Beech Street Pizzeria/Cafe

On my way to a job interview I had to travel an hour and half to the Pacific Palisades. So I thought I'd take advantage of my location and see what the Palisades had to offer in the way of pizza. There were 2 spots I found about a block away from each other. One place called Beech St. Pizzeria and the other aptly named Palisades Pizza.

Beech St. Pizza much different vibe than Palisades Pizza. This place actually has an ambiance, which is upscale and laid back with lots of inside and patio seating.

There is ME in the window, watch OUT !

They were running a little behind when I came to pick it up so I had to wait a little while for it. Though they were very nice about it. Unfortunately I had other plan and didn't get a chance to really savor this pizza nor did I get to look at the menu. If I had looked at the menu I would have seen not only what I ordered the neopolitan pizza, but also a margherita pizza and a bufala mozz pizza. These are 2 pizzas I wish I had gotten, instead I went with the boring cheese. It was 16 inch which is their only size other than individual 12 inch. It was $17.


The pizza looked good, it had all the element in line. Thin crust, slightly crispy. Light sauce and cheese. It wasn't a bad pizza, close to something you might find in N.Y.C. The main two problems here where: 1) the crust wasn't crispy enough. It was still too light and doughy. 2) The flavor was bland. From the sauce to the cheese to the crust, the flavor somehow escaped the pizza. This is why I wished I'd ordered some other toppings. So with the lack of flavor and the only semi-crispy crust, it really fell short of anything great. Plus it had quite a bit of oil on top. It had the right idea though. I'd say it was better than Palisades Pizza but thats just a matter of different styles of pizza.

Beech Street Pizzeria/Cafe

863 Swarthmore Ave. Pacific Palisades 90272

310-573-1940

Price: $$

Overall:

Palisades Pizza

On my way to a job interview I had to travel an hour and half to the Pacific Palisades. So I thought I'd take advantage of my location and see what the Palisades had to offer in the way of pizza. There were 2 spots I found about a block away from each other. One place called Beech St. Pizza and the other aptly named Palisades Pizza.

Palisades Pizza is a small delivery joint in what is essentially the parking garage of a mini mall.

The minute I walked in I was pretty sure of what I was gonna get. A small place with no tables or chairs, basically just a kitchen with neon signs of pizza and breadsticks. In the back I could see the conveyor belt oven. I was disappointed, but not surprised. Though when I heard the price I was surprised. I ordered their extra large cheese which was only 16 inches for a hefty 21 dollars. Though that came with bread sticks, which were pretty good but not needed and not worth the extra dollars.

There is a coupon which is $4 off if you buy an appetizer, which are at least $4. So the pizza doesn't get any cheaper. In fact I saw you could actually pay $1 more to get a thin crust pizza. Which even though it's a rip off, I would have ordered had I known about it, so I guess I'll have to go back.

So the pizza... It was pretty typical, middle American style pizza. It had a doughy thick crust, though not too dense, but very buttery. It was heavy on the cheese, though pretty decent, creamy cheese. The sauce was sweet but wasn't a major factor in the flavor since it was over-powered by the cheese and crust. Overall, for what it was it wasn't bad. The crust was slightly crispy and light and moist, the cheese was decent. The main problem is the price. Usually the price doesn't effect the rating. However, the reality is that this is pretty typical pizza, better than Domino's but not by much, so why would I pay over 4 times as much for basically the same pizza. If the pizza was 7 dollars I'd be satisfied in stead of feeling ripped off.

Palisades Pizza

860 Via De La Paz Pacific Palisades 90272

310-459-4400

Open till 12 pm

Price: $$$

Overall:

Philadelphia Pizza

Sorry for the slow month in pizza postings, Im doing my best to continue the search for great pizza. However I am finding less and less good pizza in the LA area. I feel like I might be coming near the end of what is out there. I have eaten so much below average pizza in the last month I start to forget what good pizza actually tastes like. I have become jaded and have started to fall into a delirious state of mind, where I think bad pizza is good. I give bad pizza 3 out of 5 stars for nothing more than filling my stomach. The reality is, if I ate that same pizza on the east coast I would give it no more than 1 or 2 stars.

I recently visited Philadelphia, a city very close to N.Y.C. and very similar in pizza style. I only ate at one pizza place there, I had to save room for the cheese steaks, but it was so good it woke me up from my jaded L.A. ways. I quickly remembered what good pizza tastes like and that I have actually been eating a lot of crap pizza in L.A. for awhile.

As I ate it I just couldn't get over how simple it was. There was nothing extraordinary about what I was eating. It was just pizza, as simple as it can get. Some how though, it was miles better than most anything out here. Why can't any one get it right? Why is something so simple, so hard to replicate?

I ate at a place called GianFranco Pizza Rustica. It is on 3rd and Market in the Old City. There are 2 others in Center City and South Philly, but I think this was the first. It was a small place that sold slices. It seemed pretty busy, though it wouldn't take much to make it seem that way since there was little room to stand inside.

It was great pizza. Everything about it was done well. The crust was thin and crispy but had a doughy center. It was actually blackened on the outer edge, just short of being burnt, but that slight char gave it great flavor. The sauce was pretty awesome. Sweet fresh tomatoey flavor. The cheese was fresh and had a generous amount, that wasn't too much. It worked well with the sauce. Salty and sweet and a little oily to top it all off. Like I said there wasn't anything amazing that made this pizza stand out by itself. It was simple and all the ingredients were cooked right and worked well together. Really makes you wonder why so many places screw it up. Same goes with cheese steaks, a pretty simple food, but yet nobody outside of a small area in the East, can do it.

There might be better places in the city, though I don't there there could be too much better. There also might be a lot of bad places too. So this one place by no means represents all pizza in Philly. Though Philly in general I think has pretty good pizza that is on par with this place. There may be a greater number of bad places than in NY, but in general Philly knows its pizza. If you are in the area and have had your fill of cheese steaks, hit up GianFranco, you wont be disappointed.