There are hardly any bubbles in the dough, the bubbles are just singed. The pizzas crunch with every bite, especially the chewy crust inside. Pop-punk blares from the speakers, there are mussels on the pizzas, and there may or may not be cheese, which can only mean one thing: Ozzy's Apizza — pronounced “abeetz” — has finally opened its first standalone location pop-ups.
It features the only true brick-and-mortar restaurant in Los Angeles specializing in New Haven-style pizza. But to build it, founder Chris Wallace had to take a journey through sobriety, nostalgia and bureaucracy, and forego a hallmark of the style: charcoal ovens, which are illegal in restaurants across the city.
“I always wondered why there was never New Haven pizza here: everyone was so focused on coal,” he said. “But here’s the secret: Not every pizzeria in New Haven uses coal. Zuppardi's, one of my favorites, uses Bakers Pride gas deck ovens. They have never used a coal-burning stove a day in their lives. So I thought, 'Okay, if they can do it, why can't I?'”
Founder Chris Wallace started Ozzy's Apizza in his apartment. Now he shapes and tosses dough by hand in his crowded pizzeria.
(Stephanie Breijo/Los Angeles Times)
Wallace cold ferments his dough for 72 hours using a gas brick oven, the key to which is an open flame: This allows Ozzy's to produce New Haven-style pizzas with the requisite char, with a crispy yet chewy crust that's just stops fear of burns
According to Wallace, navigating the line between charred and barely burned food involves all of the senses, but especially the smell. After spending enough time making enough New Haven-style pizza, it's all just muscle memory; On a tour of the famous Frank Pepe Pizzeria Neapolitana two years ago, the Pepe family told Wallace, “We just know. We feel it.”
The new Ozzy's Apizza — overlooked by a mural of its namesake, Wallace's Chihuahua-and-terrier mix — serves pepperoni and cheese and sausage pies, as well as salad and cheese-garlic bread and Italian ice, but the two pizzas Wallace is most proud of are they true to the style.
The Liotta Tomato Pie is a tribute to the late actor Ray Liotta and the famous cheeseless pizza from Frank Pepe's: At Ozzy's, a thick, oregano-rich dollop of crushed Stanislaus tomato sauce from California is the star, with so much ladle that the die Outer layer of the sauce tastes almost toasted. Ozzy's other signature New Haven-style pie is “You're Welcome,” a clam pizza with clam juice spooned onto the dough, along with olive oil, garlic and oregano to give the Rhode Island clams moisture and a sea-like flavor retain taste.
“I really wanted to come here,” Zak Tarkhan, a first-time Ozzy customer, said during a visit Sunday evening. “There’s nothing like the style of New Haven, Connecticut. Nothing will beat this guy. It has its own unique flavor.”
Tarkhan, a New Haven native, said he found another place — Urbn Pizza, with locations in San Diego and a weekly Smorgasburg LA pop-up that serves solid New Haven-style pizza. The lady said Ozzy's was more convenient and the real deal.
“Oh, it’s so damn good,” Tarkhan said after his first bite. “I could eat all of that right now.”
The cheeseless tomato pie, the Liotta, is a nod to the original savory pie served at Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana in New Haven.
(Stephanie Breijo/Los Angeles Times)
Wallace grew up on the city limits of East Haven and New Haven, with easy access to “great pizza on every corner.” The founder of Ozzy's lost his mother when he was 19, and while he was trying to run his business, he wondered why he opened a pizzeria. The answer isn't simply bringing Connecticut-style pizza to LA, but rather revisiting his childhood like family nights at Aniello's or the pop-punk of his youth. But he didn't always know he wanted to open a pizzeria.
Wallace moved to California a decade ago and needed a part-time job while he pursued stand-up comedy.
“The funny thing is, I thought this was my dream, but it ended up being my dream,” he said.
He googled “pizza” and found a location of Mod Pizza in Irvine, which he later moved to a new location in North Hollywood – which would one day be home to his own future restaurant. He hosted open mic nights on the patio to unite his two loves. When the job ended and COVID hit, he began sobriety and quickly realized he would need a hobby during lockdown. Wallace turned to pizza again, this time focusing on developing his own recipes.
He modified his home oven and added heavy baking steel to replicate a professional deck oven. He heated it to 550 degrees and rotated the pies on two racks as they baked to ensure New Haven char remained on each crust.
Dinner parties with neighbors turned into small pop-ups where the new pizzaiolo removed his smoke detector and opened all the windows. He sold 20 cakes every weekend, with Ozzy licking the crumbs from the floor and greeting guests as they took their orders.
When someone called the health department, he started showing up at local bars and hired his friend Craig Taylor as a business partner. They made the dough, sauce and toppings in Wallace's apartment, loaded them into the trunk of his Dodge Challenger, transported it to local patios and baked it in a small, portable pizza oven until 2022, when a friend, now running, died Pizza opened sports bar Underdogs offered use of the kitchen: Ozzy's first semi-permanent home.
Wallace named his pizzeria after his Chihuahua-terrier mix, Ozzy, who now overlooks the North Hollywood restaurant in a huge mural.
(Stephanie Breijo/Los Angeles Times)
“I wasn’t enjoying sobriety yet because I was still learning about myself,” Wallace said. “That was the most fun and still is: I could just be myself, listen to music in the back and get dirty.”
He started meeting with the LA pizza community and leaning on them for tips. He found friendship and advice from the teams behind Danny Boy, Hot Tongue, Gorilla Pies and others. When the Underdogs changed hands, owners offered Wallace and Taylor another space: their Glen Arden Club in Glendale, where Ozzy's has operated since the summer of 2023 and will be there until October 2023. 31.
While we were there, a January review from Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy blasted Ozzy's spot. The media mogul with a pizza review column rated Ozzy's 8.1 out of 10, later calling it “great” and increasing the score to “8.3, 8.4.”
“Overnight we went from a pop-up on a patio to being named the best pizza in LA by Dave and then every influencer in LA shows up,” Wallace said. “I had to grow my company from six to 20 people, we needed a bigger mixer.”
They had the opportunity to open an outpost in New Haven and took advantage of it, but what Wallace and Taylor really needed was a restaurant of their own in LA. They found it earlier this year.
When the duo took over the 2,100-square-foot former Mod Pizza, they added the large mural of Ozzy eating a pepperoni pizza. They had painted “charred, not burned” on a wall. They envision a return of open mic evenings and the creation of a venue for local musicians and artists.
“What I want to do is make this the home I never had when I was going through all my stuff,” Wallace said. “I can make this a community thing.”
Due to the proximity to the subway, beer and wine or even take-out sandwiches could be added. And of course there will be more pizza – charred, not burnt.
Ozzy's Apizza is located at 5300 Lankershim Blvd., Suite 103, in North Hollywood and is open Tuesday through Sunday from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m
Bir yanıt yazın