Zelo Pizzeria

Stepping into Zelo Pizzeria, you already get a good vibe. The walls of the restaurant are decorated with everything from quirky pizza-themed album covers to autographed skateboards from those famed skateboarding Z-Boys and even a portrait of Hank Williams. How eclectic is that!

To the right of the entrance, a refrigerated case displaying deep dish pizza pans containing pre-built uncooked pizzas resides. As opposed to ordering a whole pizza, you can opt to order single slices, which they will cook to order. On the menu, there are 6 pizza standards that you can choose from: Sausage, Veggie, Corn, Four Cheese, Pepperoni and Della Salute (veggie without cheese). However, there are around 26 other specialty pizzas that they also make and will offer 2 different ones as specials every day.

So far nothing seems out of the ordinary, but inside this family-run, neighborhood restaurant is a pizza unlike anything I've tried before. You may ask what differentiates the pizza at Zelo in the small city of Arcadia from some of the other pizza joints in town you may ask? Simply, their cornmeal crust.

For my meal there, I had two slices of pizza. One slice was one of their specialty pizzas and the other from their regular menu. In looking at them side-by-side, they looked so mouth-waterng, I had a hard time deciding which to try first. Finally, my love for mushrooms prevailed and I took a bite out of my Wild Mushroom pizza slice first.

As for ingredients, this particular slice had fontina cheese, mozzarella, domestic porcini & shitake mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes and basil. That first bite was really interesting because there were two things that threw me off at first. First, I didn't taste any tomato sauce and second, the cheese was firmly in place and not "swimming around" as it tends to do when it's melted over aforementioned tomato sauce.

For my next bite, this time I paid more attention to the crust and it was just really delicious. I found it crispy and buttery and enjoyed the corny sweetness of it all. I also liked its rich denseness. Honestly, I was almost full just eating that one slice. Normally, I can consume 3 to 4 slices from pizza made with the more traditional flour dough, but that wouldn't be the case with Zelo Pizza.

As for the other ingredients of this Wild Mushroom pizza, I really enjoyed the combination of flavors from the mushroom's earthiness to the sweet acidity of the sun-dried tomatoes. While I enjoyed every bite of the mushroom pizza, I was totally over the moon over the Corn Pizza.

I don't even know if I can find words to describe how much I really loved this pizza. You already have an amazing crust, but when you add to that freshly shucked corn, sweetly caramelized red onions, smoked mozzarella and the bite of fresh chives sprinkled on top, you get a pie that makes you happy just to have taste buds.

From the outside, Zelo Pizzeria doesn't look like much. Half the time, you may even drive past it without even noticing that it's there. I think that's why I consider Zelo to be a hidden gem. It's a restaurant that may not jump out at you just from its exterior, but once you experience the tasty treasures inside, it's a place that will definitely stay in your radar. It's certainly a place that I look forward to returning to again and again.

To see pics, go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/la_addict/sets/72157600637402406/

Zelo Pizzeria

328 E Foothill Blvd

Arcadia, CA 91006

(626) 358-8298

Pizza and Wine Pairings at Pitfire Pizza Company

Being always on the look out for fun food and wine combinations, I set up a pizza and wine pairing event with Pitfire Pizza Company and my dining group came along to share the experience.

Pitfire Pizza Company prides itself in using fresh local ingredients for most of the items on their menu and that definitely showed in the 6 different pizzas we sampled that night. Of the six, two stood out.

First, there's the asparagus and egg pizza. Yes, you are reading correctly. Asparagus and egg pizza. Along with the asparagus and an oven-poached egg, ingredients also include Tuscan proscuitto, roasted garlic, fontina cheese and lemon zest. Dare I say that with the ham and the egg, it's almost like a breakfast pizza, for surely, I could eat this pizza morning, noon or night. With all its many textures and flavors, from the crunch of the asparagus to the subtle tartness of the lemon zest, each bite felt like a wonderful surprise party.

But my absolute favorite pizza of the night was called Deidre's Bianca, inspired by Pitfire Pizza's Marketing Director, Deidre. Ingredients for this pizza included a mix of dandelion greens, black Russian kale, arugula with herbed ricotta, mozzarella and roasted garlic. What I loved about this pizza was the flavor profiles of the greens, which leaned towards being peppery, a little bitter and overall, packed punches of strong flavor. The herbs in the cheese served as a great enhancement to the greens while some of the sweetness of the roasted garlic ensured that everything was in balance.

Here I have been raving about the pizza, but have yet to even mention the pizza and wine pairings, which were a welcome change from the regular standby of pizza and beer. However, I found something amusing about the whole business of eating pizza with my hands while twirling a wine glass in between bites. It was definitely an "Inner Child" meets "Grown Up Sophisticate (or at least the Sophisticate of my own mind)" kind of thing.

Since I'm more of a foodie than a wine enthusiast, I can't necessarily speak well about the wine we had for the evening. I can say that some pairings worked better than others. For example, I really enjoyed the Rock Rabbit Sauvignon Blanc 2005 with the Heirloom Tomato Pizza. It was a wine that was a bit citrusy and mellow and balanced well with the sweet acidity of the tomatoes and the stronger flavor of the basil. On the other end of the spectrum, the Boutari Moschofilero, a Greek wine, bombed when paired with Deidre's Bianca pizza. It makes sense to pair the Bianca with a stronger red wine given that the greens on that pizza have a kick to them, but that wine was too over powering.

For many, pizza and beer may still be the way to go, but I think that pizza and wine also have their own merits and it's fun to experiment. With the variety of wines out there, you're certain to find a perfect marriage of pizza and wine and you'll probably have a lot of fun in the process, too.

To see pics, go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/la_addict/sets/72157594302638099/

Pitfire Pizza Company
108 West 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213-808-1200
www.pitfirepizza.com