The Unvegan

Recent Posts

10 Years of Unvegan
A Quick Bite at Burrito Express
Serendipity at Northern Waters Smokehaus
Twerks and Burritos at Casa Amigos

‘Pizza’

12/24/2010 Culver City

Eating All I Can at Bella Vista

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So cheesy.

Once in every generation, a great new idea is unleashed upon the world. The steam engine. The printing press. Penicillin. All-you-can-eat Brazilian pizza. That’s right, that list of great ideas now has company and it comes in the form of Bella Vista, a somewhat new restaurant in Culver City. As if combining the awesomeness of Brazilian food with phenomenon of pizza wasn’t enough, Bella Vista took the combination one step further by offering it rodizio-style, which is basically the Brazilian version of a buffet, but with the added bonus that the food is brought to you, rather than forcing you to do actual work. Oh and all that only costs $12.99.

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8/10/2010 Los Angeles

Getting Upscale at Pizzeria Mozza

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How do you say Meat Lover’s in Italian?

Pizzeria Mozza (not Matzah) is one of those restaurants in LA that just kind of nags at you until you realize you just kind of have to go. For starters, the head chef is some guy from the Food Network or Top Chef or something like that. Then, because of that, you have to get a reservation at least 30 days in advance, so you really have to want to go this place and know your schedule for the next 30 days. Just such a time came up recently when the parents were in town (and I knew more than 30 days ahead), so off to Pizzeria Mozza we went to see what it was all about.

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7/21/2010 Los Angeles

Consuming Mojo at Shakey’s Pizza

Just like the olden days.

Shakey’s Pizza and I have a long history, dating all the way back to when I lived in Japan. I discovered Shakey’s in Kyoto and found it to have the best pizza in Japan, at least at that time. They had a modestly priced buffet and although they still served crazy Japanese-style pizza with mayonnaise and corn, they also had good old fashioned pepperoni and cheese. Plus they had delicious fried potatoes and Melon Fanta. Needless to say, every trip to Kyoto came with a stop at Shakey’s. Little did I know at the time that Shakey’s was not just some Japanese anomaly, but had begun in the US. At one point it was a pretty big deal in the US, but now there are more of them in Asia than in the US. Yet, it wasn’t until I moved to LA that I realized I could enjoy the Shakey’s goodness without a plane trip to Asia. Although I knew of Shakey’s in LA for awhile, I finally got the chance to check it out myself and see if it could live up to my memories.

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7/20/2010 Los Angeles

Pizza Man, Not the Best Man

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Pizza Man. World’s Greatest Superhero?

Working late one night, I decided I needed some pizza to keep me going. Fortunately, there is plenty of pizza to be found around my office in North Hollywood. One place, called Pizza Man (sadly not a superhero who fights off villains with pepperoni and tomato paste), always has a sign to advertise their $5 large pizza, so I looked them up and gave them a call. A man with an indistinguishable, but quite pleasant European accent answered the phone. It turned out that the special was only for plain cheese, but they had a two-topping carry out special for $6.99. This price was comparable to Papa John’s and other fast food pizzas, so I felt good about the price.

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7/9/2010 Grosse Pointe

Thinking Outside the Box at Village Grille

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Pizza! Nachos!

Although I grew up in Michigan, I can’t remember ever setting foot in Grosse Pointe. I guess it was just too far outside the bubble of Farmington Hills/West Bloomfield. Fortunately, my buddy decided to marry a Grosse Point native, giving me my first chance to see what food was like on the other side of Detroit. We headed to the nice little downtown area of Grosse Point and got ourselves a table at the Village Grille.

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6/30/2010 Los Angeles

Confused by W Love Pizza Cafe (CLOSED)

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Shiny and delicious.

On my way to work every morning I pass a little corner strip plaza with a huge sign proclaiming that one of the restaurants in there has the best chicken kabob in LA. That is quite the claim, so one day when the girlfriend made the trek to the valley and visited me for lunch, I thought it would be nice to get some Mediterranean food in our bellies. We strolled on over the the little plaza to find the chicken kabob, but when we arrived there was no Mediterranean restaurant to be found. The sign was there, but it pointed to a place called W Love Pizza Cafe. We were confused, but headed in to see if it was the right place.

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6/23/2010 Ann Arbor

Drunk Pizza at Backroom

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I have never seen any spinach pie here.

After failing to grab a late-night snack at Red Hot Lovers (if your damn sign says you are open til midnight, I better be able to show up at 11:57 and get a hot dog), we headed to Backroom Pizza. As a college student, this place was the best. Slices of cheese pizza were a buck and pepperoni ran 1.50. No one would ever claim it was great pizza, but at 2:30 am, you don’t need great pizza. Now that I’m no longer a poor college student, I was wondering if it would still have the allure it once did.

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6/21/2010 Ann Arbor

Being Un-White at Pizza Bob’s

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Why is this brown?

After a fruitless attempt to grab lunch at Blimpy Burger, we had to think fast and find ourselves another quick place to eat in Ann Arbor. We decided that Pizza Bob’s would be a great option. Pizza Bob’s has been in Ann Arbor forever, but for some reason I never went while I was a student. Once inside, I decided I didn’t really need any pizza for lunch, but the calzone looked awesome. For $7.08 (wait, how much?), I ordered a calzone stuffed with pepperoni, sausage and meatballs. No need to order without veggies since I got to choose the toppings (innards?) myself. The guy at the counter asked if I wanted white or wheat dough, and I chose white.

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6/14/2010 Los Angeles

Wasting Imports at Brooklyn Pizza

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Looks so normal.

In an attempt to try out some new pizza while at the girlfriend’s place, we looked into a little place in West LA called Brooklyn Pizza. Knowing that we were not actually in Brooklyn, I thought this might have been some sort of a misnomer. But misnomer it was not. Instead, it seemed as though they were trying to create the sort of pizza that you could get in Brooklyn and seemed very excited to tell us over the phone that their tomatoes and cheese came from New York. This seemed nice, but are the cheese and tomatoes really the things people love about New York pizza? I thought it was the dough, but perhaps I am wrong. Nonetheless, I checked out the menu and found their Double Pepperoni looked appealing.

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6/9/2010 Los Angeles

Slices of Tomato Pie

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Not pie, just pizza.

Though LA still doesn’t have it’s own style of pizza, I keep finding more and more places that attempt to create a sort of New York style pizza. My buddy recently brought me to Tomato Pie Pizza Joint in Silver Lake. At first I was frightened by any restaurant that would use the name of a vegetable in their name. Would every pizza be loaded with tomatoes? Would this actually be a pizza place or just a place that baked pies made with tomatoes? Did my friend even know who he was eating with? What’s the meaning of life? All these questions and more flooded my brain, but when I walked into the joint and the kind of pizza they had to offer, my questions and most of my fears washed away.

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