Chowhound: Vito's Pizza - La Cienega (near Willoughby)

"You can't get good pizza in LA!", go the cries. I've heard them for 22 years. At first I was one of them. Then, truthfully, I forgot that this was even an issue (kind of the way it's easy to forget that LA has two baseball teams).
Over the years I have tried to find a good slice. Joe Peep's in the valley was a stop for a while back. But, that wasn't actually any good. It was just convenient to my apartment and it WASN'T Domino Hut.
20 years ago (and until their recent mass closings) Jacopo's was a standard bearer. A low rent Italian place whose food could best be described as hit or miss.
Yeah, for a while there it seemed like the only thing that passed for endemic pizza in LA was CPK, which is like the Red Lobster of Pizza Joints, except that the variety and flavorlessness exceeds the Lob's.
And Wolfgang Puck had his imprimatur, for better or worse (mostly weird, atchelly)
Then, about 8 years ago a pair of "NY-Style" joints came over the radar. One was the impossible-to-find-parking-at Frankie and Johnnie's on Sunset Blvd semi-across from the Hustler store. The pie was succulent and daring, varied and simple at the same time. Just what you want from Pizza. The beer was cold, the tv was muted and the pie always left you wanting...more, that is.
The other was (and is) a little place across from the now-defunct rock club, The Gig, on Melrose. Albano's reminds of a hole in the wall. It's cluttered, noisy and, some of the finest damn NY style pie I've had.
When we hosted a Pizza Party a few years ago, I made a special trip to the place to get the pies. Which, if you know the area I live in, is no mean feat.
Last week, LAist posted a piece about Vito's. and it has weighed on our minds ever since. I kept the page fresh on my Google Reader all week long.

I met Beth and Zoe at the joint after a long day of Phone Banking for Obama. It really is in a little nook in a strip mall. Even though it's in West Hollywood, there is parking, which is unheard of.
The handmade cardboard sign on the counter that calls for "no networking" made me curious and the waitress told us that its to prevent the proletariat from bothering the stars and producers. (proletariat is my word, stars was hers.)
It took about 15 minutes for us to get our pizza. Half cheese, half pep. (Hey, when you have an 18 month old, you can't afford to take chances on goat cheese and spinach!)
It's always been a treat to watch real pizza makers toss dough and , if you like that sorta thing, you are in for a real treat here.
The owner, a big Gandolfini of a man, throws the pizza while laughing and singing along with the Sinatras and standards and, although he never once made us feel at home, it just felt right being there. Like it was a neighborhood place whose warmth is spread through cheese and sauce. The staff is great. Unobtrusive, quick, friendly.
But, what about the pie?



Easily one of the top 3 pizzas I have ever had in this town. In fact, I rate it as high, if not higher, as many of the pizza joints in NY. I never really understood why everyone thought Ray's was the greatest. It's not. It's good, but it doesn't make me salivate to think about it. And, hell, I would rather be able to sit down any day. My memories of a lot of NY pizza places is standing at high tables, dripping oil on red formica and barely swallowing before heading off to destinations on the double R.
Vito's is everything I was expecting. Everything I want from pizza. It was fabulous.




Soundtrack: Standards, oldies
Suggested Soundtrack: The Ramones.