Midtown Lunch

Not sure if you follow @foodisnewrock (my music/food side project) but over the weekend I went to my first Coachella and quickly realized something most Coachella vets are well aware of: Spicy Pie is pretty fucking awesome.  Sure, I did my due diligence by eating a corn dog, crab fries, Asian BBQ, fish tacos, shitty Thai food and an absolutely sick chocolate filled malasada (hawaiian doughnut), but next year I think I might just eat Spicy Pie for every meal. And considering it’s $7 a slice for their signature slice (jalapeno and pineapple) that’s saying a lot.

Maybe it was heat stroke, or the fact that the food at Coachella is mostly terrible and ridiculously over-priced, but Spicy Pie is easily the best option (provided you don’t count Kogi, which we can eat whenever we want).  I want another slice right now.  Only one problem… they only do festivals.  What up with that!?  We need a Spicy Pie in L.A.  It would easily hold its own against Vito’s or Joe’s or LaRocco’s in Culver City.  Can somebody make this happen?

Being the cheap bastard that I am means not spending more than $10 on lunch.  That’s why I spend so much time sussing out Thai Town, Koreatown, dirty sushi holes, and food trucks.  But I also get excited when an otherwise expensive restaurant provides some kind of Midtown Lunch loophole.  A way for super cheap fatsos to get a “quality” lunch (whatever that means) but still only spend under $10.  You wouldn’t think Bottega Louie, the famously gigantic white marble Italian restaurant with a French patisserie (?) on the corner of 7th and Grand, would fit the bill.  And yet, with some savvy ordering even a fat guy like me can leave satisfied and less than $10 in the hole.

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A few weeks ago I couldn’t help but notice profiled L.A. lunch’er Himanshu’s go-to lunch recommendation in Santa Monica.  Usually a go-to lunch is the place you hit up when you’re feeling lazy and unadventurous- but this one stood out as a tiny bit awesome:  “Lunch specials at Il Forno (2901 Ocean Park Blvd) $6 for pasta + excellent bread”.  $6?  And you get “excellent bread”?   How could I not?

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When Bella Vista, the Brazilian rodizio (that’s Brazil-talk for all you can eat!), opened in Culver City back in April my mood could only be described as tempered elation.  All you can eat pizza sounds good to me.  Pizza topped with salted beef or potato sticks and beef stroganoff sounds even better.  For a limited time the all you can eat pizza deal cost $9.99, just inside the ML price boundaries, but that didn’t last too long.  And after a short amount of time the regular price settled in at $12.99.

Well, this past weekend they listed a special deal on Yelp… $16.98 for two diners to partake in Bella Vista’s all you can eat pizza smorgasbord. Dine in (naturally) and only for lunch.  That works for me!

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**Since this post was originally published, Mozza2Go has begun to offer these specials daily**

I don’t know if there are many absolute food truths in this world, but one that is seemingly undeniable is that Nancy Silverton is an L.A. food goddess. And nowhere is that more evident than at Pizzeria Mozza. Minor quibbles aside (some people just have to be contrarian!), the place is awesome… so much so, I’ve been back more than once. (Which is saying a lot considering how much catching up I have to do since moving back to L.A. from NYC at the beginning of the year after 4+ years away.) Obviously the place isn’t a Midtown Lunch, but when Mozza To Go opened up around the corner it didn’t give me hope that maybe- just maybe- we could squeeze a $10 lunch item out of the Mozza empire. Sadly on their whole menu of pizzas and sandwiches (sorry, I think of salads as an appetizer not a lunch!) only one thing qualifies: the $10 tomato pizza with oregano and extra virgin olive oil. I’m guessing that means no cheese, right? A cheese-less pizza? (*sigh*) Can Midtown Lunch really endorse this?

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Food blogs are not exactly the bastions of humility- after all, it takes a lot of arrogance to spew your opinions daily on the interwebs.  But I’d like to admit something to you.  Despite living in NYC from 2005-2009 I know nothing about pizza.  Don’t get me wrong, I know what I like. And I know a few things… I know the difference between Neapolitan style pizza, and “New York style” pizza. I know that “real” Chicago pan pizza is better than Uno’s.  I think Mozza is amazing, but I also like Pitfire.  And as for the Vito’s vs. Joe’s battle in WeHo, they both tasted good to me.  I know that there is no DiFara’s here in Los Angeles (and there never will be.)  But you know what?  There’s no DiFara’s in Manhattan either.  And once Dom dies, there won’t be a DiFara’s in Brooklyn anymore either. John’s on Bleeker Street tastes great to me, but pizza “aficionados” seem divided.  In fact, pizza “aficionados” seem divided on everything. Which leads me to wonder… what the hell makes a perfect pizza?

I usually turn to Slice as my goto pizza experts.  They talk about things like tip sag, hole structure, char.  They take “upskirt” shots (and as a result, I’ve started taking upskirt shots.)  What are we looking for beneath that slice of pizza?  I haven’t the foggiest fucking idea.  I’m just a fat man, who likes to eat a few slices for lunch every once in awhile.  If you top dough with cheese and put it in the oven (with sauce or without), chances are I’m going to like it.  Which leads me to this question:

Last week I tried LaRocco’s in Downtown Culver City, and I thought it was pretty awesome.  Why aren’t they mentioned as one of the best slices in Los Angeles?  Is it just under the radar?  Or do I just not know shit about pizza?

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Santa Monica lunchers can not live off of Bay Cities alone, so when I heard that Sham- an Arabic restaurant on Lincoln and Santa Monica, known for their shish kebab and tabouleh- was now serving “Arabic Pizza” I was completely intrigued.  When I heard you could get 2 for 1 Arabic Pizzas for takeout or delivery, I headed right over!

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