‘Pepperoni’
I’ve passed by Mulberry Street Pizzeria in Beverly Hills a few times and been curious about what sort of pizza may lay within. Finally, I got down the courage to ask my girlfriend, a seasoned veteran of the LA food scene, if it was a pizza worth getting. She assured me it was and within a few days she had ordered some Mulberry Street pizza for us to partake in.
Big Mama’s & Papa’s Pizzeria sells pizza by the slice. But it’s not just any pizza by the slice. It’s Big Mama’s Slice and it is massive. Signs outside the place say that their slices are the size of three regular pizza slices. Unfortunately, the picture of the slice on the sign didn’t give give any scale and only showed the price, at $3.99. So for all I knew, as I ordered the slice, it could have been the size of three tiny pizza slices.
Ever since graduating from college, it hasn’t been easy find great deals on pizza. Not so long ago, I was in the habit of ordering two large one-topping pizzas for the amazing price of ten bucks, including delivery! While days like that will likely never be seen again by this hungry unvegan, there are still some decently cheap pizza places out there. Lenzini’s 241 Pizza (get it? two for one?) in Plams is one of these places. All the pizzas on their menu come with a second pizza of equal or lesser value. The prices are slightly inflated, but it was definitely worth a try the last time my girlfriend and I had to order a bunch of pizzas.
Once Little Caesars abandoned their “Pizza Pizza” slogan, they seemed to fall off the face of the earth. A few years later, though, they were reborn with the $5 Hot-N-Ready large pizza. The idea behind this is that pizza has become too complicated. Choosing a topping can be a pain in the ass, then finding the right coupon to go along with your purchase can be even more difficult. With the Hot-N-Ready pizza, you can walk right into as Little Caesars at any time, throw down five bucks and walk out with either a large cheese or large pepperoni. It’s a genius idea, because who really wants a different topping on their pizza? But it only works if the product still tastes good. I recently paid a visit back to Little Caesars to see if their Hot-N-Ready was just like I remembered.
With a big group, I headed to Vinny’s Pizza in El Segundo. Since we couldn’t fit inside the little place, we were taken outside to an area that looked like it was made for banquets. But this was no banquet, as we quickly learned when we were seated at white plastic tables with white plastic chairs. Since we were such a big group, we ordered a variety of pizzas, including Hawaiian, pepperoni and the dreaded vegetarian for our vegetarian friends.
Village Pizzeria in Hollywood is LA’s version of New York pizza. Located on Larchmont Street, it isn’t really a Hollywood-style place at all, which is pretty comforting to someone like me who doesn’t work in the entertainment industry. To test the place out, I went with a friend of mine.
Since we were unable to compromise on a pizza that we both liked, we decided to go halfsies. I got my half in the pepperoni style, while she agreed to the pepperonis, but also ordered a disturbing fungus called mushrooms. Unnecessarily worried, I also ordered some garlic rolls in the expectation that the pizza wouldn’t be enough food for me.
A coworker of mine was raving about the amazing-ness of Z Pizza in El Segundo, so I went to check it out with another coworker of mine.
The first thing I wondered was how they came up with the name “Z Pizza.” When I heard it the first time, I imagined a group of German immigrants sitting around a dingy New York pizza joint. One of the immigrants is clearly in charge, albeit with a strong accent, and asks the rest of the table, “Vhat vould you like on zi pizza?” Thus, a restaurant name is born.
One day I was reading about Stuft Pizza and saw somewhere that they had dollar slices on Mondays. Figuring that was a pretty awesome deal, I called them up to see if the dollar slices still existed. When I got a quick confirmation on the phone, I headed over for a cheap lunch.
At first, I was disappointed because the pizza rotating in the little pizza by the slice heater wasn’t even stuffed. Instead it looked like any other pizza and begged the question of how the place got its name.
Nonetheless, I was already there and determined to eat pizza, so I ordered three slices of pepperoni and waited for the man behind the counter to ask me for three bucks. This sound never came, as the man asked me for a total that far exceeded three bucks.