New York City’s Famous Emmy Squared Pizza Brings Big Pepperoni Piles to Santa Monica

Some of America’s most famous pizza is coming to Los Angeles soon — very soon. Eater has confirmed that Emmy Squared, the Detroit-style, extra-cheesy, pepperoni-cupping shop from New York City is landing in Santa Monica, with an opening slated for the end of this month.

In the past decade, Emmy Squared has become one of New York’s most famous pizzerias, though that’s not all the company sells. There are pies overloaded with Ezzo cupping pepperonis, sure, but Emmy also offers a full menu that includes Impossible meatballs, cheesy bread, salads, a chicken parm sandwich, and the Big Matt, a double-patty burger that has become a fan favorite in its own right.

The highly Instagrammable menu has garnered such a big following, in fact, that owners Matt and Emily Hyland were able to quickly expand from their original Brooklyn location to a staple shop on the Upper East Side and, as of 2019, across New York and the greater East Coast. There are now Emmy Squared locations in Virginia, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, the Carolinas, and beyond. The company also ships nationwide, and has an outpost in Abu Dhabi. Santa Monica marks the first West Coast arrival for the company.

Photo by Laura Chase de Formigny for The Washington Post via Getty Images

The incoming Emmy Squared will take up residence inside of Santa Monica Brew Works, the longtime Westside brewery at 1920 Colorado Avenue. Reps for the brewery confirmed the incoming Emmy Squared news, telling Eater that the plan is for Emmy Squared to operate at a smaller scale inside the space, working from 1,000 square feet of order bar, kitchen and seating. That means takeout and delivery apps during the day, with on-site dining in the evenings across Brew Works’ beer garden and brewery space. All told, there’s room for 200 folks outside and close to 300 inside; that means lots of meatballs and pizzas.

“We had always hoped to open up our own food component,” says Santa Monica Brew Works founder Scott Francis, “but we just couldn’t do it because we didn’t have the space.” Eventually much of the building they co-occupy became available, and the timing just fell into place for Emmy Squared to come to Los Angeles. Francis says that he’s had mutual friends with the Emmy Squared team for years. “When I realized that I was going to be able to. open something up here, I immediately contacted them.”

Despite an ongoing lack of national and international recognition for LA’s dining scene, it seems that just about everyone wants to have a restaurant here these days. Just out of New York City (and Paris), chef Daniel Rose of the lauded Le Coucou is planning to open a restaurant here shortly, while cookie-famous Levain Bakery plots its own space on Larchmont. Marcus Jernmark, one of Scandinavia’s biggest fine dining chefs, is bringing a project to LA soon, as is Toronto star chef Rob Gentile. Absolute legend Willie Mae’s is opening in Venice this year with fried chicken and more, proving yet again that it’s a great time to be eating well in Los Angeles.

Expect Emmy Squared to open at 1920 Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica by the end of July, with on-site dining starting at 5 p.m.