Los Angeles, CA (The Joy of Food) — “To know thy pizza,” Socrates said, “is the beginning of wisdom.”
Assembly-line pizza places are littered around L.A. these days, but back in 2012 when 800 Degrees first opened in a high-ceilinged, wood-paneled shop near UCLA, the city was a stranger to fast-fired pizza in under two minutes.
The people
It is located on a block that for the first few months, maybe more, had people lined up around the corner for a glimpse, and a taste, of the novelty, as if pizza had arrived in America for the first time. By the looks of it, a new shelter had opened up, except the homeless were wearing Cavalli jeans and sporting Louis Vuitton handbags. In L.A., these are not mutually exclusive things.
As every Italian will tell you, pizza is the food of the people. Here it had finally arrived for a few bucks a pie, as a counterpoint to the $20+ pizzas that Nancy Silverton and Wolfgang Puck were churning out at their high-end restaurants. Good pizza could now be enjoyed as a fast-casual food no longer requiring a bank account in the Caymans and a two-hour hostage situation.
The pizza
At 800 Degrees, when you ask for a ‘margherita,’ it means you want a thin crust pizza with San Marzano tomatoes and mozzarella on it. Similar bases for a ‘bianca’ (no sauce, mozzarella, parmigiano) and a ‘verde’ (home-made pesto, mozzarella, parmigiano) are also available.
Legit San Marzano tomatoes are used, as they should be, and the mozzarella is locally sourced from Di Stefano Cheese, a family-owned creamery located in Pomona. The slow-rise dough is made using the appropriate 00 San Felice flour following strict Neapolitan pizza-making standards. The crust comes out vaguely puffy in spots with a suitable char and is more chewy than crunchy, and the pizza can be noticeably swampy in the center depending on what you pile on. The wood-fired oven cooks each pizza in a matter of seconds while you wait in the counter-service line.
As far as toppings it’s hard to go wrong — except for that smoky bacon and pineapple, which are specifically for nihilists who like weird shit on their pizzas. Any add-ons in the way of proteins, cheeses, and vegetables are $1 a piece. Obviously, how cheap or expensive your pizza is depends on you.
The quality and prices together transform pizza from a delivery food into something more gourmet, eaten in a casual setting still blistering hot from the oven. Via the build-your-own pizza movement, pizza was reborn into an individualized food, no longer simply seen as slices for sharing. They’ve been doing this in Italy since the 1700’s.
Everything else
And the soda machine is still there too, much less a wonder of the universe in today’s world than it was in 2012 when even Jonathan Gold went on and on about it. My question: why drink soda, cool though it may be to dispense 300 flavors out of a computerized box, when there’s beer? This place has the good stuff — Moretti.
800 Degrees has diversified to keep up with the times and the masses and now serves bowls, sandwiches, and rotisserie chicken, and there are things like hummus, BBQ sauce, and wagyu beef in the building.
But I’ve still just got my eye on the pie. And the beer.
Written by Joy
Thanks for reading. The Joy of Food blog celebrates eating well, traveling often, and living la dolce vita. San Diego, California is home base, but thoughts are from all over. Reviews and photos help to highlight wonderful (or not) food experiences from around the world.
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I look forward to reading your posts as I learn something new every time. The pizza & beer look divine!
Thank you and I highly recommend, especially for the price point. Like a lot of L.A. places I keep wishing they’d expand southward but they’re mainly headed the other way and to other countries it seems.
“By the looks of it, a new shelter had opened up, except the homeless were wearing Cavalli jeans and sporting Louis Vuitton handbags. In L.A., these are not mutually exclusive things.”
With you and Steve Martin (L.A. Story), I tend to like people writing about LA more than LA itself!
L.A. is an awesome city. Most people seem to not think so but it has excellent food, tons of cultural opportunities, and the drivers don’t f around (except when traffic is not moving, which is always).
Yup! The food we had there was awesome. And walking much of it made it a whole lot less stressful.
That’s good you found pizza and beer that’s not too far away.
L.A. is a great place for pizza and beer. Since it’s rare to find pizza done decently in San Diego I try to eat it when and where else I can.