The Pizza Is Never Finished
August 16, 2026 · Jay De Natale
I want to make the best pizza on the Westside.
That's an impossible goal. "Best" depends on the day, the person, what they grew up eating and whether they like their slice crisp, soft, charred, saucy or folded in half while walking down Abbot Kinney.
I'm after it anyway.
Since taking over the shop, I've spent every day trying to make the pizza better. Not reinventing it for the sake of change. Paying attention. Tasting everything. Making small adjustments, then tasting it again.
Better ingredients matter. So does knowing what to do with them. We've worked through flour, tomatoes, cheese, pepperoni, olive oil and oregano. We look for more flavor, better texture and ingredients that earn their place on the pizza. But buying expensive ingredients doesn't automatically make great pizza. Technique is what brings them together.
That means training.
How the dough is handled. How the sauce is spread. How much cheese goes on a pie. Where the toppings land. When to turn it. When to pull it. How to recognize the difference between well-done and burnt.
Everyone working the oven has to see the same things. That takes repetition, feedback and a lot of pizza.
Then there's the oven itself. Ours has been baking pizza in Venice for 30 years. It has hot spots. It changes throughout the day. It responds differently when the shop is slammed than it does when the doors first open. We tune it, move pies around and learn its moods.
The dough changes too. Pizza dough is alive. A warm day in Venice is different from a cold morning in January. Humidity matters. Fermentation time matters. The temperature of the flour, the water and the room all matter. Sometimes the recipe needs a small adjustment. Sometimes it needs to be left alone.
The hard part is knowing which one.
Lately, I've been obsessed with what happens after the pizza leaves the shop.
A slice eaten at the counter has every advantage. It comes straight out of the oven. The cheese is melted, the bottom is crisp and the crust still has that pull and tear when you bite into it.
Delivery is harder.
A hot pizza goes into a closed box and immediately starts creating steam. Steam is the enemy of crisp pizza. The longer the drive, the harder it becomes to recreate that first bite at home. It's a problem every pizza shop deals with, but that doesn't mean we have to accept it.
So we're testing.
New pizza boxes are on the way. We're experimenting with liners, airflow and different ways of packing the pie. We're working on simple reheating instructions that can bring the bottom back without drying everything out. One rule is already settled: no microwave.
A hot pan, an oven or, my preference, a toaster oven can bring a pizza back. A microwave turns the crust soft and takes away the exact texture we worked to create.
You'll probably see some experimentation along the way. Different boxes. Different liners. Reheating instructions tucked into your order. Maybe something we try won't work. That's part of it.
The goal is to preserve the melt of the cheese, the crispy bite underneath and the tear of the crust, whether you're eating the pizza in our Venice shop or opening the box at home.
There is no finished version of this pizza. There's only today's version and what we learn before tomorrow.
Same hot oven. The work continues.