Zach Pollack’s new really cramped, corner italian-american pizzeria in echo park. This place is tiny and fills up really quickly, so come early if you don’t want to wait. They also have the most ridiculous four-top i’ve ever seen.
mozzarella sticks
As good as advertised, crunchy, crispy, gooey, deep fried goodness. How can you not like deep fried cheese rods? Pro-tip: save the marinara sauce for your pizza crust.
hawaiian pizza - pineapple, canadian bacon, onions, chilies, smoked mozzarella
The crust was soft, chewy and flaccid with not much crisp. The toppings of meat, jalapeno, and cilantro reminded me of a banh mi. Not bad, but I prefer crisper crusts like URBN, desano, and mozza.
cannoli
Because of the heatwave they were out of the cookies n cream semifreddo, so i had to settle for the cannoli. This and the mozzarella sticks were the highlights of the night. The ricotta filling wasn’t too sweet and was flavored with orange and pistachio. Really good.
Incredibly flavorful food, cooked precisely, low prices, and offering dishes one hardly sees elsewhere such as steak pizzaiola, and their basics such as pepperoni pizza are incredible as well, perhaps the only spot getting those magical cups.
Wish selection is really smart and awesome.
And they actually serve food until their stated closing time of 10:30, which almost nowhere else does.
Plus it’s abour a thousand times easier to get into than Jon and Vinny’s (virtually it’s only competitor).
Well, I guess you can’t take my experience to alleviate your concerns since I went in at about 10:15. Fortunately, they were more than happy to serve me all the food I wanted, and keep me stocked with drinks as well until about 11:30, and I was pretty much the only person there…
The time I went before was a bit earlier, but not by much, around 9:15-30 I think, and it was easy to just walk in and get a table for several people.
Maybe there are waits earlier, but for me, it is becoming a great spot in large part because they stick to their stated hours, and serve food past 10 PM, which is an absurd rarity in LA somehow
I would say the food would be worth a mild wait, if you can stomach it, though.
Fri and Sat, at prime dinner time (between 6-9), reservations are almost necessary unless you enjoy standing around for 30-45 minutes and end up staring at all those people patronizing the adult toy store across the street for their friend. Of course.
Afraid I’m not on that level, I don’t even own a professional camera
The pizza is really good. I think it’s the best pepperoni pizza I’ve had on the West Coast. I’m glad I thought of ordering it randomly. I like the creative pies, but the simple pepperoni is actually really something special there.
Personally, this makes CB even more appealing because there are enough pasta joints in LA. Italian places without a pasta focus are more interesting imo. Just for myself, I feel like almost no one can compete with Evan Funke.
Also, I think CB not doing pasta is doubly smart because it’s a direct competitor to Jon and Vinny’s, and they already do incredible versions of the most popular Italian American pastas.
CB made meatballs modeled after JV’s perfect version, and although they were good, all I could think was how they weren’t as good as JV’s… taking them off the menu was a good call IMO. Now they seem to throw in more interesting dishes not seen elsewhere like the insane steak pizzaiola I just had. Makes the places much more interesting to eat at, and unique overall.
I like the pasta at Alimento a lot, but I certainly don’t think it should preclude him from doing an entirely different sort of pasta program at CB. I’ve always assumed it might be a matter of space/infrastructure.
I’m not sure I agree that they are direct competitors Jon and Vinny’s when they are on opposite ends of town, nor do I imagine a chef like Zach would shy away from doing something because someone else is already doing it well. But again, this is all speculation.
Just because they will honor their stated hours doesn’t mean you should go in 15 minutes before close and oreer everything. Thats probably the most demoralizing feeling as a cook, done with pre-close routine of wrapping stuff up so you can go home as soon as the FOH decides to lock the doors only for some guy or big table to stroll in at the last minute and the chef/owner isnt going to say no to more money so you twiddle your thumbs while you wait for the ticket to ring in and its always like half the menu so you begrudingly unwrap your mise and crank em out and then rewrap and reclean and then the dish guy who thought he was gonna go home early tonight has to stay extra longer after a grueling shift for your glassware to come in so he can run it and go the f home.