Pizza Pizazz
The wonderful Caioti Pizza Cafe is hidden among the tiny storefronts of Tujunga Village, a cozy, charming commercial stretch that lacks the intensity of nearby Ventura Boulevard.
Chef and owner Ed LaDou has quite a resume. He created pizzas at Spago for Wolfgang Puck and later personally developed the menu for California Pizza Kitchen. For years he ran a Caioti Pizza in Laurel Canyon.
The cafe is modest in the extreme, but on many levels, I enjoy dining here as much as at Spago. LaDou--who is nearly always in the kitchen--uses top-grade products to show off his vivid culinary imagination. Four of us were seated under a giant potted palm, sipping on delicious Thomas Kemper cream sodas, when we got our first taste of Caioti’s kitchen: terrific crunchy garlic rolls baked in the pizza oven and slathered in a mixture of butter, garlic and oregano.
The white bean salad, made with wild rice and lentils, is gently infused with lemon juice, olive oil and spices. There’s also “the the salad,” a refreshing plate of romaine, watercress, walnuts, pungent Gorgonzola cheese and a balsamic vinaigrette that does California cuisine proud.
Pizzas are the calling card here, for good reason. The smoked salmon pizza that Spago is known for is tremendous here, and a steal at $9.25. It’s a crisp crust topped with creme frai^che, buttery salmon, chives, nasturtium blossoms and a dollop of golden caviar. The lamb sausage pizza is equally hard to resist. It’s topped with bits of gamy sausage, slices of grilled eggplant, roasted garlic cloves and a smooth Canadian goat cheese.
The unusual Pizza Rockefeller has a tangy topping of shrimp, oysters, spinach, fennel and seasoned bread crumbs. Among the classic pizzas, there is a terrific sausage and mushroom, an impeccable anchovy and (my favorite) a shallot and potato pizza subtly enriched with smoked Gouda.
Expect surprises. Broken lasagna is a wonderful pasta using broken pieces of lasagna noodles, chicken, roasted sweet peppers and corn in a delicate guajillo chile sauce. An intriguing pheasant ravioli is crowned by a delicious oyster mushroom sauce. Alabama fried chicken, smothered in a dill cream gravy, has a golden crust that’s just about perfect.
Desserts are a variety of good cakes and pies from Sweet Lady Jane and Rose Cafe, among them a rich double-crusted cherry pie and an amazing Almond Roca cake, studded with chunks of the candy.
This is one lucky neighborhood, I swear.
BE THERE
Caioti Pizza Cafe, 4346 Tujunga Ave., Studio City. Lunch 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Monday-Friday; dinner 5-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 5-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 4-10 p.m. Sunday. Parking in rear. No alcohol. MasterCard and Visa. Dinner for two, $19-$32. Suggested dishes: white bean salad, $3.50/$5.75; smoked salmon pizza, $9.25; shallot and potato pizza, $8.75; broken lasagna, $8.75; Alabama fried chicken, $9.50. Call (818) 761-3588.