I am out here in Los Angeles — the second-largest city by population in the United States — to cover the 108th Rose Bowl Game.
Driving in from the airport, I felt like a kid in a candy store seeing the skyline, lights and attractions such as SoFi Stadium and the Los Angeles Times’ headquarters.
Considering the expensive nature of the city, I’ve been taking full advantage of the meals provided by the hotel, and the time allotted to going out and exploring has been severely limited by the most rain Los Angeles has seen in a very long time, according to a few Uber drivers.
Still, there are millions of people and just about everything to do here. However, mirroring my failed attempt to visit Dodger Stadium, I struck out when looking for a good pizza place to review for this special Rose Bowl edition of Pie Day Friday.
I went on the Slice app, which allows users to order from independent pizzerias across the United States, and searched for nearby joints before settling on Braazo Pizza. Due to the downpour, I couldn’t make the mile-long walk to pick up the food, so I relied on a delivery service, which was a mistake.
After an hour of waiting and miscommunication regarding where to deliver the pizza, I opened the box and realized I received the wrong pizza.
I ordered a large pepperoni — as I have for every other Pie Day Friday review — but was instead greeted with a pizza covered not just in pepperoni, but also sausage and barbecue chicken.
I considered finding a different place for the integrity of the review, but I have to give the people what they want. With our media schedule and other obligations, I had to make sure I at least reviewed something in the City of Angels.
I tried to go off of the same standards I had in past reviews — paying special attention to the cheese, sauce, etc. — but in all honesty, it was tough. In my first bite, I couldn’t taste anything besides the barbecue chicken, which was a complication I hadn’t dealt with in prior reviews. To get the most accurate rating, I had to take a couple of bites toward the center where there was exclusively cheese and sauce.
Other than the barbecue chicken in my initial bite, there was no flavoring whatsoever. The sauce was almost nonexistent and the pepperoni was undercooked and flimsy.
What jumped out to me regarding the pizza’s appearance was how floppy the paper-thin crust was. It drooped sadly toward the ground like a wilted plant. The crust had no crunch or flavor, leaving nothing but an airy, doughy fluff — which almost sounds good in a written description but didn’t appeal to me in the slightest.
There was also a strange gap between the crust, cheese and toppings. Paying homage to the holidays and the present-wrapping that comes with them, it looked as though the baker had taped the cheese to the crust and the toppings to the cheese like a careless wrapping paper job.
I didn’t realize this, but there was a second-floor hotel staffer who had been watching the review from the balcony. After we stopped filming, he yelled down and said I should have given the pizza a two.
He rode the elevator down a level to the lobby and said pizza in downtown Los Angeles is not very good.
Honestly, I couldn’t agree more.
Rating: 5.3/10
