Wednesday, January 1, 2014

The Ethnic Foods of The San Gabriel Valley: Pizza


Cuisines covered in previous posts: Mexican, Cajun, NepaleseLebanese, Thai, BasqueArgentinian, Cuban, VietnameseEnglish, Belgian, Spanish, JewishGreek, Greek Diner, Hawaiian, SalvadoranIranian, Armenian, AfghaniIndonesian, Korean, Cambodian, American, California Cuisine, Soul FoodJapanese, Filipino, Barbecue, French, Italian, Polish, Hungarian

Last week, we finished off the European cuisines that can be found in the San Gabriel Valley but we must add an addendum...pizza



Of course, when we talk about pizza here, what can be found is American pizza. Although mostly made by Italian Americans, it really bears little resemblance to the pizza you'd find in Italy. Our pies have evolved into several regional varieties like New York pizza, Chicago deep dish, and so on.



Actually, the best pizzas around here are found outside of the SGV, such as the pie at Red Devil (at the top of the page) in La Verne, Casa Bianca (just above) in Eagle Rock, and Tony's Little Italy down in Placentia for deep-dish.

It's not to say we don't have pizza here in the valley, there's lot's of it, just not a lot that rises above bad or mediocre.

We do have two we can recommend, each with two outlets in the San Gabriel Valley.



Carmine's in South Pasadena and Arcadia has some great pizzas. Each location is a comfortable, classic Italian dining room with friendly staff and great food. Beyond the pizza, the rest of the menu is good too.

Petrillo's...either at the very old school original location on Valley Boulevard in San Gabriel or at the newer outlet on Route 66 in Glendora...is the pizza all of us old-time San Gabriel Valleyites grew up with.

Cheesy, generous with the toppings, and...if you eat in the dining room...served with that great, freshly baked Petrillo's bread.

While I'd drive a little farther for the best pizza in Southern California, you can't go wrong with Carmine's or Petrillo's either.



Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

1 comment:

  1. Awesome looking. Thailand has replaced cheese with mayonnaise and pepperoni with weiners! Pizza here by "Italian restaurants" make omnly a thin crust (flat bread) with thin toppings. I miss good pizza!

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