Rarely does a pizzeria bother opening in the mornings, when the only pizza likely to be eaten is a cold slice from last night’s delivery. On 3rd St., however, the olive-wood-fired oven at Olio Pizzeria & Café is stoked to 800° while the day’s first coffee is brewing.
Every morning, the newly opened pizza place refashions the dough that will later carry toppings like chanterelle mushrooms and butternut squash into bagel-like bialys, pastries and more.
The wood-fired Danish ($6; pictured) is an elongated pizza crust smeared with a vanilla-spiked ricotta and topped with fresh fruit (blueberries, on our visit)—everything crisped and caramelized by a quick blast of dry heat from the oven. There’s no flakiness to the pastry—just blistered-crust crunch at the edge, a prelude to the classic combination of ricotta and fruit in the middle.
Bialys—Polish breads that, unlike bagels, are baked (not boiled) and sport a large dimple rather than a hole—cover much of the Austrian-Hungarian empire on the menu, showing up alongside smoked salmon on one plate ($13), or schmeared with pesto and topped with a poached egg on another ($5). Bialy are well suited to both preparations, the bread’s particular balance between crunch and chew offering something L.A.’s often lackluster bagels never could.
Olio Pizzeria & Café
8075 West 3rd St.
Ste. 100
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(3rd & Crescent Heights)
323-930-9490
http://www.pizzeriaolio.com/
