Pitfire Pizza's 15th Anniversary Special and New Fall Menu

Did you know that Pitfire Pizza has been around for 15 years, serving artisanal pizza?? I didn't know about them until they opened up the downtown location next to The Edison so I was surprised that they've been around for so long, but their original location in North Hollywood has been around for that long. Now they have locations in downtown, Westwood, West Hollywood, Culver City, and soon they'll be opening a Costa Mesa location.

Anyway, to celebrate this major milestone, Pitfire will be serving a special 15th Anniversary Tuscan Pizza (roasted potatoes, rosemary, gorgonzola, grilled chicken). Not only that, for the month of November, this pizza will be selling for the price it was back in 2006, which is $7.95! 

It's the perfect time to visit Pitfire Pizza, because at the same time they have just launched the Fall menu. Roasted Pear Salad

Farmer's Market Platter ($9.95) features heartier items like butternut squash and a bowl of  Cranberry beans and christmas beans. The brussel sprout and kale remain from previous seasons, and there is also a nice mixture of farro, crimini mushrooms, and hazelnut.

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Pitfire Pizza Opens in West Hollywood

Pitfire Pizza recently opened its West Hollywood outpost a block away from Fairfax and Melrose. Despite having a great meat shop (*cough* Lindy and Grundy), there wasn't much by way of restaurants in that immediate area. I had only been to the downtown and Westwood locations and the WeHo space is definitely much bigger, with a bar (with various craft beers on tap) and a patio dining area - and a pink Foosball table! Oh yeah.

Pitfire Pizza is very proud of their interior design: the Barbara Bestor-designed Culver City location won an AIA design award last year. This time they brought in Ana Henton and they particularly loved the way the elevated kitchen worked out. This location was actually two separate spaces and they worked out one of the elevated one into the whole design. You can easily see the kitchen staff working this way.

The food menu is the same as the other locations.
On a chilly night, start with some hand-crafted chicken meatballs ($6)

One of our favorite dishes was actually the Farmers Market Roasted Vegetables ($9.95). The winter platter featured roasted sunchokes, brussel sprouts, braised chickpeas with chard and harissa, roasted rainbow carrots with chili honey and rosemary

Possible the sweetest carrots I've had in a while, sunchokes that almost seem like potatoes, and great brussel sprouts.

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Your Perfect Downtown Thursday

I got my Thursdays down. If I can get out in time, that is.

Here's the not-so-secret plan: get to downtown at around 6, or earlier. First order of business: The Edison Bar for $0.35 vintage cocktail (ends at 7 PM). The cocktail changes every week, but always well done. Strong tasty drinks.

Depending on how fast you can finish your drink, you can either make it to Pitfire Pizza's happy hour right next door for 50% off food (ends at 7 PM). Or if you want to sip your cocktail slowly, you can also go to Pitfire armed with a Restaurant.com gift certificate.
$10 certificate for $3, or $25 for $10. But wait, don't buy it then! They almost always have a sale or coupon discount for 60%-80% off! That's $25 for a mere $2 or so!


From now May 31st 09 they're having a 80% off sale with code: SPECIAL.

So I came with a girlfriend armed with my $10 gift certificate and walked into Pitfire Pizza at 7:05 PM. As I handed the girl at the register the certificate she said that it's happy hour til 7 PM and so everything's half off anyway! Well it was past 7 PM I almost pointed out ... but I didn't and took her offer. Luckily the gift certificate is good for a year anyway, so i'm saving it for a later time. Double sweetness!

We each got Pitfire's individual-sized pizza and split em.

The burrata pie (burrata, tomato sauce, caramelized onions, arugula, hazelnut pesto drizzle - $9.95).
I really love the texture play that the tiny hazelnut bits added to this. I liked Pitfire's thin crust although I do wish it was crispier so I would eat the edges too ... The pizza is pretty light, as it is not overwhelmed by the cheese and tomato sauce. Overall I liked the combination of this pizza a lot. Chunks of burrata and fresh arugula, topped with crunchy hazelnuts! Plus, pesto ... I loove pesto.

Sweet Fennel Sausage (fontina, creme fraiche, crushed tomato, red onion, mozzarella - $9.95)
This was also good, although may seem a bit 'boring' compared to the burrata pizza. The sausages were good and I liked the use of crushed tomato chunks as opposed to just plain old tomato sauce. More cheesy than the first and was more familiar as a pizza. (Oh, yeah there's an iphone in the background so you can use it for a size comparison ;> )

$0.35 cocktail + $5 pizza. We made out like a couple of stuffed and buzzed bandits.

Pitfire Pizza Company
108 W 2nd St
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 808-1200
http://www.pitfirepizza.com/


Read LA Pizza Man's review here and Sinosoul's review here.