Remember cold pizza with warm beer, at dawn, after a late-night party? Or that first bite of charred pizza bianca in Italy that revised your entire concept of the savory pie? Or the life-saving delivery guy showing up with two enormous pies loaded with pepperoni and oozing mozzarella on Oscar Night?
Under almost any circumstances everybody loves pizza, and the reason is no mystery: flavor and affordability. Everything else is just fine-tuning. You can eat it with your hands. It’s highly interactive since a whole pie is designed to share. You can top it with almost anything with flavor. Pizza lives to fight inflation.
There’s no denying the universal appeal of its crust baked at super high heat. Think of the crust as both a delivery system and a flavor intensifier in its own right. Brick oven or wood-fired, tomato sauce-based or strewn with seasonal veggies and custom-cured meats, thick and chewy or thin and crispy—pizza comes in lots of styles. It can be carefully crafted at a sit-down restaurant, delivered to the doorstep, or pulled out of the freezer and popped into the oven.
Local chefs seem to have perfected the something-for-everyone pizza. And right now, during Santa Cruz Pizza Week—which runs from Jan. 29 to Feb. 8—dozens of local restaurants are offering unique pies, combos and slices at special prices. (Click here to see the list.)
THAT’S AMORE
“When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore,” crooned Dean Martin to a ’50s generation of foodies newly excited by pizza. The song was alleged to be a good-natured parody of Neapolitan organ-grinder music, spun through the boozy vocals of a genuine Italian-American singer. Certainly, pizza’s origins were as humble as street music, and even today many metropolitan street corners are perfumed by the scent of garlic and oregano wafting from pizza trucks catering to just about anybody anytime.
Pizza entered the American diet in a serious way along with waves of post-World War II soldiers who’d been stationed in Italy and never got over the tomato sauce and cheese classics of Italian cuisine. Especially pizza, hustled by Italian immigrants who settled in Jersey, New York and Philadelphia. Every big city in the northeast seemed to boast a Little Italy, where pizza pie was sold on street corners and cafes.
Just how did pizza go from street food to an upscale necessity? From low-brow to haute cuisine? Consider all the positive attributes of pizza. Ease. Universal comfort appeal. Low cost. Filling. Pizza is a go-to center of the American diet, growing from its working-class Neapolitan origins to over 80,000 pizza restaurants across the country today. At least 15% of Americans eat pizza on any given day of the week. Pizza is, in a word, big.
Signature toppings started with pepperoni, salami, sausage, mushrooms, onions, peppers and anchovies. All liberally topped with gooey, melted mozzarella cheese. But it didn’t stop there.
Today there’s not a town, crossroads, village, or city without pizza. Lots of it. And it continues to grow, branching out with unusual, even exotic toppings like coconut, banana, kiwi, potato and sour cream, arugula, ranch dressing, even pickles. You won’t find these in my house, but the myriad spinoffs and rococo toppings definitely have their followers.
We can date the entry of pizza into the celebrity world sometime in the late 1980s. Enter Wolfgang Puck, with his trend-setting Spago in Los Angeles, and Alice Waters, whose Chez Panisse in Berkeley refined pizza into a designer luxury with organic toppings. Spago’s movers and shakers (Joan Collins, Johnny Carson) couldn’t get enough of California cuisine maestro Puck’s innovative smoked salmon and caviar pizza, served with sour cream. Duck sausage was also one of Puck’s innovations, through which pizza gained even broader appeal as a culinary choice and not simply a fistful of calories. In the late ’80s Puck’s pizzas became a reliably delicious staple in the realm of frozen pizza. We could dine like a celebrity in our own homes.
STYLE INFLUENCERS
There are at least a dozen recognizable pizza styles, but a few occupy the top tier. Neapolitan. Fired ultra hot, these pizzas rock charred doughy crusts, anchovies and olives, and lots of mozzarella.
New York style is often cut into large slices, eaten folded in half. Much thinner than Neapolitan, and lighter on the sauce. Sicilian style is doughy with a squishy crust shaped into a square. Not much cheese and lots of sauce. Chicago deep dish pizza immediately captured a huge patronage. Thick as a deep dish pie, it morphed into another popular shape when the crusty edges were stuffed with yet more cheese and other toppings, also added as fillings to the edges.
The yeast-free crust of St. Louis-style pizza makes it ultra thin—like a big round cracker—often uniquely topped with three cheeses, always including Swiss and cheddar.
California-style pizza is famed for expanding the whole idea of toppings, from wild nettles to smoked shrimp, cream cheese, BBQ pork, chicken, artichoke hearts, you name it.
COASTAL PIZZA
Armed with an oak-fired oven, Bantam thrills Santa Cruz’s university community with fresh, irresistible pizzas, showcased from opening day ten years ago. “I’ve always loved the variability of wood fire,” chef/owner Ben Sims says. “There is no other heat source as dynamic and responsive. The nature of the wood-fired oven gives you the ability to watch pizzas cook the whole time, being able to monitor your dough, your fire and the cook from start to finish.” Pizza at his artisanal spot “is more popular than ever.”
Always a favorite, Pizza My Heart has grown far beyond its seaside origin 40 years ago in Capitola, where the big innovation was pizza by the slice. Yes, that was a breakout idea four decades ago. Known for its casual surfer vibe and signature pizza-by-the-slice, the brand quickly gained popularity among locals, visitors and college students in Santa Cruz County.
Meanwhile Chuck Hammers had established Pizza-a-Go-Go in downtown San Jose in the mid-1980s. In 1997, Hammers acquired Pizza My Heart and rebranded his Pizza-a-Go-Go locations with the PMH name. Now with over 25 locations in the greater Bay Area, this reliable pie shop still delivers the spicy goods. Our favorite is the Figgy Piggy, loaded with bacon, feta, black figs and sage for a sweet ’n’ salty flavor and unctuous olive oil mouthfeel.
And even before Pizza My Heart—since 1979, in fact—Upper Crust was serving Sicilian-style pies from its outpost on the edge of town (convenient for generations of UCSC students). That original location on Mission Street is still going strong under second-generation owners, and there’s a second location on Soquel Drive.
GOING GOURMET
Pizza held such a seductive promise that even a three-star Michelin chef like David Kinch—once he’d closed his very upscale Manresa dining room—had his eyes on a neighborhood spot near his original surf hangout to feature pizza. “For me,” Kinch says, “pizza is really about the dough and the crust. The toppings are a condiment to the main ingredient, the dough. Mentone dough is slowly fermented for up to 48 hours. Long, cool fermentation breaks down glutens that can otherwise affect digestibility to most people. At Mentone, the crust is light, delicious and flavorful. It was several months of practice, trial and error with a takeout public, during the pandemic, that allowed us to find the quality we wanted when we opened our doors. It is a pie that we are proud of.”
Recent pizzas from Mentone’s customized Valoriani pizza oven have included a simple Margherita and a cheese-free Sardinian style with anchovy, tomato and olives. And always surprises, from the rustic squash and hazelnut pie to a lavish pizza topped with cheese and white truffles.
At La Posta in Santa Cruz, strong on traditional toppings with designer tendencies, pizzas change in response to the seasons. Chanterelles and black trumpet mushrooms top the house specials in fall and winter. Kale and calabrian chili share pizza tops. In the spring, green garlic, baby new potatoes and pea sprouts make a guest appearance. “The pizza toppings are mostly from the Santa Cruz Farmers Market,” owner Patrice Boyle explains, “so everything is organic and fresh. Our pizzaiolo, Ruben Serna, is very, very consistent because he’s been making the pizzas since we opened in 2006.” La Posta pizzas are made from a yeast starter brought by the opening chef, and refreshed every day.
At Bookie’s on Water Street, maverick chef Todd Parker specializes in rich, thick slabs of outside-the-lines pizzas, variations on Detroit-style (rectangular pan pizza with thick chewy crusts), often slathered with wild nettles, shaved Brussels sprouts, mushrooms and hot honey, ranch dressing, sardines and pineapple. Parker is famous for seasonal local ingredients, such as spring ramps and pea sprouts. It all works!
EVEN GLUTEN-FREE
Demonstrating the insatiable need for pizza—which must not be denied even to those with alternative dietary needs—grocery stores now fill their freezer sections with dairy-free, nut-free and vegan pizzas, as well as gluten-free possibilities aplenty that utilize the structural possibilities of cauliflower, almond flour, cornmeal and rice flour. While no one would confuse these confident culinary inventions with old-school pizza doughs and their addictive chewy crusts, they go a long way to satisfy the craving for pizza in those who won’t or can’t consume gluten.
For those who can’t consume dairy or nuts there are the Daiya pizzas found in natural food groceries. These harmless pies do their best to re-create the flavor and melting properties of dairy cheese using a blend of tapioca flour, canola oil, coconut oil and pea protein.
Cappello’s makes a surprisingly delicious gluten-free frozen pizza shell out of almond, arrowroot and cassava flour that’s available at New Leaf, Staff of Life and other markets. It’s even chewy. We’ve perfected an impressive G-F pizza at our house, starting with a foundation of frozen Cappello’s cheese-topped pie. We add serrano jamon, dried Italian prunes, mushrooms and green olives. Effortless. And 14 minutes later it’s better than decent home baked pizza. Thin crust that has some tooth, crisp yet pliant, and easy to cut with either serrated blade or kitchen shears.
Think of pizza as a table ready to be spread with intriguing flavors, or just plain comfort toppings. And maybe that’s the real secret to pizza’s enduring popularity. We can top it with the items we most love, pick up a slice and then inhale all of those favorite flavors in a single, hot, gooey bite.
Everyone has their own favorite slice. Pizza Week offers a chance to go for the tried and true—or to try something new. See below for participating pizzaiolos as of press time, and visit SantaCruzPizzaWeek.com to view the full list of restaurants. And download the Pizza Week App to rate pies, post photos and win gift certificates.
