Piece O’ Pizza
Piece O’ Pizza was the brand name of a string of eateries that once decorated the Southern California landscape…an amazing reach considering the awfulness of their signature product. Do you like pizza where the crust tastes like matzo, the toppings have the thickness of carbon paper and you can’t decide whether to eat the pizza or the box it came in? If you do, you’d have loved Piece O’ Pizza pizza. Just awful. What kept them in business, it seemed to me, was their great, racy slogan (“Had a piece lately?”) and the fact that there then weren’t a lot of other places where one could grab a fast pizza to take home.
Also, they served a decent meatball sandwich and a more-than-decent (and very cheap) spaghetti plate. Many of the Piece O’ Pizza stands were in “Skid Row” style areas, and I bet that spaghetti plate kept a lot of homeless people alive.
Like I said, they were all over L.A. There was one on Pico just east of Sepulveda, one at Beverly and Fairfax, another on La Brea just south of Hollywood, another on La Cienega near Airdrome, another on Western just south of Hollywood…and (I’m guessing) at least 200 more. As far as I know, there’s only one remaining. It’s down on Venice Boulevard about a half-mile west of Sepulveda. A year or two ago, I was in the neighborhood and in need of rapid lunch, so I decided to go in and have the spaghetti plate, just to see if it was still the same. Since there is no parent company now to supply the preparations, I was expecting totally different cuisine…but the meat sauce was more or less what I recalled, or at least it seemed to have evolved from the same recipe.
I probably won’t go back since I now have better places to eat. I suspect that’s what killed off the Piece O’ Pizza chain in or around the late eighties. As Numero Uno and Pizza Hut and even Domino’s spread, everyone had a better place to get a quick pizza or to have one brought piping-hot to their door. Speculating further, I’d guess that too many of their stands were located in depressed areas, which made it difficult for them to upgrade their product. It would have been awkward to simultaneously improve their menu (thereby making most items more expensive), advertise that they’d done this…but still service the crowd that just wanted the cheapest-possible plate of pasta.
I don’t exactly miss the places since they weren’t that good. On the other hand, I’ve been to fancy Italian restaurants where I enjoyed a $20 entree a lot less than I liked the Piece O’ Pizza spaghetti plate. Even in the early eighties, it didn’t cost much over two dollars…and that included garlic bread.
17 Responses to Piece O’ Pizza
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I used to frequent the Venice location in the picture back in the 1970′s. I thought their pizza was pretty good, and the crust was a lot thicker than matzo back then. I much preferred Bruno’s further west on Venice Blvd. though.
My Grand Father lived just around the corner in Hollywood. I remember liking mushrooms for the first time when eating their pizza. I was pretty young, so I didn’t know what their slogan meant. hahaha Anyway. I think about their pizza when ever I have mushrooms to this day. :) But Matzah? I think not. hahaha I remember liking their cheese too. Carolina West was near by. Loved their hot fudge sundae’s. Now I want pizza and dessert. (:
When we first came to California in 1954 my mom sent a picture of that “racy” sign back to relatives in Ohio. At the ripe old age of 4 I didn’t have any idea what was so funny.
My Buddies in the Airforce used to laugh our buts off when ever we saw the slogan “Had a Piece Lately” on TV LOL… that was our slang for having sex
What is described as the business plan for Piece O’ Pizza sounds like what the once-proud Little Caesars chain is now: Pre-prepared pizza for people with the munchies and want to pick one up right fast like and scarf it.
My father has lunch regularly with one of the original owners of Piece O’ Pizza. I was practically weaned on POP, Tommy’s, Pink’s and Tito’s.
Hi I used to stop at Venice and maclaughin for my slice , it’s so good I don’t know how long this place been there but seems like long time ago well the food is original , the employes are so friendly ..
I used to frequent the Piece O’Pizza on Western Ave in Hollywood. If therre when Ray Parks was the chef, you got a KILLER pizza, never had a complaint. Back in those days, the “Tuesday Night Special” was $1.85 for any large pizza. We’d have Ray add extra cheese for 50 cents. Any other cook and we’d not go in. I still have pictures of Ray at work, and the marvelous creations he concocted. I heard Ray passed away many years ago, a shame, he was a very interesting, intelligent character, and always an interesting conversationalist. One night when back in the L.A. area after moving much farther north, my friend and I were treated to a freebie. When we went to pay, he just looked at us and said, “get out!” That was Ray :)
I worked for POP for 6 years, putting myself thru high school and college. The food was quite good and used fresh ingredients. They had specials several nights a week that were real bargains. We frequently had celebrity clients who were great fans. The writer should realize that many of the “skid row” areas were once middle class neighborhoods when POP started in 1the 1940′s. The pizzas were made by hand (and we all knew how to throw them in the air), dough was made fresh daily, as were the sauces, and the cheese was pure mozzarella. There were about 20 stores that went out of business once the founder’s son took over and began tinkering with recipes and profits.
When you didn’t have much money on you and you were hungry, a slice from Piece O’Pizza tasted pretty good, OK? (was it 25 cents?) – and you could afford to buy it.
How many people remember the Goody Goody Drive In on Wilshire at Berkeley in Santa Monica, a few blocks west of the WLA “Piece O’ Pizza”
Car hops male and female wore brown slacks, tops and hats and were on skates I think… and the #1 burger had incredible sauce.
I’m 56 yrs young, and lived in North Hollywood until I was 6 years old. I have vivid memories of POP. I was astonished by the talented pizza thrower in the window, and could ‘t wait to get inside where there were red and white gingham tablecloths, grapes and leaves on lattice on the walls and ceilings, a plastic basket filled with yummy bread, great salad, and spaghetti with meatballs and a pie. Our family of four ate for $3.98-that included a large bottle of Coke. Really, my parents were not wealthy by any means, and this was our one night out a week. Mom said it was a Thursday night. At 85 years old, Mom said it was Thursday nights that she felt wealthy to take her family out for dinner at a time when a fun thing to do was paste S&H Green Stamps into books for savings.
Thank you POP.
@Mike G. I worked at Piece o’ Pizza locations, too, mostly at the one on Pico at Orange or Sycamore, near La Brea. Also did some time at the one on Pico near Sepulveda and the much inferior one at La Cienega near Cattaraugus (I think). Before I started work at the Pico near LaBrea location, my family ate there on Family Night many weeks in a row.
I learned a bit about the restaurant biz there, including how scalding dishwasher and spaghetti liquid could melt human skin. The food at both the Pico locations always was fresh, but the location on La Cienega had an expanded menu with a lot of frozen, then fried, fast food items.
My unfondest memory of my time at PoP was an occasion when I went in to pick up my check and took my (first ever) girlfriend with me. Even though my girl was all of 16, my manager thought up every conceivable stall tactic and errand in the kitchen with which to burden me while he shamelessly hit on my gal; I wanted to kill him. Otherwise, I worked with some great people, ate decent food for very little money (and got paid little money), and always had a job waiting for me when I returned from college on breaks.
In a tiny corner mall at Santa Monica Blvd. (and Orlando I think) in West Hollywood, there was one of their stores next to a dry cleaners. During the late sixties and into the seventies, the large sign that faced S.M. Blvd, said “Drop your pants here and have a piece next door.” It was there for ages until the pizza place closed–it is now a foh soup place–but the dry cleaners remain.
Piece o’ Pizza was actually very good pizza. I went to many of their locations and was the perfect place to go to after a rock concert (especially at the Santa Monica Blvd. near Sweetzer location. I would then drive up with my buddy Phil to the Orange Julius at Santa Monica and San Vicente (next to a car wash) to finish off the meal with an OJ (not orange juice). I loved those. Their signage was just as memorable to me as Piece o’ Pizza (the devil with his hands in an interesting place). There was nothing better than that combination (Piece o’ Pizza and an Orange Julius) after seeing The Kinks. They were always open very late at night, which was great. Once, my friend Phil and I came from a social event where he was kissing this girl for over an hour. What else did you do back then? We then went to a Piece o’ Pizza on La Cienega and Airdrome where he ordered this giant meat ball sandwich. Unfortunately, he couldn’t eat it. His jaw was stuck from all that kissing. It was like he had lock jaw. Needless to say, I was laughing my head off.
When I was in college I remember driving one night with my Mom, who was visiting from out of town, past the POP on La Brea. Standing under the bright neon sign that said “had a piece lately” was a hooker. My Mom commented ” I think that’s appropriate advertising”. I laughed my ass off.
We ate Every Friday at the one on Sepulveda and 10th street in Manhattan Beach…many memories!!
My POP of choice was the one on La Cienega and 18th St. I loved their pizza. I would buy a slice on my way home from Louis Pasteur Jr. High. I remember a slice of pizza was .25 cents and .01 tax. I will tell you something else- My absolute favorite thing on their menu was the submarine sandwich. They were the best. To this day I have never had a sub sandwich as good as the ones I got at POP on La Cienega and 18th St.!