THREE PIES, THREE DAYS

How was your weekend?

Mine was awesome. See evidence above. Gotta love and cherish these three-day weekends when I can get my foodie on.

So which pizza was best?

My favorite pie, hands-down, was the PB&J (pineapple, bacon and jalapeno) at Mohawk Bend. It was sweet and salty and spicy. Not sure how you can turn down that combo!

So how did I wind up having so much pizza? Well, outside of having the manliest weekend ever with six hours of football, complete with beer, burgers and bacon (and with me skipping the scotch and cigars... but not Jackass 3D)... Actually, I don't know!

All I know is this: Monday nights, Mohawk Bend offers an all-you-can-eat pizza special, but it doesn't really work like a buffet. What happens is servers walk around the Ramona Room (and usually in a specific section of it) with a pizza, looking for white rectangular pizza plates, and then offer slices to select plates. Your waiter will provide you with drinks, the plates and a menu of the night's pizza selections (although you can't request a specific pizza).

Unfortunately, if you have a waiter/waitress like ours, you never know who your waiter/waitress is, you wait half an hour for water, you get a quickie explanation of how it works but not a plate - but you somehow manage to try every pizza that comes out, including Mohawk Bend's attempt at rubber... I mean, vegan food (and oh, that Thaitown pizza would've tasted so much better with real chicken on top of that perfectly spicy, nutty peanut sauce).

(Do I sound upset? Because service tonight really did frustrate me. At first, I thought that it was just busy, but then another party got seated after ours and were served plates and water immediately and definitely before us.)

Would I come here again? Perhaps if Mohawk Bend posts another appetizing pizza on their Facebook, but probably not.

Mohawk Bend (3/5)
2141 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026
(213) 483-2337

www.mohawk.la 

Where would I go again though? 800 Degrees. By putting off lunch until close to 3 p.m. today, we avoided the lines and split a delicious "Pizza Margherita" and "Chopped" salad. Yes, we kept the pizza plain and simple, requesting only a smidge more garlic to spice up the pizza. This pizza was pretty close to perfection.

The cheese, the sauce, the crust was all just downright delicious. There was just the right mix of garlic, tomato and basil - and oh, if I thought that the pizza was perfect, the price ($6 for the pizza and $5 for the salad) was perfect too. It was a large enough pie to split between Evan and me, even though we could have easily stuffed ourselves full. 

Obviously, next time, we're going to need to hit the extremes. If pizza can come Chipotle/Subway style, then we might as well experiment as much as possible. (Plus, they serve LA Creamery!)

800 Degrees Neapolitan Pizzeria (5/5)

10889 Lindbrook Dr
Los Angeles, CA 90024

(424) 239-5010

www.800degreespizza.com

 

Erm, and I'd review the Pitcher House Upper Deck, but I know the owner's son, and he knows the cook, and I'm pretty sure that our pie was made with a whole lot of love. Just trying to be conscious of my biases! It is a pretty great dive bar, though. I hate that it took me over a year to get out to it!

Pitcher House Upper Deck
409 North Pacific Coast Hwy
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
(310) 374-0001  

(And one of these days, I will remember to keep my camera on hand so that I don't spend hours doodling in Illustrator. iPod cameras aren't all that great, especially in low-lit places like Mohawk Bend.)