Pizza Show

The Details:

13344 Hawthorne Blvd.
Hawthorne, CA 90250-5805
Phone: (310) 973-9066
Mon-Thu 11:30am-11pm
Fri 11:30am-1am
Sat 12pm-1am
Sun 12pm-11pm
Delivery is available after 5pm

The Los Angeles Foodie Rating:

4 out of 5

The Summary:

If you are in Hawthorne and you want some good pizza, go to Pizza Show. Simple as that. The place is great, the service is great and the food tastes good. I can’t see any reason why you shouldn’t go to this restaurant the next time you are hungry.

The Place:

Smack dab in the heart of Hawthorne on Hawthorne Boulevard, Pizza Show is the type of suburban pizza parlor so many of us grew up with. You can feel the history when you walk in. It opened in 1956, and ownership has changed hands only once, from father to son. The current owner made a few changes including installing booths, replacing the wooden chairs with plastic ones and swapping out the red and white checked table cloths with dark vinyl ones. I wish I had been around for dad’s version of Pizza Show, but the current incarnation is just fine. Most of the walls are adorned with goofy Italian-inspired decor, and the back wall sports three false wooden wine casks that are shaded by a tile-covered awning. Throughout the restaurant, light is provided by huge wrought iron chandeliers that look borrowed from a French castle. The front end of the kitchen opens up to two take-out windows for walk-up service. According to our waitress, the Beach Boys (who are from Hawthorne) used to play here for pitchers of beer. Marilyn Monroe lived in the building behind the restaurant for a short while after she first moved to Los Angeles, and the Manson family robbed a pawn shop next door for guns. I have no idea if any of that is true, but I’m going to believe it anyway.

The Food:

They claim to be New York style, but I don’t see it. The crust is about as thick as you might find on a Pizza Hut or Domino’s pie. I had pepperoni, sausage and mushrooms. It’s not the best pizza I’ve ever had, but it’s good. I’ll definitely go back again for more. I loved how crispy the outside of the crust was. The thick edge literally shattered when I bit into it, but the inside was soft and warm. I also like that they use little balls of sausage instead of leaving it ground like a lot of places. This pie definitely tastes homemade.

The Service:

Service doesn’t get better than Pizza Show. I was there on a Thursday afternoon, and we were the only people in the whole place. Therefore, we had a monopoly on our waitress’s time. She was more than happy to indulge our many questions. She has worked there for 38 years, so she seemed more like a docent than a server. This kind of pizza isn’t fast food, so she showed us around and told us stories while our meal was prepared. As our waitress told us, I have no doubt that Pizza Show has an important place in the history of the Hawthorne community, and I urge you to give them your business.