all you denizens of westwood that enjoy eating at chipotle, rejoice because they're opening in the village =P.  "how do you know?" you might be asking yourself.  well, i just got back from lunch and was talking to this nice man named joe.  joe d'amore.  yep, that d'amore.  he says he just sold his broxton store to chipotle.  fear not, because he says the westwood blvd store will remain open.  apparently his pizza connection is the official pizza outfit for the la film festival and they fed ~3500 people last night who were in town for the la film festival, and specifically the transformers premier.

the secret to why his pizzas are so healthy and taste so good?  it's because he uses really good, quality ingredients.  as an example, the cheese he uses costs more than the big chain pizzerias entire pizza.  another one is premium olive oil.  that alone costs $84 per container.  the other places have replaced olive oil with lard, which costs somewhere between $4 and $5 for the equivalent container.  he also uses real brick ovens.  the location i went to for lunch today is his original store.  it's out by where i work, in canoga park.  that oven was first installed in 1987, and it gets better with age because the pizza flavors season the bricks everytime it's used.  and incidently, it's also the location where he makes the pizza dough for all of his shops.  still, all of that attention to detail does cost him quite a bit of profit.  whereas those chain places have a 9% food cost (so for a $20 pizza they only pay about $1.80 to make it), his is around 30%.  i've all but stopped going to the big national chains since discovering his pizzas.

speaking with joe, you really get the sense that he's passionate about making good pizza.  he believes in the product he makes.  he has great respect for the generation of europeans that came during the 1920s and laments that the younger generations just don't bother spending time with them and learning the recipes that are so beloved.

joe's tip:  he suggests visiting his malibu location if you want the best he has to offer.  his long-time customers claim it makes the best pizzas.  he attributes it to the extra humidity by the coast.  it's the one thing he says he can't replicate from boston.  all his main ingredients come from the northeast region, including the water!