Ciccero's Pizza

This is your standard pizza, at least around here. All over are small chains that have cheap pizza. Cheap in price and in quality. They all have similar tastes in the sauce and similar textures in the crust. They all can probably be compared to Domino's/PizzaHut/PapaJohn's because of price and availability. Though I'm sure the owner will disagree.

Though the owner should know, I feel this is one of the better pizza's in this category that I have had.

On a side note, Ciccero's gives you 2 large 14'' pizzas for about $18. It's the classic buy 1 pizza get a second free deal. I hate that deal almost more than I hate the big slice. It is just another example of a business getting you to drop more money on something you don't need. If there is a party where you need two pizza's it is great deal I admit. But if there is just a couple people and you only need one pie, you can't get it. I ordered one pizza not knowing they had this deal, I showed up and they gave me two. I told them I only ordered one but they said they don't make just one. At that point they already had made it so I took it and gave it away. If I had gotten just one which is what I wanted, I would have paid 18 dollars and that is a big time rip off.

Anyway, back to the pizza. Yes it was cheap. The crust was dense and cake-y with a slight crisp on the outside. The sauce and cheese were a lower quality grade. However the sauce had a tasty, pure tomato flavor. Slightly sweet with faintest taste of spices. There was a lot of cheese on it as you can expect from a place like this, but there was also a lot of sauce to compete with the cheese. So at the same time that it was excessive it was balanced, if that makes any sense. They actually took the pizza out mid cook to put more cheese on the sparse spots. As well as push the bubbling crust down, which I didn't understand.

It wasn't a great pizza. But when you walk into a place like this you kind of have to expect what you are getting and for what you are getting it is satisfying and cheap as long as there are 4 plus people joining in.

Ciccero's Pizza

1536 S. La Cienega Blvd. (reviewed loc.)

11651 W. Pico Blvd.

Price: 1 pizza $$$ 2 pizza's $

Overall:

Coachella 2010 Pizza

Dead Weather
Well it's festival time again. My usual weekend is Coachella, it is becoming a tradition. Though a tradition that I'm thinking, I won't be able to sustain for my whole life.

Every year it is exciting to hear some awesome music, see all the crazy people and see what pizza options they will have. This year it was all about the hats.

There were 3 pizza places I found. One was an old standard. I (heart) Spicy Pie. It isn't that great, but it's filling and you can have jalapenos on it. So really thats all you need. People aren't really there for the food. Music first, drugs second, saying you were there, third and maybe food is fourth.

There were 2 new ones this year. One which was a wood burning one that Im excited about and will get to in a second.

The other was called Rock N Roll Pizza. It was in the beer garden on the far side of the festival. It seems to have taken the place of what was last years place called Pie for the People. Which is too bad because that place was great. I walked through to check it out but found it was 7 dollars for a regular sized slice. I wasn't that hungry so I didn't feel like getting ripped off. It actually didn't look to bad, it might have even had a chance to be good, but for the price I just couldn't justify it. Looking back at last year I realize that Pie For the People was also 7$ a slice. I'd like to think that it was a bigger slice but most likely it was the same. I guess I had a few beers and just wanted a slice. Both, no matter how good a pizza are ripping you off. Anyway, Rock N Roll Pizza didn't look like anything special that I was missing out on, so I passed.

The excitement came from the VIP area. Very important people need very important pizza. A place called Full of Life Flatbread Pizza which had a hand made stone, wood fired oven.

It looked amazing. The pizza and the oven. They had a menu of several different toppings. The pizza was 10$ for a little personal round pie. This of course was even more than the 7$ slice. Again it's a rip off, but unfortunately you come to expect overpaying at festivals. At least with this place you were getting probably 2 slices worth and a much higher quality pizza.

The pizza tasted great. It was a light crispy thin crust that was cooked perfectly. It was a wheat crust which I wouldnt normally order, but tasted pretty good and was lighter than usual. The one I ordered was a 3 cheese. I'm not 100% on this but I think it was mozzarella, parmesan and something that started with an 'S' like stracciatella or sappada or something. IT was good cheese, perhaps a little too much because I found it hard to taste the sauce. But for the most part the flavor was spot on. It was real quality pizza, which I think I'd be happy to eat outside a festival setting.

They have a place just north of Santa Barbara as well as frozen cooked pizzas that they sell in Whole Foods. So check them out. Full of Life Foods

For past Coachella reviews:

Coachella 2009

I'm all ready for next year. Excited to see what the newest trends in fashion and pizza might be.