One of the best pizzerias in all of New York City is heading west. Scarr’s Pizza, considered by the New York Times to be one of the 100 greatest places to eat anywhere in the five boroughs, is coming to Los Angeles soon, with plans to land in the heart of the rapidly changing Melrose Hill neighborhood between Hollywood and Koreatown.
Eater has confirmed through multiple sources that the Lower East Side Manhattan restaurant is indeed opening on Melrose, though no formal timetable has been announced. The shop will set up across the street from the popular Kuya Lord Filipino restaurant, just west of Western Avenue. That intersection in particular has become a hotbed of real estate activity, with new restaurants, retail shops, and art galleries remaking the transit corridor in short order. Despite multiple attempts, Eater has not heard back for comment from Scarr’s or the landlord of the Melrose Hill building in which Scarr’s will open.
In New York, the legend of the Dimes Square hotspot has only grown in recent years, with owner Scarr Pimentel earning glowing features in Bon Appetit, the New York Times, Eater, and beyond. According to a 2022 Grub Street profile, Pimentel began his career as a busser at Emilio’s Bellato, and from there hewed his pizza-making skills at some of the most legendary places in New York City, including Lombardi’s and Joe’s. In a city crowded with more than 4,500 slice shops, Pimental’s approach to pizza stands out; he notably mills his own grains, for one. In addition to slices and whole pies, Scarr’s sells eggplant and chicken parm, salads, and both Sicilian and grandma-style pizzas. The New York restaurant also serves beer and natural wine.
Pimentel and company only just expanded to a new location in New York back in June — where, despite the larger space, lines are still routinely down the block — and next up is a jump to the West Coast. It’s a bold move for the life-long New Yorker, as Pimentel once told Bon Appetit that he’d had “the worst pizza of my life” during a trip to Los Angeles. Now comes his chance to grow the scene he previously could not find a decent slice in.
While it’s fair to say that Los Angeles’s pizza scene has grown by leaps in the past decade, the city still routinely draws ire from East Coasters (particularly New Yorkers) who decry its lack of good quality, inexpensive NY-style pizza slices. Some places like Danny Boy’s Famous Original have stepped in to help fill that void, though much of the rest of the pizza scene in Los Angeles still leans on smaller, blistery wood-fired pies that focus on seasonal ingredient combinations. It’s a style that has worked well for Angelenos for years, but there’s no denying that the arrival of Scarr’s will shake up the city immensely — whenever it happens.