New Pizza in East Hollywood

Not too far from recently opened Tex Mex stop HomeState, East Hollywood is getting Neapolitan pizza. This February DeSano Pizza Bakery will be opening at Santa Monica blvd and Alexandria. This is also right up the street from Scoops and Helio Cafe. Looks like I know where I'm taking my next dinner date. Expect a 900 degree oven pumping out Margherita's with San Marzano tomatoes. They will also have two sizes, individual or grande for "groups". That's a nice change from most artisanal pizza shops who only provide the individual option.  Turns out DeSano is a mini franchise, this is their third location behind Nashville and South Carolina. Check out the link below for their Nashville menu.

http://www.desanopizza.it/files/desanopizza-menuPDF.pdf

Square One Dining, the place hidden behind that Ugly Blue Building

Square One Dining in East Hollywood (that's what the locals call the area, who am I to disagree) is nestled behind the bluest thing since Violet Beauregarde, the Scientology palace on Sunset. I love the food here but I do have one major problem, the service is soso when it gets busy. So that means Monday thru Friday for breakfast instead of the weekends. Oh and there will be a 15 minute if you go on the weekends. When I say love referring to the food, I don't mean best friend from high school love, I mean Mom & Dad thanks for the Sega Genesis on Christmas Love!! If you want to start with coffee your good because their serving Intelligentsia. From there you have three must try options. Maybe more but I'm still in a rotation of these three. A must try is what they were originally famous for, pancakes covered in a homemade Carmel bacon syrup. Yep, your drooling now, I know it, because so am I. Next on the list is the french toast covered in candied pecans and a to die for homemade vanilla whip cream. This is amazing and I'm not even a huge fan of french toast. My favorite though, and the thing I order the most is the in house cured smoked salmon eggs benedict on potato pancakes. Growing up in Alaska I became quite a smoked salmon snob so I'm weary any time I see it on a menu. I decided to give it a try and it was just like home, by way of Los Feliz that is. Please go and try this place, I promise you won't be disappointed, unless they lose your ticket for an hour. Yeah that happened to me on a weekend trip there lol.

I don't own these photos

Quenelle Ice Cream & pastry is now open in Burbank

Being a foodie in Burbank is like being a race car driver who's car is on E. Things are starting to change though; first was the opening this summer of Cafecito Organico(locals still don't know what to do with this non Starbucks coffee shop) and now we have former Lukshon pastry chef John Park opening Quenelle. The ice cream flavors are amazing and the pastries are all top notch.

I don't own these photos

Masa monster pizza & bakery

Masa of Echo Park Bakey & Cafe and I have a strange relationship. The first part of our strained relationship comes from my first and only visit in spring of 09. I came in search of the legendary Chicago deep dish pizza. I loved the place right away for the funky grandmother's house vibe. A small bar stands like a wall to the entrance to a bustling kitchen. Surrounding the bar are small and large tables and even couches where meals are served on coffee tables. I love this down home vibe, this is why some staff have been working close to a decade at Masa. I sat down and after a few minutes ordered my pepperoni and sausage pizza. The wait is 45 minutes that I thought I was prepared for. It was a tough wait but I've waited at restaurants much longer for much less. When the hot pie arrived I couldn't believe the monster that was sitting in front of me. The sausage wasn't slices, it was giant triangles of meat, one for each slice. Forget all other pizzas, they can't compare to this, this is a steak dinner. I left two slices for the next day and left very happy. The next morning I was not so happy. Maybe 45 minutes wasn't long enough to cook it. I'll spare my few readers the gory details, let's just say things became explosive(okay I still shared allot). The worst part of the story was having to throw those last 2 slices away :((. I knew that some day I would return to Masa though. Every time I walk to the Echo or Two Boots I always think about the pizza that I really want. Well last week I decided to try Masa again. I ordered a large pepperoni and pineapple pizza with a Carmel bread pudding so that I would have something to eat while I was waiting. The bread pudding came out very fast and I was impressed with all the amazing flavors it had. Then it came for the pizza. The pizza was twice as large as I had remembered it. THIS THING IS A MONSTER!!!! It was the best thing I ate that day. Unfortunately the bread pudding had made it difficult for me to eat more than two slices. This was not a bad thing since the rest of the pie fed my friends for the next two days. So I didn't get sick this time and I now have one more place in this town where I can get amazing food!




I don't own these photos, I don't want to be the A hole ruining every ones meal by taking photos.