The idea of the California-style pizza is an elusive one.
A dive down the Google rabbit hole linked to the phrase unsurprisingly takes you to areas of the upper crust, to the likes of high-profile, high P.R.-backed establishments like Chez Panisse and Wolfgang Puck. Then there is California Pizza Kitchen which even trademarked the term and built an empire on BBQ sauce and chicken breast Chicken Pizza. (The restaurant has roots in Studio City.)
However, what exactly does California-style pizza mean in 2018 for those of us who live east of the L.A. River in Los Angeles?
I recommend that you point your curiosity to the San Gabriel Valley, where you might just find the answer to this pizza conundrum. Let us not forget, over 50 years ago, the area saw an onslaught of Italian-American immigrants establishing their eateries with various checkerboard-draped tablecloths that lived and died by the red sauce. While the cultural climate has vastly changed since then, the S.G.V. finds itself as a modern-day petri dish of what it means to be California Pizza.
Here are five pizzerias to get your California fix in the real Eastside.