Week in Review Part 2: Can't Stop the Mozza

Mozza, from Chotda in the Eater LA Flickr Pool

As noted by Jonathan Gold, there's no argument that really makes Aneglenos' blood boil as the one over who makes the best pizza in town, or even what makes pizza pizza. With that, the LA Weekly food critic takes on the buzziest parlor of all, Pizzeria Mozza. The crust, he notes, gets snipped with scissors when too charred (not the last one we ate) as Nancy Silverton lovingly inspects each one at the pass. But what we particularly like is Gold's comparison to Spago, the land of 800 dinners, and even better still, how Mozza fares against one of co-owner Mario Batali's real children:

Mozza is that rarest of phenomena, a destination pizza parlor, less a place that you stop by for a pizza before a movie than a restaurant so heavily booked that the reservationist grinds her teeth every time she picks up the phone. Open Table is useless, and even investors and members of Silverton’s family usually have to weigh the merits of an 8:30 pizza four weeks from next Tuesday or a 3:30 pizza at the counter today. Occasionally, the room is booked solid even at 4 p.m.—not even Spago can do that.

But save for the occasional visit, you won’t find Batali in the kitchen at Mozza — the food is Silverton’s and Molina’s. And, I have to say, Mozza’s pizza is better than Otto’s.

With full disclosure that his wife co-wrote a cookbook with Silverton and that she's been a close family friend for years, Gold raves about almost everything, but puts in a few negative points to show some semblance of balance. But he's obviously riding high on the Mozza train. Who isn't?
· The New California Pizza Kitchen [LA Weekly]