During one of the lighter moments in the murder trial last year of LAFD Capt. David Del Toro, a witness called to the stand uttered the word “Casablanca” while alluding to the iconic, family-owned Italian eatery on Colorado Boulevard that is among Eagle Rock’s oldest restaurants.
The error may well have been permanently buried in court records were it not for an interjection from Lance Ito, the Silver Lake-born Superior Court judge who also handed the O.J. Simpson trial. “Casa Bianca,” Ito instantly corrected, and then added something to the effect that the restaurant is too well known to have its name so casually distorted for posterity.
Casa Bianca, which our Music and Culture columnist Dan Kimpel aptly described as "Eagle Rock's Mecca of Mozarella" in a 2010 article by the same title, is known for its pizzas. And not just because L.A. gastronome Jonathan Gold once described its pizza pies as the best in the Southland.
Not everyone agrees of course—and it’s one of the attractions of Eagle Rock as a destination for eating out that a variety of independently owned restaurants pride themselves on serving quality pizzas.
Which one do you think serves the best pizza in town? To put the question more broadly, where in Eagle Rock have you ever had the best-cooked pizza, including in pop-up gatherings such as the ones that Eagle Rock native and self-styled chef Michael Gerard of Wildwood Ovens is fond of hosting from time to time, most recently during the Eagle Rock Boulevard block party last November?
Take our poll below and vote for your favorite independently owned pizza place. (Feel free to tell us why in the Comments section below as well as make suggestions we might have overlooked.) The poll is open until 10 a.m. on Friday, March 2, after which a winner from the following choices will be announced—and awarded a Patch "Best Of" certificate, replete with bragging rights:
Note: Fatty's, the renowned restaurant on Colorado Boulevard, was added late Monday to the poll after a reader suggested that it serves delicious pizza, including one named the Zeppelin. The late head start for Fatty's might explain the relatively lower number of votes for it.
