613 S. Spring StreetDay five in Los Angeles started to ease up on us a little bit.
We started Saturday morning with a trip out to Pasadena for an assignment then we had a pretty large gap in our day. We headed back to our hotel in Downtown Los Angeles to work on some stuff there in the comfort of a hotel room instead of trying to do all of our work in the car.
My co-worker had some things to do before I could do what I needed to do so I decided to take a walk. It was a nice day and I hadn’t really explored much of downtown LA to see what was around us.
I kind of started walking aimlessly but also kind of walking towards pizza.
I ended up about 3/4 mile from our hotel on Spring Street. There’s a pizza by the slice place and it was kind of lunch time, so I decided to stop in.
Joe’s Pizza is on a fairly busy part of Spring Street near 6th Street in downtown Los Angeles. The small downtown storefront is one of seven of the New York Style slice places in the Greater Los Angeles area. Are they related to the Joe’s Pizza in Greenwich Village and the Joe’s Pizza in Ann Arbor? Good question. There’s a lot of similarities but not really...I mean kinda, because it’s some family…er, ex-family drama…but no, they’re not part of the same group of restaurants.
The restaurant is set up like a lot of New York slice places. There’s a large order area with a glass case near the back of the shop. I was the only one in the restaurant at the time. A guy came out of the kitchen and asked what I wanted then threw a couple of slices in to the over to warm back up.
There wasn’t a huge selection to choose from but there was enough variety that everyone would be able to find something. They even looked like they had a Detroit style deep dish sitting there amongst all the New York Style thin crust pizzas on display.
There is quite a bit of seating inside the restaurant. If you’re a quick eater, there’s a stand up bar right across from the order area. There are several jars of crushed red pepper and Parmesan cheese sitting on the counter here if that’s your thing (it’s totally mine, btw)
There’s also a pretty large dining room looking out to the street. There’s a large hand painted New York City inspired mural on the wall that towers over the cheap restaurant furniture that makes up the dining room.
I ordered two slices of the Meat Lovers pizza. They were super crispy when they came out of the oven and handed to me. Each slice had big pieces of pepperoni and thick slices of Italian sausage. I layered up the Parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes as I usually do. Every bite was a crunch. From the very tip of the triangle all the way back to the handle. There was no floppiness on either of these slices. It’s just the way a NY slice is supposed to be.
The cost for this impromptu lunch was just over $12.
I wish I would have added on some garlic knots but I noticed them sitting in a pile next to one of the pizzas after my slices were already in the oven.
Other than that, Joe’s Pizza is exactly what I would have been looking for if I had walked out of my hotel looking for lunch. It was too good to pass up when I stumbled upon it. I love NY slice places and this is a quintessential NY slice place in the heart of downtown Los Angeles.