Casa Bianca Pizza Pie
When Jonathan Gold of the LA Weekly led the food critic's call to declare that Casa Bianca served up the best Pizza in Los Angeles, I assessed this situation immediately. This is a serious charge. I do not take this lighty. Pizza is one of my favorite foods. Pizza is serious business. I had to investigate and I had to investigate right away.
I left work early. I sat in traffic for 45 minutes trying to get to a part of town called Eagle Rock (where i currenly live now, by-the-way). On Colorado Blvd., I saw what appeared to be a cute little pizza parlour with a mob of people waiting outside. They must be here for the same reason, I thought: How dare somebody have the best pizza and I don't know about it!
Casa Bianca is old school; Red, leather booths, checkered table clothes and cheap wine. To describe it in simpler terms: paradise. Part of the Casa Bianca experience is to be forced to wait for an hour and be tortured by the aroma of baking pizza. And there is also something charming about sipping on shitty Chianti while waiting outside on a plastic lawn chair for your name to be called.
So, is the pizza THAT good ? Well, I ask you this: Why do you think I live in Eagle Rock now ? Answer is: yes, the pizza is THAT good. It's stunning. It's a chicago-style, thin crust pizza usually served all cut up in funny shapes. I think the secret is in the sauce. It's almost sweet tasting. And the toppings that will guarantee you return again and again are the Italian Sausage, The ground up meatball and the eggplant. The icing on the cake is how dirt cheap the prices are.
After moving to Eagle Rock, I went back and tried Casa Bianca once again to see if I liked the pizza as much as I thought I did. I ordered just a plain old cheese pizza. As I took my first bite, I looked over to the table next to me and watched a young couple eating a plate of spaghetti. Poor fools. They had no idea what they were missing.
Tips for first timers: 1. Go early and avoid the lines! They open at 5pm. 2. Pick up a bottle of wine from the nearby Colorado Wine Company. The wine at Casa Bianca is guaranteed to give you a headache. 3. Take-out just isn't the same. Eat in for a truly delicious experience.
posted by DK @ 4:47 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Dude, you are way off. The pizza here sucks, possibly the worst in LA. If you like eating pizza off a cracker, go here. Hard Times knows how to make a pizza the right way. Also, Palermo's pizza rosa is excellent. Casa Bianca does actually have good pasta, but I would never eat the pizza there.
i cannot disagree more with the previous post. it's been five years on the west coast and two on the east side before friends recommended casa bianca as the best pizza on the west coast. coming from philadelphia, nj, and nyc, i can tell you that you are right on the money with casa bianca: the dough is perfect, and the crust is the way pizza should be, which is crisp not mushy or tasteless like cardboard (or a too think like a cracker). the sauce is zesty and the cheese fresh. the place is always packed so i plan to get take out regularly now that i live nearby.
I have lived in Eagle Rock for the better part of the last 30 years. I have lived or visited many of the major cities in the country and tried their pizza. Time and time again we return to Casa Bianca. The thin crust is what brings us back. If I wanted to eat my pizza on a loaf of bread...I'd buy froze Stouffer's! I could never understand the appeal of the thick crust pizza.
I rarely like to stand around and wait in line...so we often go early...but more often than not, we go for the take-out. Granted, it's not quite the same, but there's something to be said for enjoying a decent pizza and antipasto in my own dining room in my pj's.
If you're looking for gourmet pizza...head west and visit your friend Wolfgang.
Thank you for your comments about Pizza pie, the best. I always plan to go when I know there will be a long wait, that way I can enjoy a few cocktails at the Chalet on the next block while we wait.
DK Thank you!!! someone finally got a Casa Bianca review dead on correct (I love your comment about the Chianti giving you a head ache that happens to my friend all the time) You also are correct when you said it Chicago style thin.. It drives me bannana sandwich when people call it NY style.. See you at Casa!
I was born and raised in Eagle Rock and was weaned on Casa Bianca Pizza so I speak from lots of experience, and I must say that the first guy needs a lobotomy! Casa Bianca has been around since 1955 for a very good reason: They serve the BEST pizza in Southern California hands down! I have not found a pizza that even comes close in all my travels.
I have had the pleasure of enjoying Casa Bianca since my days in my mother's womb...it's been a staple of my childhood and now that I have children of my own, I plan to share the experience with them too.
It's the BEST pizza I've ever had...I don't get really fancy when it comes to toppings....a plain chesses does the trick for me!
I too agree that it is well worth the wait!
I'm pretty sure it's Italian style Pizza, not NY or Chicago style. That is what their sign says, and it's most similar to Pizza I had in Italy
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