Surprise Wood-Fired Sourdough Pizza Pops Up Out of Nowhere Near Echo Park

Don’t look now, but there’s some surprising new pizza hiding away at the border of Echo Park and Historic Filipinotown. The long-gestating Echo Park Village development on Glendale Boulevard is now home to Grá (the Gaelic word for love), a tucked-in little sourdough pizza and natural wine paradise found just up the hill on, appropriately enough, Pizarro Street.

Grá comes to LA by way of Michael McSharry, a longtime Londoner from the advertising world who fell in love with the pizza and bread-making process. In a conversation with Eater, McSharry says that London has been inundated with sourdough wood-fired pizzas recently, though the phenomenon has yet to fully hit Los Angeles. So, as a local, he decided to put something together himself, leaning into the fermentation aspect across a tight menu that also includes options like pickles, kombucha, and a few salads and skin-contact wines.

Inside, the new Grá feels decidedly urban chic, with a pared-back warehouse aesthetic punctuated with overflowing greenery and the glow of the domed Italian wood-fired oven. There are two large communal wooden tables inside as well as a collection of two- and four-tops in the main dining area. An attached patio out to Glendale Boulevard is still only semi-open; construction panels will come down in the next few days, revealing the restaurant to the traffic beyond.

Grá’s opening night was last night, and McSharry says the restaurant will keep evening hours only to start, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday.

Grá. 1524 Pizarro St., Los Angeles.

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Farley Elliott

Farley Elliott