{"id":30443,"date":"2022-05-26T10:00:02","date_gmt":"2022-05-26T17:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000026801"},"modified":"2023-03-19T23:38:10","modified_gmt":"2023-03-20T06:38:10","slug":"speak-cheezys-sourdough-pizza-is-so-delicious-youll-actually-want-to-eat-the-crust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/food\/speak-cheezys-sourdough-pizza-is-so-delicious-youll-actually-want-to-eat-the-crust","title":{"rendered":"Speak Cheezy&#8217;s sourdough pizza is so delicious you&#8217;ll actually want to eat the crust"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Side StrEATS is a multimedia series by Long Beach Post staff that aims to highlight unique food businesses across the city. To contact us, email Visuals Editor Thomas R. Cordova at <a href=\"mailto:thomas@lbpost.com\">thomas@lbpost.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Side StrEATS: Speak Cheezy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2eYKNkejamk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Speak Cheezy is a new pizzeria on the corner of Fourth Street and Termino Avenue that specializes in naturally leavened sourdough pizza. The restaurant opened in April, but the popular pizza joint has been a well-known hit around the Southland for a decade, first as the wood-burning pop-up Urban Pie and then as the mobile pizza van Speak Cheezy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Owned by Jason Winters a self-proclaimed &#8220;pizza nerd,&#8221; Speak Cheezy&#8217;s fine sourdough crust is comprised of five American grains, and naturally leavened for four to five days. His pizzas are baked in a PizzaMaster electric deck oven, able to reach over 900 degrees and mimics the baking effects of a wood fire oven like the much-admired leopard-like char around the crust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-large wp-image-10000069886\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img.lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/26093004\/0519-Pizza-7-1110x598.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10000069886\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Steam and smoke rise from a pizza place in a very hot pizza oven at the newly opened brick-and-mortar Speak Cheezy pizza restaurant in Long Beach Thursday, May 19, 2022. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Much of Speak Cheezy&#8217;s ingredient-forward, Cali-style pizzas are informed by Winters&#8217; early career in the Vegas fine-dining scene at Julian Serrano\u2019s Michelin two-star restaurant Picasso and Alessandro Stratta\u2019s nicknamesake restaurant, Alex, as well as his years working as a sous chef under James Beard award-winning chef Suzanne Goin, at the now-defunct West Hollywood restaurant Lucques. But his introduction to pizza began over a decade ago while working at Brick in San Clemente, an Italian restaurant, where he came to appreciate the popular wood-burning method.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Determined to pave his own path, the chef decided to start his own pizza pop-up. But instead of using double zero flour (very popular at the time) his focus was sourdough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere is so much more flavor to it\u2026you can taste the grains, it\u2019s a little more buttery,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople actually love eating our crust and that\u2019s not always the case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Winters said it had always been his dream to lay down roots in Long Beach where he continues his catering business in the cherry-red Speak Cheezy vans, but now with a space all his own, he&#8217;s proud to share his creations with the Long Beach community and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We feel like we&#8217;re pioneering sourdough pizza&#8230;and it&#8217;s exciting to be one of the few sourdough pizza makers in LA County,&#8221; Winters said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read more about the origins of Speak Cheezy here:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-the-hi-lo wp-block-embed-the-hi-lo\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/speak-cheezy-sourdough-pizza-urban-pie-long-beach\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The popular roaming pizza pop-up has been a well-known hit around the Southland for a decade with their five-grain, naturally leavened sourdough crust and ingredient-focused signatures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":72031,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,32101],"tags":[30566],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[8767,2771],"class_list":["post-30443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-side-streats","tag-side-streats","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30443"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72609,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30443\/revisions\/72609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30443"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=30443"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=30443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}