On my birthday Tuesday, Traci and I stopped at the much heralded Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles for lunch and a couple of glasses of wine before we headed over to Jeff Leve’s house for dinner and more wine…notes on that dinner later.
First off, we were pleasantly surprised to see that it wasn’t very crowded at 12:45 pm. We grabbed to seats at the bar, asked for menus and settled in for a light lunch. We started by asking the bartender about the 2007 Catarratto “Benede,” Alessandro di Camporeale (Sicily). He offered to pour us a couple of tastes from an open bottle. We liked it so we ordered a 250mL for $17. The wine accompanied a nice Rucola, funghi and Piave salad. The salad was very nice but a bit too much shaved cheese for the greens. The wine itself was terrific with honeyed fruit, almonds, a slight sea air quality plus a very nice silky texture. A wine I had never had before but would buy again if I saw it.
The next wine accompanied our pizza - Bacon, salami, fennel sausage, pancetta, tomato and mozzarella ($18). Pizza was good but not as good as a couple up here in the Bay Area (particularly Gialina, which is also cheaper). Still very good. The wine: 2006 Morellino di Scansano “I Perazzi,” La Mozza (Tuscany - blend of Sangiovese/Syrah). Very nice as well with red berry fruit, a little pepper and earthiness… I would look for this again since it’s probably a $20 bottle retail…served a bit too warm though which it looks like they do with most of their red wines.
All in all a very nice lunch, very good but not great pizza and nice wines.
Tony, my impression of Mozza was similar. The pizza was good, but I’d never call it great. On the other hand, their butterscotch budino was fantastic.
It sounds like you had a very nice birthday in LA.
Happy B-day Tony. Hope you had fun down in so-cal.
It’s my turn to party with the Gelbs this weekend… ![[tease.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/c/c5b32b76bebaa359b0452ae247b61189ffe5fa7e.gif "tease")
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers")
Melissa - a young lady came in to pick up a pizza to go and while she was there waiting, ordered the budino - apparently she does this often - and a beer. Ate the budino, finished the beer, grabbed the pizza and was off. The budino looked awesome.
Ed - enjoy the Gelbs!!!
Tony,
Where would Mozza rank in relation to the pizzas we’ve had lately, Pizza Nostra and Flour & Water? I haven’t been to Gialina yet. Tony’s in North Beach seems to be doing well, I want to try that soon.
We should also go to Beretta and Pazzia sometime. Maybe even Delfina?
I think I liked Flour & Water much more than anyone else in our group last week.
Ready to bottle?
First let me proclaim my man crush on Ed K…Ez-E is the greatest…his palate is second to none (except when it comes to pizza apparently…LOL!!). Of course I am ready to bottle, I’ll see you on Friday my brother.
My pizza rankings still:
- Pizzeria Picco
- Gialina (a close second)
- Dopo and Pizzaiolo (both Oakland pizzas)
- Nostra
- Delfina, Flour + Water,
- A16
Although I could easily put a couple of the pizzas from Nostra into 3rd position…
Ed - you also need to come across the Bay for some low brow…let’s hit Gioia in North Berkeley…
So I realize I didn’t answer the question. Mozza would be somewhere between 3 and 4 on my list. I have to say i was disappointed…not in the crust which was terrific but in the toppings. The pizza we ordered was somewhat sloppy, the housemade fennel sausage was a little bland, and I felt the pizza was missing one of the 4 piggies…