La Sorted's newest location feels like it has occupied its Chinatown block for over a century, then passed down to multiple generations. But it's only been open for one month. That's because every single square inch of the tiny restaurant is covered in some kind of Dodger artifact from the lifetime collection of owner Tommy Brockert.
"I take great pride in being from L.A.," Brockert tells L.A. TACO. "Why not do a Dodgers theme and just own it?"
Brockert was raised in the Simi and San Fernando Valleys. At 42, he had already amassed a collection of things, including some sentimental valuables passed down from his grandfather and other family members, all of them Dodger fans in their day.
Brockert, a passionate Burner, earned the nick name "La Sorted" for hooking up a friend with a full camping set-up, after the man made the mistake of showing up to Burning Man without the proper gear. It was over a high five when Brockert's friend called him, "Tommy Fucken' LaSorted!" as an ode to his both his Tommy LaSorda and Dodger fandom that runs three generations deep.
"During COVID, when the Dodger baseball season was first cancelled, I realized on a deeper level what the entertainment value of sports meant, so I got into pizza at least to help us from our chaos of living through that," he says.
That passion for pizza materialized in the form of La Sorted's first pie and wing shop in Silver Lake in 2021. Now he has this second location within walking distance from Dodger Stadium.