News

A rundown of Southern California's fast casual pizza landscape

The fast casual pizza competition is heating up in Los Angeles.

January 30, 2015

The fast casual pizza competition is heating up in Los Angeles, as Southern California-based establishments Blaze, Pieology, 800 Degrees and Pizza Rev compete with out-of-towners Live Basil and MOD for their slice of the pie, according to the LA Times.

To get a feel for the landscape, the LA Times examined each variety of the Neopolitan classic, the margherita pizza, from the companies.
Here's a roundup of the results:

MOD's Margherita, priced at $7.87 is baked in a natural gas oven, cooking at a slower time of four minutes and 40 seconds. With its cracker-like crust and underside charring, it held up its end of the bargain – it didn't collapse, the article said.

800 Degrees devoutly practices Neapolitan pizza traditions, LA Times said. Its margherita bakes in under a minute and a half win a wood-burning stove. Topped with Italian tomatoes and De Stefano mozzarella, it's "just as the Italians intended."

Blaze's margherita isn't the classic version, with dough made from California wheat milled in LA, sauce from Modesto, California-based tomatoes and Iowa mozzarella. It cooks in under three minutes in a natural gas oven.

Pieology's margherita also contains a thin cracker made from an industrial dough press and the toppings are fresh, but without provenance, LA Times said.

Click here for details in the rest of the article.