Today’s lunch is brought to you by Pizzeria Mozza–THE best gourmet pizza in Los Angeles. At least the best I’ve had. This place is so popular that a weekend lunch table requires a week’s advance notice. Want to eat dinner there? Make sure you book it a month ahead. No joke. Anything with such a demand has to be good!

The westbound corner of Melrose and Highland Avenue used to be the home of Alessi Ristorante & Bar. Now 641 N. Highland boasts the location of LA’s hottest spot in the area. Pizzeria Mozza is a powerhouse pizza joint backed by Nancy Silverman and Mario Batali. Nancy is the co-owner of Campanile and the owner/baker at La Brea Bakery. Mario is a Food Network personality, the author of several cookbooks and an operator of seven New York hotspots. Add to that two places in Los Angeles–Mozza being one of them. When a co-worker announced that he had successfully scored a coveted reservation for six at Mozza, the decision to go was instantaneous. We had a week and a half to look forward to it, and no matter how hard I tried to get concrete information on what to expect, it was a struggle. The place is so new that the restaurant’s website doesn’t even offer a menu or photos of the interior, so everything was hearsay shrouded in mystery. If you’re curious to hear the rest, check it out after the jump…

The wait was most definitely worth it! Walking up to the orange building, we noticed several people waiting outside. Luckily for us, our reservation held true, and we were seated in seconds. The interior is simple and artisanal flushed with deep burnt orange and ruddy walls. The restaurant is rather small, so it feels like you’re sitting in a big kitchen, except there’s a stocked bar on one wall and a hearth for firing pizza dough on the other. Our table was right near the front with views of everything–six seats each decorated with our own personal placemat of sorts with Italian comics, recipes for authentic pizza margherita and various Italian phrases. Very cute.

We were brought thin, crispy breadsticks and water in carafes as we perused the menu, trying to pick a few appetizers and also our main course. It had been recommended by a friend to try their squash blossom as a first course, but because that was unavailable, we went for the brussels sprouts with breadcrumbs, roasted vine ripe tomatoes with burrata, goat cheese with beet greens and the insalata mista to tide us over as the pizzas were prepped. The menu has a decent selection of Everything was AMAZING. Old TV shows and word of mouth may have you believing that brussels sprouts are horibbly satanic, but as a first time tryer, I can tell you that these were NOTHING like that. So good that each and every person at the table could only ‘mmmmm’ in approval. For an appetizer, the salad was the size of a full blown meal, overflowing the plate with a fresh mix of radicchio, arugula, vinegar and pepperocini. The goat cheese was also a nice, smooth start, although small for a table of six.

The wait between antipasti and the main meal was rather long. Mind you, we were having a late lunch around 3:00 pm, so although the tables were fairly full, it wasn’t a crazy hustle and bustle inside. In fact, it was so relaxed that our waitress took it upon herself to not tend to us in the manner that she should have, choosing instead to chat with the bartender, taste wines and smile blankly with other patrons. By the time the pizzas actually came, we had only seen her once and that was to place the initial order. When the pizzas finally did arrive, it’s needless to say that we were ready to get down. We decided to do the ‘share a slice‘ method, so we all got a chance to taste three different pizzas that day: goat cheese with leeks, egg and guanciale (pig cheeks!) and salami with hot chilies. Maybe this sounds unappetizing? I’m sure you’re stuck on the egg and pig cheek combination, but if you didn’t know it was pig cheek (assuming perhaps it was bacon), you wouldn’t even know the difference. The best pizza by far was the goat cheese with leeks, flecked also with garlic and bacon. I wish I had gone with my initial desire to order that, but there’s always next time.

When plates had been scraped clean and removed, a few people ordered various desserts. There are a variety of coffees, gelatos (everything from chocolate hazelnut to rum raisin), puddings, biscotti and other pastries. The three that stood out were the butterscotch pudding coupled with rosemary-praline cookies, the puff pastry stuffed with pistachio nuts and berries and the rum raisin gelato. The former was thick and rich, offset by the sweet savory taste of the cookies. The latter was definitely made for someone who can handle two shots of rum at the end of their meal. Half a teaspoon hit me right away, and I knew that an entire bowl would’ve sent me back to work feeling tipsy.

Over the course of this entire meal, we’d had two interactions with our waitress. In terms of her title, she was a pro. She didn’t actually wait on us, but rather forced us to wait for her. The second time she talked to us was to ask how the main meal was, but I’m sure she didn’t hear what we said because she had already walked away by the time we were able to mutter the first syllable. After that moment, the busboy and a second waitress handled our needs sufficiently. There was supposed to be an 18% gratuity added on to every table of six or more, but lucky for us, that was forgotten. I hope tips are split amongst everybody because if our waitress received the full $30 we left, it will be well undeserved. For a couple of people, our experience at Pizzeria Mozza was bittersweet. The food and atmosphere are great. Our immediate service, not so much! A different waitress would’ve made this a 100% fabulous time.

I’ll go back though. There are still delicious meat dishes, paninis and daily pasta specials to try ALONG with at least five other pizzas that I’m dying to try. The west coast is kidding itself if it thinks California Pizza Kitchen is as exotic as you can get because Mozza definitely reminds you that a little gourmet goes a long way. Apparently there’s a motto for Mozza: A tavola non s’invecchia mai. At the table, one never gets old. And I agree.