The Going Rate: The Price of a Pizza

America’s love affair with pizza can easily be seen in Sherman Oaks, home to at least a couple of dozen pizzerias. 

Faced with the daunting task of finding just a few pizza places to give you an idea of the going rate for a local pie, we decided to choose our pizza parlors the old-fashioned way. We printed out three pages from a Yahoo directory, closed our eyes and randomly picked out four pizzerias. As it turned out, they are each unique, offering their own special spin on the Old World favorite.

The Leaning Tower of Pizza & Pasta offers far more than a clever name, according to manager Georgia Sarantopoulos. Here, they make their pizza in what they call “the New York style,” she said. That’s a thin crust made from “New York artisan pizza flour.” That's a secret brand of high-quality flour from the East Coast, Sarantopoulos said. And just like Coke and Pepsi, her lips are sealed when it comes to the recipe. 

Leaning Tower uses the flour to make their own dough. They also import their sauce from Italy. A large, 16-inch pizza with cheese sells for $14.95. Toppings are $2 each. 

Leaning Tower Pizza & Pasta, 14120 Ventura Blvd., No. D; 818-986-9701.

Oak Fire Pizzeria & Pub is a pizza restaurant that offers a one-size pizza. It’s a 12-inch pie with a cracker-thin crust, co-owner Jeremy Findel said.

The restaurant serves 28 different kinds of pizza, including Cracked Egg Pizza, No Name Pizza (so-called because they ran out of names,) and a Chicago Style Pizza that uses a baking dough that produces a 2-inch-thick crust. The pizzas range from $10 to $15 during the restaurant’s 3-7 p.m. happy hour. For weekend brunch, they serve eggs Benedict, eggs Florentine and Scrambled Egg Pizzas for $10. The pizzas are cooked in a brick oven.

Findel said they recently opened at the Sherman Oaks location. There’s no delivery, Findel said, quickly adding, “Not yet.” 

Oak Fire Pizzeria & Pub, 13359 Ventura Blvd.; 818-205-9306.

Twenty years ago, a New York City family opened the Mulberry Street Pizzeria in Beverly Hills.

Sherman Oaks in now the site of their fourth restaurant. It opened just six months ago, owner Richie Palmer said.  

This pizzeria also serves just one size of pizza. It’s a 22-inch pie with a thin, well-done crusts. Palmer promised “no dripping cheese, like you get in bowling alleys.” The basic pizza with cheese costs $16.95 with $3 for additional toppings, to a max of $23.95. They offer a wide variety of traditional toppings such as meatballs and garlic. Other favorite toppings include eggplant Parmesan and barbecued chicken. 

Mulberry Street Pizzeria, 15136 Ventura Blvd.; 818-907-9544.

And then there’s Greco’s New York Pizza. It's run by three generations of the Greco family, who originally came from Greece. Here they offer more than 30 toppings, owner George Greco said.

A 16-inch pizza with cheese will cost you $12.95 with a $1.95 charge for extra toppings. You can get seven toppings on the 16-inch pizza for $19.95. Greco described his pizza as “richer” than traditional pizzas served in the Mediterranean with “large size” toppings and extra cheese for free. 

Greco’s New York Pizza, 4572 Van Nuys Blvd., 818-789-1652.

The above pizza shops and restaurants will deliver unless otherwise indicated. You can call for delivery areas, costs and hours open. 

As always, Sherman Oaks Patch does not endorse any of the businesses mentioned in The Going Rate. You can check out review sites as well as friends’ suggestions whenever someone utters those four hunger-satisfying words, "Let's get a pizza!"