Sunset & Hollywood: Il Capriccio Pizza

There is a section of Disney California Adventure called the Hollywood Pictures Backlot which is set up to like the backlot of a movie studio. It's all very post-modern; Disney's parks, of course, use various sets and props to create an artificial environment, but the Hollywood section contains sets and props that are meant to look like Hollywood sets and props. That is, they are fake fakes.

As a resident of the greater Hollywood area, I've always been amused at a street sign in this section of the park which indicates that it is the intersection of Hollywood and Sunset Boulevards. As a tourist from abroad or the Midwest, the idea of this intersection must conjure some romantic notion of movie stars and glamor. We Angelenos, of course, know that this particular intersection is anything but glamorous. Standing in the shadow of the Kaiser complex and within view of a Circuit City, there's not really much there, other than a Von's.

Now, however, the Italian restaurant Il Capriccio has opened a pizza shop, Il Capriccio Woodfire Pizzeria, right at this apparently storied intersection. I took a few trips to check it out.

First I tried the salsiccia, a sausage, garlic, rosemary pie. The sausage was nice, but I didn't taste the rosemary. The whole thing was a bit too salty, but I did find myself reaching for more. I went on to try cheese and pepperoni pizzas, both good, if standard pies.

The thing that really shines at Il Capriccio is the crust. It's the right amount of chewy, slightly charred and just a tad salty. Crust is probably the hardest element of pizza to get right, but Il Capriccio does a good job with it.

All of the pizza was above average, though none of it left me in the throws of pizza exhilaration. Still, if you're in the area and wanting pizza, it's a good bet, and Disney California Adventure would be lucky to have pizza that good at its Sunset and Hollywood.


Il Capriccio Pizza
4518 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 644-9760