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Masa of Echo Park
Masa of Echo Park was established in 2004 specifically to bring authentic Chicago deep-dish pizza to Los Angeles — a proper, buttery, tall-edged crust and thick, cheese-and-sauce-heavy build that defines the style back in its home city, made with organic and locally sourced ingredients where possible alongside imported Chicago specialties. In a city with no shortage of thin-crust and Neapolitan-leaning pizzerias, Masa has carved out a specific niche as one of the only places locals point to for a genuine deep-dish fix. The build follows deep-dish convention closely — a thick, pan-baked crust with high, buttery edges, a generous layer of cheese, and chunky tomato sauce spooned over the top rather than underneath, the reverse-layering that separates true deep-dish from a merely thick pizza. It's a substantial, knife-and-fork order rather than a quick handheld slice, and portions are built accordingly. The restaurant has become an Echo Park fixture specifically because it commits fully to the format rather than offering deep-dish as one style among several — a bakery-and-pizzeria combination that treats the Chicago-style pie as its core identity rather than a novelty item on a broader thin-crust menu. That single-minded focus is part of what's kept Masa relevant for Angelenos specifically craving deep-dish rather than just good pizza generally — there's a real difference between a restaurant offering a deep-dish option and one built entirely around getting the style right, and Masa has stayed firmly in the second category through years of operation in the same Echo Park neighborhood. Order a slice here and you'll need a fork — that alone separates it from everything else on this list.
VS
Jon & Vinny's
By 2015, chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo already had a strong Los Angeles reputation to trade on, built through their earlier restaurant Animal — so when they opened a second, more casual concept on Fairfax Avenue that same year, expectations were already high. Jon & Vinny's answered with a red-sauce Italian-American menu built around pizza, pasta, and an all-day format that runs from breakfast straight through dinner. The pizza program sits on a thin, well-charred crust, with the Popeye — a white pie loaded with spinach, garlic, and a fried egg cracked on top — becoming one of the restaurant's most-ordered and most-photographed items. The broader menu's willingness to serve pizza alongside a full breakfast menu and hearty pasta dishes reflects Shook and Dotolo's larger approach: comfort-forward Italian-American food executed with real chef-level technique rather than a straightforward red-sauce nostalgia act. The restaurant quickly became one of the Fairfax corridor's most reliably busy spots, drawing both destination diners chasing Shook and Dotolo's reputation from Animal and neighborhood regulars treating it as a straightforward daily option — a dual identity that's not easy for a single restaurant to hold. Since the Fairfax original, Jon & Vinny's has expanded to additional Los Angeles locations, extending the same all-day, pizza-and-pasta format to more of the city while keeping the chef-driven technique that distinguished it from typical casual Italian-American restaurants when it first opened. Order the Popeye at 10am for breakfast or 10pm for dinner — the kitchen treats neither request as unusual.
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