Casa Bianca

The Physics of Pizza

Jennifer drove from Santa Barbara for the garlic-laced pizza and linguine pesto they’re serving at Casa Bianca in Eagle Rock. Can you blame her? If I were given such an invitation, pizza burnt with garlic and Italian pasta with a rock star like me, I’d go, too. (Okay, that was a joke). But at some level, I envied her. I remember the first time I bit into that pie, and, with its crust cracking under my teeth, the physics of force and mass seemed to take over. Newton wrote it and Einstein perfected it and I hope I can describe it. There are certain objects in the universe with a gravitational pull so powerful that nothing, not even light, can escape its pull and into which objects can fall, but never emerge from. This is Casa Bianca in a nutshell: when you see that neon orange and blue sign off Colorado, you are drawn in by forces beyond your control. And there’s no escaping until you have paid your check and walked out shaking your head at what came over you. I cannot help you if you do not like your pizza with sausage and garlic. This may be a psychological disorder on your part. I like the spaghetti fine and the pasta is decent. Even the dinner salad with Italian dressing is good, the bread and butter satisfying and just why I am a sucker for bread and butter I don’t know. What happened to Eagle Rock? It has become the destination for killer dives, hasn’t it? The Oinkster has a great array of burgers and sandwiches, Larkin’s is doing soul food and the Bucket and Pat and Lorraine’s has been doing the best burgers and diner food for years. But the best in the city is Casa Bianca. There are certain restaurants in the county that are irresistible to me, ones in which I have to stop, hitch my wagon and order up some grub. Heading that all-star list is El Cochinito, Chroni’s in East LA, Denise’s Tacos on Olympic, and a lunch truck on Atlantic and Whittier called “El Rocky’s.” But the granddaddy of them all is Casa Bianca. This is one place I’ve been to dozens of times and never get sick of. It’s where food and physics meet. And if you’re lucky, chemistry, too. If you’re on Colorado between Figueroa and Eagle Rock Boulevard, you don’t stand a chance. That aroma will pull you in every time.