Joe's Pizza Mid-City
Pizza restaurant · Mid-City ·
New York-style pizza, by the slice or whole pie
New York-style pizza, by the slice or whole pie
"Present at Mid-City, replacing the short-lived Bootleg Pizza." - Mona Holmes
"At its Mid-City space on Pico Boulevard, Bootleg Pizza—chef Kyle Lambert’s operation that evolved from a pop-up to a food truck and then a restaurant—will close this Sunday, August 29, after a truncated run. The spot built a robust local following after opening at the height of last winter’s coronavirus surge and is known for Lambert’s unique style of thick-crust pan pizza; Lambert insists the closure is not due to a lack of business. Instead, the shutdown stems from a business dispute with Rob Vinokur and the Playhouse Group: Lambert says an early, informal deal that left the Playhouse Group covering the lease, build-out, and operations later turned sour, and Vinokur registered multiple LLCs (including Bootleg Pizza International, Mid-City Pizza, and Bootleg Pizza Holdings) and began a trademark process that Lambert claims he did not know about. After lawyers got involved and a buyout attempt failed, the Pico Boulevard location will no longer operate under the Bootleg name, though Lambert says he plans to do pop-ups and hopes to reopen in a new spot—summarizing his feelings on Instagram as, “I got fuckin’ bamboozled.”" - Farley Elliott
"There’s the Mid-City food truck gone storefront, Bootleg Pizza, which opened in December." - Mona Holmes
"Opened quietly during the pandemic in a spiffy red-and-white storefront on Pico Boulevard, this small pan-pizza operation is run by owner Kyle Lambert, who started out selling slices from a Fairfax commissary and later operated a food truck before moving into a permanent space. The room is dominated by a brand-new deck oven and an ordering counter, with no indoor seating yet; Lambert personally handles the pies. Inspired more by a grandma-style Jersey slice than Detroit-style high-walled pies, the pizzas are square (not rectangular) and notable for extra-blistered edges. The menu also features garlic knots (aka "stinky uglies"), a Caesar salad, and drinks; hours are limited at launch (about 5–9 p.m. for now) with plans to expand to roughly 11 a.m.–9 p.m. daily and to 11 p.m. on weekends, and delivery via Postmates and DoorDash is planned — customers are advised to follow Instagram for updates." - Farley Elliott
"One of LA’s best pan pizza spots, Bootleg Pizza continues to grow during the coronavirus pandemic, moving from a food-truck operation to a new storefront at 5504 W. Pico Boulevard (the former Mid-City Deli, not far from Paper or Plastik Cafe and My 2 Cents) with neon signage already up. Owner Kyle Lambert says construction on-site is basically done after a whirlwind 18 months that began with weekend-only pan pizzas by the slice out of a commissary kitchen in Little Ethiopia; inspired by memories of New Jersey square-slice spots, fans flocked for the thicker, extra-dark slices, so Lambert and partner (and wife) Stephanie tried their luck with a food truck just before the pandemic. While lockdowns, lack of foot traffic, and rolling curfews made truck life difficult—Lambert admits it “sucks” much of the time—the team pushed forward with preorder pickup windows and a rotating menu, and the restaurant, slated to open the first week of December, will run lunch and dinner seven days a week, offering whole pies and slices, a menu largely transferred from the truck with rotating specials, plus garlic knots and cinnamon sugar knots for dessert." - Farley Elliott
