This is my top thin-crust pizza in town. This is the Piece white pizza with banana peppers and mushrooms. In case you are not familiar with white pizza, it just has a little garlic and olive oil in place of the red sauce, then some mozzarella, and the toppings. I add parmesan and crushed red pepper. Simple, basic, but oh so tasty.
Let’s talk a little about randomness, a trait I like in my food. This pizza has a certain randomness to it. It’s not really round and it’s not really square. The toppings are not spread uniformly throughout the pizza. And the slice sizes range from bit-size to big. This allows you to have several different food experiences in one sitting. I like that. We are going to talk more about randomness when I have a certain north side burger in a few weeks.
It’s reasonably priced, but not cheap. This medium ran me $18.95 takeout, with tax. My wife and I chowed on it during the Rose Bowl and still had enough for a small meal the next day. Piece is such a cool place though, so it’s worth a little extra. I describe it as “hip sports barish micro brewery with pizza.” You are not overpowered at all by the bank of TVs behind/next to the bar and you can avoid that scene altogether by sitting on the wall opposite the bar. The beers are truly something special. A friend of mine had a buddy in from Santa Barbara and they went to Piece. They loved the beers and the guy from Santa Barbara happens to be a member of the Santa Barbeerians, so he is a serious beer authority. He actually wrote about it in the Follow Your Beer section of the Santa Barbeerians November 2006 Newsletter. Check it out and get to Piece soon for a thin-crust and beer fix.