Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Garage Pizza revs up Silver Lake

This isn't the banana pizza, but it was tasty anyway

I checked out Garage Pizza last night on the way home, and it's a sweet little spot. Parking, naturally, is not always fun in the Tang Donuts mini-mall, but fortunately they have free delivery. There's a few tables and stools if you want to eat in before or after hitting nearby watering holes. (Slices are $3.) The garagey theme is carried out with some old-timey signs which play well off the modern furnishings. They were cooking up a banana pizza just for fun when I stopped in to pick up my pie and offered me a piece, and it worked surprisingly well. I recommended trying bacon with banana and the pizza cook was enthusiastic about the idea. They're also going to try a strawberry/chocolate dessert pizza (sans cheese) in coming days. And if you're one of those people who likes to order off the menu, try the special Garage pie, which pays homage to Malo's tacos across the street: It's a ground beef and pickle pizza. The pizza was solid, with a tangy sauce that packs more flavor than most pizza sauces. Thin crust had a nice chewy bite and good flavor. A little light on the cheese. This is not a revolutionary pie, but it will probably taste pretty damn good at 3 am, which is how late it stays open Thursday through Saturday. Other nights, they turn in at midnight.
Garage Pizza
4339 1/2 Sunset Blvd.
(323) 668-1190

Garage Pizza on Urbanspoon

12 comments:

smashhands said...

don't they know pizza is sacred, bananas and strawberries... WHA! I'll try a reg cheese slice anyways for sure.

Anonymous said...

Is this worth driving across town for or is this really just a neighborhood place?

Pat Saperstein said...

Garage is a good addition to the neighborhood, but the only pizza in L.A. I would drive any distance for is Vito's.

Daisy Church said...

ha ha! my bf and I were in there last night too, and tried a slice of the banana pizza when it was fresh out of the oven. It was pretty tasty, wasn't it!! I was surprised how well the mozzarella went with the bananas and honey.. yum! We had the other daily special with the fresh buffalo mozzarella which was really tasty; I recommend trying it. (yay for places staying open til 3!)

Anonymous said...

How does it compare to the other locals- Andiamos and Tomato Pie?

Pizza overload!

Anonymous said...

just tried a slice. was a little dry, needs a bit more sauce and cheese. not bad tho.
but i think tomato pie is closer to NY pizza.

Cory said...

Just tried our their Inferno pizza - was fantastic. They where making the banana pizza as we where walking out, it was also pretty good.

Good people, good food, I'll definitely be going back!

Anonymous said...

Had their margherita the other night. Outstanding. Great simple flavors with that "crunchy" NY bite. I'm from NYC and it is some of the best pizza I've had in LA.

A VERY welcome addition to the neighborhood.

And they sell by the slice.

SinoSoul said...

that is a fantastic pie that Elmer can toss out. hot Baker's Pride gas oven just like all the NY pie shops use, just like Joe's eat. house made sauce and generally high quality ingredients. the man's been slinging pie for 10 years all over LA, this is by far a superior pie than Vito's, Joe's, etc. He can toss it a bit thin like a NY slice, or he can toss it just a bit thicker than thin for all the Neapolitan groupies.

Anonymous said...

Nice concept and nice people, but it's not all that. We ordered a large margherita with additional sausage and cheese and were underwhelmed - bear in mind that this was an 18-inch, $25 pie plus a $5 tip: the garlic wasn't sautéed enough - pieces were too raw and inedible. The tomatoes were bland. And each pizza slice had like two nickle-sized pieces of sausage parsed on it. Twenty five bucks, people. The crust was good, but we had to consolidate the sausage bits to get any flavor (after scraping the garlic and bland tomatoes). No, it is not with driving across town for expensive, poorly cooked food. What is it with pizza places popping up all over Silverlake and Los Feliz? Lucifer's is another one with good (crust actually much better) but skimps on topping. Their gimmick is to add hot sauce. Oooh. Think about it, if it is the crust you're after, would you pay that much for a loaf of bread? The place across from Baller's is another disappointment. In an area blessed with the likes of Palermo's, Hard Times, and Nicky D's, and a short drive to Casa Bianca in Eagle Rock, why would these guys even hope to compete? Oh yeah, the profit.

Unknown said...

http://www.garagepizzala.com/
is online

Meriwether the Wise said...

Noticing that the bad reviews seem to come from people trying to plug other pizza joints. The problem with west coasters is that they don't know what pizza should taste like. For those of us that do, Garage is the best place in LA, and is worth the drive. The guy worked for Nicky D and Il Capriccio before opening up himself, and has made a considerable step up from both of those places. The pies are super reasonable, with Wed. night 15 dollar pies, anything on the menu. If you want to stray from cheese, I suggest the El Merino, FRESH mozzarella, chopped tomatoes, pine nuts, and basil, anything more would be sacrilege. BTW anonymous, anyone who asks for sausage and extra cheese on a pizza margherita, then says that the crust was perfect but the slices too undercooked to eat, is full of something other than Garage Pizza, which is divine.