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EAT THIS: A PIZZA TIP FROM A PRO
Over the past week I’ve started a deep dive into a subject that, really, I’ve been preparing for as long as I’ve lived here: pizza in Santa Cruz County. While we have many local foods to be proud of and that could be held up as an emblem – strawberries, artichokes, Dungeness crab, chanterelles – I would argue pizza easily tops the list. By my count, the area boasts more than 65 pizza-focused restaurants, more per capita than Chicago or New York City, which both boast their own style of pizza.
So, does Santa Cruz have its own style of pizza? To find out, I’m tossing the question to passionate pizza-makers throughout the county to see what they have to say, and sharing my favorite places to grab a slice along the way.
While on the topic with Brando Sencion, who co-owns Slice Project in Watsonville with his brother, Kristian Sencion, he dropped a small bomb into our conversation: In his opinion, pizza ordered by the slice is, often, better than one pulled from a whole pie.
“At any slice shop, the best slice has been out for at least 30 minutes, and then you reheat it,” said Sencion. From the moment a pizza is pulled from the oven, it’s “a ticking time bomb,” becoming softer and softer, he said. By his estimate, the best texture is lost after the third or fourth slice.
But a pass through an industrial oven doesn’t just revive – it evolves. “If you reheat it, you’ll get a crunch. The cheese is oozy and hot again. It feels fresher than when it came fresh out of the oven,” said Sencion.
Aside from his own restaurant in downtown Watsonville, Sencion’s favorite place to get a slice is Pizza My Heart.
Some of my favorites include: Pleasure Pizza on 41st Avenue, Pizzeria La Bufala and Rustico Italian Street Food in downtown Santa Cruz, and Pizza Series in Scotts Valley.
Do you have thoughts and opinions about pizza in Santa Cruz County? I want to hear them – email me at lily@lookoutlocal.com or text me here.
BEST OF THE WEEK AHEAD
Below, find a curated list of the best food and drink events in Santa Cruz County for the coming week. At the top, I share my picks of unmissable local happenings.
NEWS OF THE WEEK
ICYMI – here are the food news stories from Lookout that you might have missed, plus important news from beyond our borders picked by yours truly.
- Coming to Santa Cruz County school cafeterias: More meals made from scratch (Lookout)
- The new owner of Passionfish wants to keep the restaurant’s legacy intact, with a goal in mind (Monterey County Weekly)
- 7-Eleven’s coveted Japanese sandwiches have arrived in the Bay Area (San Francisco Chronicle)
- San Jose taco and beer festival postponed following backlash from San Francisco event (ABC7)
