I could lie and say the day was catered around taking the daughter to the Kidspace museum in Pasadena. Truth be told, however, it was really an excuse for us to go to Casa Bianca, a great pizza joint that I hadn't frequented for years and had been meaning to get back to since J. Gold included their sausage pizza as one of the 99 Things to Eat in L.A. Before You Die. But let's start off with the beginning of the day.
The Kidspace museum has fallen on hard times. A year or two back, it was a great place to take your young un for climbing, exploring and learning about such terrifying things as tarantulas, beetles and earthquakes in a fun and playful way. Perhaps it was the weekday (we were almost the only ones there), but things seemed pretty run down and the "educators" who used to thrill kids with their tales of the the worker bees in the beehive now seemed to have walked straight out of a Chuck Palahniuk novel. I didn't think things could get any worse, but that's when we discovered the Nestle Cafe by Wolfgang Puck Catering.
Now don't get me wrong, it wasn't as if I was expecting four or even one star food to be served up by WP catering. When I used to work on the Sony lot, I remember how everyone thought that when WP catering showed up, we would finally have edible food served on the lot (no such luck...it's just as mediocre as it ever was). I was simply expecting something to nourish the daughter and get me through the first half of the day until it came time for the Bianca.
Did I neglect to say the name of the place was the Kidspace Museum? Well, allow me to describe the "kid friendly" selection of food: cheese pizza, chicken tenders and chicken caesar wrap. After asking to check out the chicken caesar wrap and seeing that it had been prepared 5 days ago, I opted out of eating and settled on something else listed on the menu for the daughter...the PB & J sandwich. What I received several minutes later was not a sandwich at all but a Smucker's Peanut Butter and Strawberry Jam Uncrustable. Now I'm not sure if any of you have ever had the opportunity to consume an Uncrustable, but it's basically a cross between a Hot Pocket and cow dung.
Now what should you be most proud of Wolfgang Puck? Being four foot five tall? Having the healthy choice between frozen cheese pizza, chicken tenders and week old chicken wrap offered to kids at an establishment with your name on it? No, you need to be proud of serving as an alternative something that contains such wonderful ingredients as calcium peroxide, (the lovely) high fructose corn syrup, monocalcium phosphate, etc, etc.
Yeesh...well luckily it was on to Casa Bianca after that. I love this place. It's that pizza parlor you rode your BMX to when you were 12 and didn't care about much in the world. Red checkered tables, beer signs plastered across the walls...not much has changed at Bianca over the years. Same friendly waitresses walking around with pizza racks sandwiched around their mid-sections, same godforsaken bathroom and the same hour and a half wait if you get to Eagle Rock anytime after 5:30 (not to mention the 45 minute wait once you've ordered your pie). But boy oh boy is it worth it. The Bianca pie is much less NY style pizza or deep dish (although it does have its roots in Chi-town) and much more a hand tossed pie crust (laced with lots of cornstarch on the bottom) with pizza toppings on top. Whether you go crazy on the toppings (their homemade sausage is my choice) or just have it plain, it's always perfectly baked and delicious. We topped it all off with choco ice cream and a cappuccino truffle torte that was out of this world.
Casa Bianca
1650 Colorado Avenue
323-256-9617
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