with their housemade sausage mixed with roasted green peppers and onions and then drizzled with spicy tomato Arrabbiata sauce and Calabrian chili oil. This is the pizza version of a sausage and pepper sandwich from an Italian deli.

Think about how a producer takes a snippet of a song and creates a new song based on it. Brocket accomplishes something similar with his pizza—it's both specifically Los Angeles and distinctly his own.

Location: 2847 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles
Hours: Daily, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Quarantine Pizza Co: Eastside pop-up

If you've ever visited Smorgasburg LA, there’s a good chance you’ve encountered Quarantine Pizza Co., a pizza pop-up run by Brandon and Carolina Conaway. Like many kids who grew up in Southern California, they draw from various influences, both from their respective cultural backgrounds and a slew of others that they’ve picked up along the way.

Brandon is Asian (Chinese and Vietnamese) and white. Carolina is Latina (Mexican and Colombian). Both grew up in Orange County, where they met before moving to Los Angeles for college.

Support for LAist comes from
A man and woman with light brown skin stand with their bodies facing to one side. The man stands in the front wearing a tie-dyed white t-shirt with a large logo in the center and black shorts and black sunglasses. The woman has dark curly hair tied up in a bun with an orange headband and white sunglasses. She's wearing a black T-shirt with short sleeves. They are standing in an outdoor setting with an easy-up tent in the white background with a red checkered design and green letters.
Brandon and Carolina Conaway of Quarantine Pizza Co. draw from their diverse background to create fun and inventive pizzas at their pop up.
(
Robert Haleblian
/
Courtesy Quarantine Pizza Co.
)

Brandon worked in Italian restaurants, and Carolina has a background in set design for television and film. The couple has been experimenting with sourdough starters since 2015, which they would trade with friends. When the pandemic hit, they started selling pizzas out of their backyard in Highland Park (you may sense a theme here), which is how they came up with the name Quarantine.

It's led to some outstanding combinations, such an Banh Mi pies, Char siu pies, and birria sausage, salsa roja and red corn sourdough.

When you bite into a slice of their sourdough “Neapolitan-ish inspired pizza", its fluffy, airy texture is like a breath of fresh air. It's a revelation. The outer rim of the crust features the perfect amount of “leoparding,” which occurs when the naturally fermented dough is cooked under high heat and creates little dark spots.

Partially shown a pizza with the outer crust containing a series of black spots from its cooking. The pizza's center contains slices of cooked sausage charred from the heat underneath a layer of fresh yellow pineapple covered in a light green salsa and diced white onions.
The al-pastor pizza is the stuff dreams are made of! A pizza that taste like a taco!
(
Courtesy Quarantine Pizza
)

I suggest you try the al pastor. The soft crust feels like a thicker-style tortilla because they use Masienda, a single-origin heirloom masa harina infused into the dough. It features sausage from A’s BBQ, topped with sliced pineapple purchased from a local street vendor and salsa verde, onion, and cilantro.

The sausage cups up like pepperoni, pairing exceptionally well with the pineapple's sweetness and the masa in the pizza dough. Each bite contains a rush of freshness.

Yes, that’s right. It's the best of both worlds: pizza and tacos. What a time to be alive in Los Angeles.

Location: Smorgasburg LA, 777 S. Alameda St., Los Angeles
Hours: Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Follow them on Instagram to find out where they’re popping up next.

Apollonia's Pizza in Mid-City

The inside of a busy pizzeria: People are waiting just inside the entryway. Behind the counter, a man wearing a cap is tossing out the dough for a large pizza pie. The wall above it all brands the restaurant, reading "Apollonia's, Desde 2012" in red and black cursive letters.
The busy entryway to Apollonia's Pizzeria on Wilshire Boulevard.
(
Brian Feinzimer
/
LAist
)

Justin De Leon, owner and head pizza maker at Apollonia's Pizza, grew up on pizza. His first job was working at a pizza restaurant when he was 13. The modest menu might make you wonder if this is really some of the best pizza in Los Angeles. But you'll quickly understand why after your first bite — or encountering the long lines outside his standing-room only, cash-only pizzeria off Wilshire Boulevard.

De Leon has been a lifelong student who has broken down pizza into its fundamental elements. If you ask what defines his pizza craft, he’ll say his job is to “simplify it.”

“I've challenged myself to create something that I want. Not necessarily what there's a market for.”

I suggest you start with a traditional slice of De Leon's cheese pie. “I was looking for something thin, light, and crispy,” De Leon said. Well, he found it. This is the cheese slice all others should be judged against.

An overhead photo of two hands holding an opened cardboard pizza box: Tucked inside are a large thin crust slice of pepperoni pizza and a thick crust square slice of pizza with pepperoni and topped off with fresh basil leaves.
Some of the best pizza you can find in L.A., and it's sold by the slice at Apollonia's Pizzeria on Wilshire Boulevard.
(
Brian Feinzimer
/
LAist
)

Next, try the square slice, but take a look before taking a bite — notice that crispy, frico cheese crust that rises up on the sides, giving it a 3-D effect. Contrast that with the square slice's light and spacious interior and you'll know why I think this is one of the best in Los Angeles.

De Leon is quick to point out that he doesn’t use specific names, such as Detroit style, Siciliana, or Grandma’s style to describe his pizza. Instead, he likes to think of it as a combination of all of them wrapped into one, as well as his own background and that of his employees: DeLeon is Latino, and many of the staff members he works with at the small pizzeria are Latino.

Three men stand together. The man in the center has long white and grey hair and is wearing a jaunty cap with a black T-shirt over a white apron. He has both of his arms around the men on each opposite side. The man on the far left has light skin and dark blonde hair and is wearing a white jacket over a black T-shirt. The man on the right wears a green T-shirt with a large logo in the center.
LAist food editor, Gab Chabran and How To L.A. Host Brain De Los Santos with Apollonia's Pizzeria owner Justin DeLeon
(
Aaricka Washington
/
LAist
)

Listening to De Leon describe his square slice is like listening to an artist talk about their most recent work, which makes sense given his background in photography. He describes it as “graphic” with “a strong visual representation,” stating that the flavor of the slice itself should match the visual.

DeLeon describes L.A.-style pizza as a mixture of various styles, and believes that combination gives it a unique taste.

In his own words, "To me, L.A. pizza is a mix of everything."

Location: 5176 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles
Hours: Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 2:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Take action during our fall member drive!
During this critical election, we’re spending less time fundraising, but we can’t raise less of the vital funding needed to keep trusted local news strong. Donate now to return to uninterrupted coverage sooner.
Most Read