Robbie Mac's

Today I drove into Sherman Oaks for a late lunch.  To a place I used to eat at a lot many years ago, when I was just a boy selling newspapers at the local stand next door.  Everyday I would get a slice.  After standing for 8 hours outside in the heat a great slice of pizza filled my needs.  This time I got more than a slice, I ordered a large 16 inch cheese pizza, for 16 dollars.  A little on the pricey side but the ambience is a relaxing small pizza joint with big TV's for sports and a few beers on tap. 

The pizza was not as enjoyable this time around.  Perhaps driving 20 minutes out of the way to get it, having to pay for it (I usually got free slices) and not being super hungry after a long day of hard work, probably didn't help the taste of the pizza.  This is a good thing, I had it at face value, nothing swayed my taste buds.  

I have had a lot of pizza out here in LA by now, and unfortunately as much as I'd like to praise the pizza I can't.  I was average pizza.  Nothing more nothing less.  The main thing you taste is all the spices, specifically oregano.  They just load it on here, I think the sauce has a strong spicy flavor and then I think they put additional spices on the pizza as a whole.  I love Oregano but after a couple slices it becomes too much.  For a positive, the sauce and cheese had good balance, and the crust was pretty crispy and thin.  They use a more traditional cornmeal bottom with fits the flavor of the pizza pretty well.  Although the crust was not exactly right either, it was chewy and kind of flaky.  It was definitely not a fresh mound of dough that went in that oven, and a very buttery taste as well.  

I think they cook the pizza the way they want to cook it.  They have a definite plan, everything is intentional.  Some people may like this flavor and style of pizza.  But its not what Im looking for.  

Robbie Mac's Pizza - 14502 Ventura Blvd Sherman Oaks, CA

Price: $$

Overall:

 

Pizza Names

I have not seen or eaten at all the pizza joints in LA by a long shot, however I feel I have seen enough to make fun of their names.  Here are some of my favorites and some of the worst. Yeah I'm bored, so what.  

10 Best Names:

10. Asparagus Pizza-While not the best name for a pizza place, definitely original.  I'll give them props for trying

9.  Joe Peeps-The best Italian nickname, it's simple, it sticks and it sounds authentic.

8.  Joe's Pizza-This is simpler.  I'll show respect to a simple common name like Joe being able to stand out in NYC, land of pizza.  I guess the pizza must be that good.  

7.  Big Mama's and Papa's Pizzeria-I like that this place has not only big mamas but also big papas.  With a 36 inch pizza their name has a message.

6.  Bambino's Pizza-The great Bambino.  Babe ruth was not Italian but the word is, I like it.

5.  Pagliacci's Pizzeria-The name is an interesting one.  Has a good ring too it and has a good mascot to boot, a clown.  Plus an interesting history lesson behind it, if you like Italian opera.  

4.  Hard Times Pizza-This is another one that makes you think.  Not so much in the way of Italian, but pizza was a food that came out of hard economic times I suppose.  With the buffalo nickel as their logo it gets a little more specific about the hard times they are referring to.  It is simple and different.

3.  Guido's Pizza-I originally thought this was just a funny stereotypical name for Italians.   Thats why it is number 3.  But I've learned it is actually a given Italian name.  I've never met a Guido.  So now it's not that great.  I still think most people view Guido as a stereotypical Italian so I'm leaving it.    

2.  Pizza Mayven-Speaking of stereotypes, can you guess what kind of pizza this is.   Kosher pizza.  I love this name, it says so much, plus its fun to say.  

1.  Pizza Per Tutti-ok, this is so good it's bad.  It almost made the worst name list but instead it's number one on the best.  I don't know what they were thinking, I dont know anything about it, but it might be the funniest pizza joint name ever.  Where ever you are Tutti, this is for you.   

(Other notable names)

 Lucifer's - not as much the name as their whole devil theme.  It is, "Damned good pizza."

  The Coop - this is a good name for anything

Worst Names:

3. Hollywood Pizzeria Express-Express and Hollywood are two words you don't want to see in a name selling pizza.  Terrible name, and the pizza follows suit.

2. Prizzi's Piazza-This is just too damn confusing.  I had to stare at it for a long time to convince myself that neither of these words said pizza.  The person whos name looks like the word pizza also decided to pair that up with another Italian word that looks like pizza.  Good work, what, they sell Thai food?  I wouldn't be surprised.

1. W Love Pizza and Cafe-This tires me out.  There is a little heart on the sign and a big 'W'.  We Love Pizza ? Right ? Nope, With love Pizza.  Either way, stupid.  Hey at least it's a cafe too.  The place before it was called Pizza Hop, it makes that sound good.

Luckily names don't matter much in the world of pizza.  Pizza could be called asparagus and it would still be good, oh wait, it was. 

Hard times Pizza

I was in Silverlake, on my way to Nicky D’s Pizzeria, when I saw Hard Times Pizza.  When there’s one pizza place, there is always another, so I kept my eyes open.  You know you have a pizza problem when you stop for pizza on the way to getting pizza.

        I stopped in quick to have a slice.  The smell of freshly baked pizza hit me right away, I love that smell.  The place claimed to have authentic N.Y. thin crust pizza.  The front of the menu had a buffalo nickel on it. I suppose to represent the hard times when the buffalo nickel was in mint, between 1913 to 1938, the depression roughly.  I just put that in there to make me look smarter.

Anyway, they had display slices that had been cooked weeks ago it seemed and didn’t look very appetizing.  Thankfully it was only for display, they got my slice from somewhere else.  I got a slice of cheese for 2.17.

I since have ordered a whole pie.  I ordered a 14 inch for $12.  The pizza was just alright.  The sauce was a thicker, heavy sauce that was heavily seasoned with oregano.  There was a lot of both cheese and sauce on the pizza, and had good amount of oil on top.  The crust was somewhat crispy on the bottom but the consistency of it just seemed bland.  The outer edge of the crust was more of the same, there was no puff or bubbles, just flat, boring and plain.  The crust was on the thick side too.  Not thin enough to be "authentic N.Y. style".  The place was average and if I lived near by I could possibly settle for it, but when you have Nicky D's so close I'd go there.  This is different though, and people might and do, love it.  

It must have been hard times indeed.  

Hard times Pizza 

2664 Griffith Park Blvd.  Silverlake 90039

(323) 661-5656

Open: Mon-Sat: 11-11 Sun : 12-11

Price: $

Overall:

Italian Food Festival

This weekend was the San Gennaro Precious Cheese Italian Food Festival.   Quite a name, a bit deceiving though, there wasn't that much cheese there, but I guess precious is a brand of cheese so the focus was not in the cheese but more in the Italian food.  One kind of Italian food is pizza of course.  So I felt obligated to go.

 

There was a ton of food, pizza, pasta, gelato, italian ice, cannolis, and even philly cheese steaks.  Lots of free samples from meat and cheese to biscotti.  The precious cheese stand even had free grilled beef and veggie skewers.  Not bad for a free sample.  

this is kelly eating a meatball sandwich, meatballs were ok - bread wasn't very good though.

There were 3 different pizza stands there.  All major players in the Los Angeles pizza game.  There was the classic Vito's on La Cienega and Rocco's on Wilshire Blvd.  The 3rd stand was Pizzeria Rustica which is a spot on the sunset strip.  I have yet to review this place on my site.  I didn't try it here, I have had it before and wasn't too impressed.  Plus it just didn't look that good and I feel like, to give them a fair shot I should review them under their typical settings.  So I had a slice from Rocco's and Vito's both good when delivered and good here at the fair.

Both were mostly on par with the slices at the actual location.  Rocco's tried to give me a slice that hadn't been warmed up after sitting out for a while, but I made sure that didn't happen.  For the most part though, they tasted really good.  Maybe not cooked quite enough and not quite as fresh tasting.  

Can you tell which slice is which ?  Vito's is on the left.  Rocco's is on the right.  It's amazing how different pizza can be, and when you put them next to each other you can see the differences.  Rocco's is a thicker all around pizza, heavier cheese and sauce.  A doughier crust that wasn't as crispy.  Vito's as you can see is the opposite, thinner, crispier crust, light cheese and a sweeter lighter sauce.  Both good, but I'd have to give the prize to Vito's that day.

  

Here are some more pictures, the lovely Rocco's staff and a pizza being cut also from Rocco's. 

Good times at the festival, top of the line pizza, cannoli's from from Ferrara's in NY, great Italian Ice and gelato.  I even got suckered into a win a goldfish game.  The had little turtles too so I was trying for them.  But I had to get 2 balls in one specific fish bowl.  I got one in amazingly, but those game are pretty much impossible.  

North End Pizzeria

Today I had an hour to kill before a rockin' comedy show at the Improv.  Went to see a friend of mine Smooth-E, aka Eric Schwartz.  Check him out.  On my way I ordered a medium cheese pie from a place called North End Pizzeria.  They have 2 tag lines that are both interesting.  One in much smaller letters saying "Boston's finest".  This is an interesting statement, you don't hear people claiming an authentic Boston pizza very often.  Thats not to say they don't have good pizza.  It is possible this chain, if it is one, started in Boston.  It didn't seem like a Boston style pizza to me more NY style, but thats a good thing.  The second slogan was "Simply the Best Pizza in Town"  ha, if only it were that easy.  A simpler way of putting it would have been "Best Pizza in Town" or just "Best Pizza"  or "Simply the Best" made famous in ads for Ford or Chevy I can't remember,  also by Tina Turner.  Anyway I'm not talking advertising, sorry.

The pizza, it was cheap - 14 inch for 11 dollars.  The price got me worried that it would be terrible.  I got a coupon flier in the mail and that looked cheap too.  The place was in a strip mall and I, nor anyone else, had ever heard of it before.  My expectations were low and I was so hungry my stomach was digesting itself.  So to say the least I enjoyed it.  The sauce/cheese ratio was pretty balanced.  A touch too much sauce if you are a cheese person.  The sauce was a thicker sauce with a lot of spice and flavor.  The cheese probably not 100% mozzarella and definitely not fresh, was fine.  It was lightly browned on top.  The pizza also, was cooked perfectly, very crispy and pipping hot when I picked it up.  The crust was the main downfall.  It was pre made generic tasting crust that had no flavor, no light crunch or doughy richness.  I have had much worse crusts however,  it was thin, it did not taste stale, and it was crispy, and honestly thats all I can ask for.  

Overall the pizza was nothing above and beyond.  It didn't have much personality.  But if you aren't looking for personality, which I don't know who would look for that in food, a little weird I think - this is a decent pizza that is enjoyable.  If it delivered in my area I'd call them, I would just hope there was an alternative pizza joint to call sometimes.

There is another North End Pizzeria, in Burbank.  It tastes much different.  For this review Click here.  

North End Pizzeria - 8514 W. 3rd St / la Cienega

Price: $

Overall: 

P.S:  Also I'd like to add - the place is annoying to get to by car, but the staff - very friendly.

Nicky D's Pizza

This is one of the few places I’ve found that has wood fire ovens. Another in the same town down the road is Il Capriccio. I heard good things about this place so I went to check it out. It was a pretty interesting place, on the second story of a log cabin looking place. I picked up a medium cheese pizza, not a large this time I guess I’m trying to watch my weight, ha. It was only $12 for a 14 inch, not too bad. I asked the guy if I could take a picture of the oven, he acted like he gets that all the time. I don’t know, maybe he does.

Below is a stock photo of the oven with Nicky D himself. Last time I was there I spoke with him awhile. He says that he has quite a celebrity list of people who order from there. Seems the place is high profile amongst the movie and rock stars. He even claimed that Michael Jackson in the week at Staples Center before his death had ordered pizza from Nicky D.

Nicky D is somewhat of a celebrity himself. He used to do a lot of small time acting in commercials and movies. One notable roll was a pizza guy in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II.
Anyway on to the pizza...

I opened the box and it looked pretty good. It's the only pizzas I’ve found that was not perfectly round, other than those oblong shapes they make on purpose. The crust, like hardend lava had molded to its natural form as it expanded in the fire.

The crust seemed a little under cooked, it could have been a little crisper. But it was better than it looked, the edge was crispy and doughy and flexible all at the same time, plus it had a little chared wood fire taste. It didn’t puff up at the edge like some do, but that was ok for me.

I very decent crust that had good flavor and texture.

The pizza was really greasy and had a little too much cheese and not quite enough sauce. The oil can be blamed on the heavy cheese. The thin crust became pretty soggy and droopy with all the oil. Definitely not a eat-while-you-drive pizza.

Last time I went I got a smaller margherita pizza. It had freshly sliced tomatoes with no sauce and it was less blanketed with cheese. Still the same crust.

That being said, it was pretty tasty, the cheese and sauce still tasted good, even though the proportions were a little off. The crust was good as well even if it was a bit under cooked.

Nicky D’s Pizza

2764 Rowena Ave. Silverlake 90039

Price: $

Overall:

Joe's Pizza of Bleecker St.

After I realized I couldn't say I have a pizza blog until I tried this place, I went to try it. The official name is Joe's Pizza. This of course could be confusing since Joe isn't exactly an original name. So it adds on to the name "of Bleecker St." not only for originality but to let you know that, originally this is a NY pizza place. There is another Joe's and it is on Bleecker Street in Manhattan, and also Brooklyn. So needless to say there is definitely a reputation to live up to here. It's not just boasting its New York style it boasts that it is New York.

Anyway, I took a drive to Santa Monica, dragged my girlfriend along to help me review this pizza. It is right next to the beach, so my girlfriend was happy to come, any place that has water, she's there. Joe's is a small, brick hole in the wall. It has a constant flow of people, probably mostly tourists that were lucky enough to stumble upon the place, and some that come from far and wide specifically for this pizza, like say someone from Hollywood with a pizza blog.

I ordered the only size they have, it was big probably 18 inches maybe 21. The price was a little on the high side, 18 dollars. Slices were almost 3 dollars. It was a big pie though and I had Kelly to help me eat it, so I didn't mind. Thats the other thing thats funny there, on the menu they have the pizza listed as pies, pizza pies. Genuine New York I suppose, gotta love it.

The other pizzas looked pretty good while I waited. The basil mozzarella one, and the sicilian looked good too

.

Finally the pizza came out and it looked good. Now, I wish I could compare it to the Joe's in New York, but I don't recall specifically what that one tasted like. It's probably better that way, I can make a judgment based on LA pizza only.

It tasted really good. The sauce was very light and sweet tasting. The cheese was not put on heavy, but the cheese that was on it went a long way. It was stretchy and tasty. Just a little bit of oil seeping through. The flavor at first seemed a little bland, but I think that the sauce had such a good taste they didn't need to add any extra spices to it. The crust wasn't the best I've had out here. It was indeed crispy, very much so, in a good way. It lacked flavor though and just didn't seem that fresh tasting, probably because it wasn't. It ended up being a bit dry and honestly I felt the crust could have been just a touch thinner.

All in all though, the pizza had the makings of a New York style pizza for sure. It was cooked in the right way to get it crispy but not burnt, it seemed to have fresh cheese, and a great tasting sauce. The crust flavor and freshness are in question, maybe the water filter does make a difference. I have to think, in New York if I got this pie what would I think? A good New York slice of pizza ? Good yes, maybe not the best. The best might be the original on Bleecker.

UPDATE: Joe's has since opened a 4th place in West Hollywood on the Sunset Strip. It replaced the less than a year old Cristoni pizza that wasn't too bad itself. It is the same pizza as the one in Santa Monica. Joe himself was there to make sure things ran smoothly. This time I got the fresh Mozz and basil one. It was pretty delicious. I ate almost 3/4 of the 18 inch pizza. Overdose. The fresh basil and cheese make all the difference. It was awesome, Im glad to have this place close by. The crust was the same, extremely crispy and a little dry, with not too much doughiness to it. But overall pretty damn good.

Joe's Pizza

111 Broadway Santa Monica (310-395-9222)

8539 Sunset Blvd. West Hollywood (310-358-0900)

Bleecker St. Manhattan, NY

Price: $$

Overall:

Shout Out to Foodies

I just want to give a little prelude to a blog posting on Joe's Pizza.  

I recently got together with some fellow food bloggers, I know it sounds nerdy.  I never considered myself a foodie, as they call them, but yet there I was with a table of 10 people talking about food.  It was a discussion about food blogs, more so, then the food itself.  There is a new, up and coming web site, called Food Digger, that offers info and reviews on all food places in LA, also NY and San Fran.  Similar to Chowhound or Yelp or UrbanSpoon there are a lot of them.  This one seems different.  It seems more specialized and detailed about food and taste, rather than just a yellow pages listings of food.  Anyway, check it out, it is new so there aren't too many reviews yet, but you can help with that.  FoodDigger.com  

Also I'd like to give a shout to the other blogs that were part of this little food blog meeting.  They are all well versed in food, and I would take their opinions any day.  

http://www.carolineoncrack.com
http://drinkyourmilk.blogspot.com/
http://gourmetpigs.blogspot.com
http://la-oc-foodie.blogspot.com/
http://potentialgold.typepad.com/
http://tangbro1.blogspot.com
http://lafoodhunt.blogspot.com/

http://fooddestination.blogspot.com/

We were eating sushi as we were discussing the secrets of the world.  A great place, called Jinpachi in West Hollywood.  If you like sushi, its good.  I'm not too into it but I had my first sea urchin roll, which was very interesting to say the least.  I'm sure you can read some blogs about it on the above web sites.  I'd blog about it but there wasn't any pizza.  

Anyway, long story short (not sure if there was ever a story) I got called out that I had never been to Joe's Pizza.  The only legit NY pizza in LA and if I want to be a legit pizza blogger I needed to try it.  This of course I knew, I just hadn't gotten around to it.  This made me realize that I was being to organized with my selections of places, I was wasting time with places I knew would be bad, when I should get right to the good pies, then catch the others later.  Anyway a couple days later I went to Joe's.  You can read that in my next blog.  

Check out FoodDigger.com and the other blogs if you have the time, 

and remember friends always eat pizza, because everything else is just fancy food.      

LA Pizza Company

The other night I was in the downtown area. I had already had Pit Fire Pizza, so next on my list was LA Pizza Company. The great part of this place is it was open late. Just a little delivery joint with a friendly staff. It was going on 12 and I hadn't eaten any dinner, just some wine and cheese at this other crazy event, but I'll save that for another blog.

Anyway I got a medium cheese pizza, a 14 inch for 9 dollars, very affordable. The large 17 inch is 12, still cheap. I bought a water and waited outside for 10 minutes. I got it to go like I always do, but I end up eating it in the car. The pizza was ready, I took it to my car sat in the parking space for 15 min eating a couple slices since I couldn't wait. Then I realized I for got my water at the place. So I walked back across the street to get it, after 15 minutes the guys were probably curious why I was still around and eating in the car by myself. I realize this was a bad story, sorry but I spent the time to write it so there it is.

Back to the pizza. It was pretty tasty. The sauce was a pretty dominant flavor to the pizza as a whole. It was a thicker sauce and very flavor filled. There was a good amount of cheese that also tasted pretty good. The crust also had great flavor too. All around it was a great tasting pizza actually, I am surprising myself as I write this. The one complaint was it was over cooked. The crust was fine, it was not burnt, it was the top layer of cheese that got a little too crusty and brown. The crust too was not all that crispy, so if it was intentional to leave it in longer for the crusts sake it didn't work. However, if it was just a fluke thing, then next time this pizza could be a great pizza.

I also want to add, though this does not effect the pizza, the 'company' is one of the few pizza places out here that does not claim to be anything special or specific, like NY style. It does not boast or brag, it does not have "big slices", it doesn't have a mascot or a catchy slogan with its name. It is simply Los Angeles Pizza Company, it states exactly what it is. And for LA pizza, this ain't bad.

Los Angeles Pizza Company
712 N. Figueroa St 90012

Price: $

Overall:

The Sunset Strip

There is a lot of pizza on the sunset strip.  More than I thought.  There is the NY style pizza joints like Frankie and Johnnies, and Mamma Mia’s.  Then there are more California fancy pizza type places, like Pizza Rustica.  There is another place that I just discovered, called Panini that has better pizza than all of these places.

 Then there are the bars and clubs.  These are not pizzerias and I shouldn't waste my time with them.  However I recently got some tips from different people calling out 2 places that have great pizza.  So resist I cannot and review I shall. 

These two places are Red Rocks and Rainbow Room.

So the other day I thought I’d hit both with one stone.  I ordered from Red Rocks first, but they took a half hour, so I picked up from Rainbow room first.

RAINBOW ROOM
This is a classic Rock n Roll joint, dingy and dark, with seemingly good pizza.  I waited a few minutes for the pizza since I was a little early.  I got a regular cheese pizza, a medium for 15 dollars.  I think the large was a dollar or two more.  They also have a personal size for about 7.  I have to say I expected worse.  Being on the sunset strip this wasn't too bad.  In comparison, the personal sized pizza I got from Red Rocks was 13 dollars and less than half the size of the medium from the Rainbow.  So way over priced.  

Anyway I got my pizza from the Rainbow Room and opened it up. Woah! Take a look, it was a crazy looking pizza with raw sliced tomatoes placed on top. I could tell there was a lot of cheese on top and it was piping hot.  

So you can imagine what might happen by the time I got home.  I tried to keep the pizza level, but there was just way too much cheese, it was no use. This pizza was the messiest sloppiest thing I have ever eaten.  The cheese had all relocated, the crust was sopping wet from probably the tomatoes, and since it was thin, the center was just a sloppy mess of sauce, tomato juice and cheese.  There were parts where whole chunks of the pizza would collapse into a pile of food.

There were at least 3 pieces that could not be picked up at all.  When the top of the cheese solidified a little, I had to re cut the pieces becasue of all the cheese.  This still didn’t help picking up the slice in one piece.  It was just such a disaster, I can’t do it justice in words. 

All that being said, the crust that had not been consumed by the thick mats of cheese or become soggy with grease or tomato water, was actually a lighy airy crispy crust.  It wasn’t anything to write a blog about, but it held up in a matter of speaking.  The sauce wasn’t memorable, seemed like cheap tomato paste.  The tomatoes didn’t add anything to it, just a juicy mess.  If there had been way less cheese and the pizza could hold itself together, I would say this pizza could be an average or slightly above average pizza.  Maybe the personal size is the way to go here.  Or maybe it was an off day.  But as it stands...

Rainbow Room - 9015 Sunset Blvd

Price: $$  

Overall:

RED ROCK
Next I went down the street to Red Rocks.  The bar tender took it from a shelf where it had been sitting behind the bar.  I feared it would be cold.  I got it to the car and it looked dry and indeed cold. 

 

My fears were relieved when I found it was not cold at all, and actually tasted pretty good.  This was a very different pizza than the Rainbow Room.  It was a dense, dry pizza, in a good way.  There was a good amount of oil dripping from the edge.  The sauce had a creamy tomato taste that was a nice change.  The cheese did not seem 100 % mozzarella, it was very salty and had a orange hue to it from the oil.  The crust was a thicker crust than a traditional NY thin crust, but still rather thin.  It was very dense at the edges but tasty.  The salty, oily taste was good for a few slices, especially with the creamy sauce.  However, it got a little tiring after awhile and when the pizza cooled down it really lost any texture that it had.  Average- maybe slightly above if it was cheaper.  

Red Rock - 8782 Sunset blvd

Price: $$$  

Overall:

North California Pizza

Sorry for the delay in pizza posts.  I have been away visiting family up in Davis outside Sacramento.

Perhaps North California Pizza is a misleading title for this post.  Since I was neither in North California, nor did I eat that much pizza to make assumptions about all pizza north of L.A. 

I did however eat at 2 different spots on my vacation and would like to share.

The fist stop was in Monterey.  We went to the Aquarium saw lots of fish, after eating fish the night before.  So for lunch we went to one of the few pizza places in the touristy Cannery Row area.  The place, was of course called Cannery Row Pizza. 

It looked promising from the outside.  We ordered a 15 inch pizza for about 16 dollars I think.  The pizza 15 minutes later came to the table.  It didn't look all that great to me.  The crust was flat and white cheese was everywhere.         

All in all the pizza wasn't terrible.  Considering where we were it could have been worse I suppose.  It filled the stomach.  The best way to sum up this pizza is generic.  Everything from the sauce to the crust and the cheese were cheap and generic ingredients.  The sauce had little flavor.  The crust had probably been frozen at one point.  The cheese although it didn't taste that bad, had way too much on it.  It was semi crispy and the taste wasn't horrible so I ate it and moved on with my day.  So there you have it, I can't say I was surprised but when I see a pizza place I haven't tried it is hard for me to turn away.

Cannery Row Pizzeria - Monterey, Cannery Row CA

Price: $$

After Monterey, me and my girlfriend drove up the coast and eventually went just outside the Sacramento area to Davis to visit some family.  There seems to be a good amount of pizza places in Davis, some what impressive for a small town.  It is kind of a college town so I guess that explains it.  One night we hit up one of the college pizza joints.  It as called Woodstocks Pizza.  The inside was a definite hang out spot for the drinking age. 

(sorry no pictures) but there is a web site

We ordered a large because the medium is only 12 inches.  The large is 14.  It's one of those extra large-large confusions.  On top of the confusing sizes the 14 inch is over 16 dollars.  A little to much for just a pizza.  The pizza did look good though.  The crust at the edge did an interesting thing, they kind of rolled the edge in around itself.  Kind of like a cinnamon roll.  This made for a lighter crust.  The crust in general tasted pretty good, could have been a little crispier, but was thin.  The cheese was a little thick but also had a good flavor and was lightly browned.  The sauce was a little heavier than a typical tomato sauce and was very heavy on the pepper, which was odd.  Overall though not too bad, it was a little thicker all around than a typical N.Y. slice but it tasted pretty good.  Assuming the rest of the pizza isn't that great in Davis I would probably go back here again and again.  

Woodstocks Pizza - Davis, CA

Price: $$

Well my trip was a lot of fun and I ate a lot of good food, it just wan't pizza.  There might be some great pizza spots in San Francisco or Sacramento or maybe even Monterey but I didn't find any.  I only ate at 2 so you can't blame me.  I hear there is a really good spot in Santa Cruz, maybe I'll check that one out next time.  Till then, I know I'm not missing anything pizza wise up North, out East however I know what I am missing.  My search goes on.