{"id":5001,"date":"2011-09-14T11:35:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-14T11:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/in-print-michael-s-pizzeria-raising-the-bar-for-pizza\/"},"modified":"2011-09-14T11:35:00","modified_gmt":"2011-09-14T11:35:00","slug":"in-print-michael-s-pizzeria-raising-the-bar-for-pizza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/in-print-michael-s-pizzeria-raising-the-bar-for-pizza","title":{"rendered":"IN PRINT: Michael\u2019s Pizzeria – Raising the Bar for Pizza"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
<\/strong> Emiliana pizza featuring freshly shaved prosciutto di Parma<\/em>

12:32pm | <\/strong>Michael\u2019s Pizzeria is the best new restaurant to open in Long Beach in a long time.  It has the rare combination of excellent food and chic styling that would make it a welcome addition to the dining scene anywhere. It raises the bar for other eateries in Long Beach.<\/p>\n

Only two doors down from the larger and grander Michael\u2019s Ristorante, owner Michael Dene has outdone himself with his new venture.  Pizza is the unquestioned star at the Pizzeria.  When you do something so well, there\u2019s no need to do anything else.  <\/p>\n

Michael\u2019s Pizzeria has the best pizza in Long Beach \u2013 by far.  The pizza here successfully reinterprets Neapolitan style pizza \u2013 a perfect match for its Naples home in Long Beach.  Legend has it that the Margherita pizza was made to celebrate the Queen of Italy\u2019s visit to Naples in the 19th century \u2013 and this pizza is fit for a queen!<\/p>\n

The pizza here is served on very thin crust, but don\u2019t be fooled.  The crust has structure \u2013 enough to be rigid when served, as long as you wisely follow the admonition on the menu and cut it yourself after it\u2019s served whole.  The pizzas are fired for less than two minutes in a super-hot wood burning oven.  The edges of the crust are slightly singed, and slightly puffy.  The texture is the perfect mixture of crunch with a slight chewiness.  In a word \u2013 sublime.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, the ingredients that are placed on this hallowed surface more than stand up.  The mozzarella is made in house and is outstanding.  It\u2019s nothing like the bland rubbery balls that supermarkets carry \u2013 instead it has a rich and flavorful texture that\u2019s much more like a firm burrata cheese.  The tomato sauce is also made fresh and is delicious.  Most \u2013 but not all \u2013 of the pizzas share these two ingredients.  The best \u2013 by far \u2013 are the Emiliana and the Capricciosa because they each feature freshly shaved prosciutto di Parma.  The others are good \u2013 and you can make your own if you\u2019re so inclined, but why would you when such thought has gone into the menu?<\/p>\n

\"\"Supporting the star of the menu, are a few salads (the heirloom tomato with fresh mozzarella or the arugula salad are excellent choices) and a small selection of appetizers.  The Rotolino is a crescent shaped roll of pizza dough stuffed with delicious pesto sauce, cheese and a filling.  Get the one with Finocchiona \u2013 a house cured salumi with fennel seed \u2013 you won\u2019t be disappointed.<\/p>\n

Supporting this excellent menu is an excellent selection of Italian wines by the glass and bottle and a small but very good selection of craft beers.  All of this is served up in a small by perfectly styled place that blends to create a simple, modern, casual comfortable feel which marries perfectly with the food.<\/p>\n

Michael\u2019s would be successful where ever it opened \u2013 Long Beach is lucky that they chose to do so here.<\/p>\n

Michael’s Pizzeria
5616 E 2nd St
Long Beach, CA 90803
(562) 987-4000
michaelspizzeria.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael\u2019s Pizzeria is the best new restaurant to open in Long Beach in a long time. It has the rare combination of excellent food and chic styling that would make it a welcome addition to the dining scene anywhere. It raises the bar for other eateries in Long Beach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":69943,"comment_status":"open","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":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5001","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5001"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5001"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}