The Great Slice Drought of Los Angeles is Over Thanks to Vito's Pizza

[scott123]

The Great Slice Drought of Los Angeles is Over Thanks to Vito's Pizza

James, are you paying attention?  This blows KONYP out of the water.

Edit: Link fixed.

[pizzaneer]

Ok, Scott, what kind & settings of the oven, hydration and proofing process of the dough, variety of fresh tomato is it?  Oh, and don't forget what kinds and proportion of cheese... 

When's your flight to LA leave?

[BrickStoneOven]

The Great Slice Drought of Los Angeles is Over Thanks to Vito's Pizza

James, are you paying attention?  This blows KONYP out of the water.

You linked to the Slice main page, heres the one to the store http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2012/07/vitos-pizza-in-los-angeles-ca.html?ref=title.

BTW how do you do that, like write a description and have the link as that description instead of the url address?

[scott123]

David, thanks for catching that.

Re; links, this forum allows certain bbcode tags. You can build links using the url tag.  Here's the syntax (the second example)

http://www.bbcode.org/examples/?id=9

I use a firefox add-on called 'Make Link' that allows me to highlight a swath of text from the page that I want to create a link from, right-click and choose 'make link', and it will copy a bbcode formatted link to the clipboard.  If you do a lot of these kind of links, it's helpful.

One caveat- Pizzamaking's default color scheme doesn't really differentiate all that well between links and regular text, so if you put links like this into the middle of sentences, sometimes they can be missed. In those instances, I might take the time to bold/underline them to make them look a little more like a traditional hyperlink.

Also, these kinds of links can be done with html as well, although I tend to stick to bbcode because more forums allow it.

[scott123]

Ok, Scott, what kind & settings of the oven, hydration and proofing process of the dough, variety of fresh tomato is it?  Oh, and don't forget what kinds and proportion of cheese...

Actually, the manufacturer of this oven only made 3 models.  One is in LA, one in Saudi Arabia, and the last is in a secret government facility in an unnamed location.  I'm working with the government to try to unlock it's secrets.  If you use exactly the right amount of sauce and cheese on the pizza (to the gram) a trap door opens, revealing a clue that will eventually lead you to where one of the discarded bones of the pizza Raffaele Esposito made for Queen Margherita, an item of great mystical importance.  According to legend, the owner of this bone can throw out their scales and other tools of measurement and every pizza they make will be flawless.

And this only scrapes the surface of what can be achieved with the Margherita Bone. If you hold it up to the light at a certain angle, it will project a hologram of Chris Bianco telling you about the futility of overanalyzing pizza.

Seriously, though, I usually pre-heat my stone to 525, but when I push it to 550, my undercrust looks almost identical to the one pictured.  My rim is not quite as GBD and I think I get a bit more oven spring, but the pies are pretty close.

[pizzablogger]

Upskirt and TF look spot on.

I for one would be happy in a world where the 'friggen slice counter does not exist. I can't stand it. Or at least they should invent some type of freshness meter that they stick on the platter a pie is placed on. The meter would denote what time the pizza was first cooked and then as every half an hour goes by, the price of the slice is incrementally reduced. The time value of freshness is inverse to the time value of money, doancha know.

I'd very much like to visit this place and order a whole plain pizza. Nice! --K

[jsaras]

I've eaten there several times and the crust is indeed fantastic.  Probably the best NY-style slice you can get in LA.  Mulberry Street Pizza and Tomato Pie Pizza Joint also are the top in that style.  Slicetruck Pizzeria (which also now has a physical location) is perhaps more accurately described as an American-style pizza because of their use of Kamut flour is killer as well.

Here are some photos to make you hungry!

[jsaras]

My friend Chris at Slicetruck Pizzeria just posted this article on Facebook: http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/2012/08/pizza_slice_best_joes_truck_tomato_pie_pizzanista_vitos.php

He's in the Top 5, although the writer is incorrect about there being any garlic in his sauce.  

Here's a picture that includes the back side:

[jsaras]

I happened to be eating at Vito's today as supplies were being delivered through the front door.  The ingredients on the cart included Pendleton Mondako flour, Grande and Polly O cheeses, Stanislaus Valoroso pear tomatoes and Rosina baked meatballs.

Their oven is set to 550 degrees and they bake an 18-inch pizza in 8 minutes.  I was told that they generally bake all their pizzas with just cheese.  Toppings are added before the slices are reheated for 3-minutes.

[Giggliato]

I've been using that Mondako flour recently, it has a nice feel to it. Would you happen to know how they reheat their slices? Temp, and if they use a screen? Or have a dedicated slice oven?

[jsaras]

Definitely no screens.  I was told on a handful of occasions (by the same employee) that the dial on their oven (which looks nearly broken) is set to 550 degrees.  I can't vouch as to how accurate that is, but given their longish bake times I'm inclined to believe that's it's lower than that in reality.