In 2006, I read Elizabeth Gilbert's book Eat, Pray, Love. The first chapter was about her time in Italy. I had lived in Italy and everything she described about the...
The best part of my week was my date with my four-year-old nephew who I took to dinner. We went to check out the new Firenza Pizza that opened in California Plaza food court in downtown Los Angeles. Casual, tasty and approved by a four-year-old, Firenza Pizza is the Please The Palate pick of the week.
We headed downtown in rush-hour traffic to go to Firenza. At the entrance, the floor is covered by a giant pizza which was really fun to stand on.
We can find pizza almost anywhere we go and there are lots of styles of pizza - thin crust, thick crust, NY style, Chicago deep dish. But, my favorite of all is Italian style pizza. From the crust that is just crispy enough to the appropriate balance of tomato sauce and cheese, Italian pizza is perfection. Top it off with the individual size of an Italian pizza, it's a meal.
But finding a proper Italian pizza in the US is not as easy as it sounds. There are lots of good pizza places out there but so many times the crust droops when you pick up the slice or the cheese and tomato sauce are just too much or too little. But, at Desano Pizzeria and Bakery, they are doing it just right.
There are three locations in the US - Los Angeles, Charleston and Nashville. The Los Angeles location is in "East Hollywood" on Santa Monica Blvd just east of the 101 Fwy. If you live in LA, you might be thinking that there isn't much just east of the 101. True. It's a lot of warehouses but inside on of those warehouses is where Desano is located.