Table at Third & Fairfax is a weekly dining column in 2023 where Food and Drink editor Patricia Kelly Yeo will eat her way through the Original Farmers Market. Each column will drop on Thursday for a week-by-week recap of her journey through the classic L.A. tourist attraction. Last week, Kelly tried Pasta Corner.
Watch out, Patsy D’Amore’s: There’s a shiny new pizza counter on the West Patio, and the naturally leavened sourdough slices seem distinctive enough to break through the noise of L.A.’s ever-expanding pizza scene. Over the last few weeks, I’ve watched the stall from Daniel Mattern and Roxana Jullapat’s Friends & Family in East Hollywood come to life next to E.B.’s Beer and Wine. Despite the more youthful vibes, Friends & Family Pizza Co. (est. 2023) is a clear competitor to the East Patio’s old-school slice joint (est. 1949), which claims to be the first place to have ever sold pizza in Los Angeles.
I was initially hoping to try the market’s only Japanese vendor, Sushi A Go Go on Tuesday afternoon, this time with my best friend in tow. Unfortunately, the cashier tells us that they’re only accepting cash right now. I’m not going to give the market’s ATM any more of our editorial budget, so we make our way over to Friends & Family Pizza Co., which I’ll need to try eventually anyway. Though owned by Mattern and Jullapat, the day-to-day is run by on-site chef Tony Hernandez. The up-and-coming pizzaiolo has previously helped run two spots in Highland Park: Dough Box and Triple Beam, which also has a location in Echo Park.
At the counter, we order three slices: cheese ($6), pepperoni ($6) and a bougier house specialty, potato-taleggio ($7). The all-white slice comes topped with mozzarella and taleggio cheese, fingerling potatoes, red onion and crushed pistachios. I was initially hoping to try Patsy D’Amore’s before I made my way to Friends & Family, but after sampling over 20 different pies for our citywide pizza guide in the last six months, the last thing I’ve been wanting to do is subject myself to another slice of pizza right now. (I don’t actually like pizza all that much, to be frank.) A few thin crust slices, however, seem like just the thing for a light first lunch, since my friend and I are also planning on hitting up nearby Burgers 99 afterwards.
After a few minutes, we receive our three-pizza sampler. Slightly warmed up in the oven, the grease in each slice starts to pool as I try to snap a decent photo of our food. Once I’m able to tuck in, however, all my resistance towards eating yet another pizza immediately fades. The standard-bearing cheese slice is thin and wonderfully crispy, with just the right amount of mozzarella sprinkled on top. My friend, who spends more time on the Eastside than I do, says the pepperoni slice she bites into already outranks Secret Pizza, the much-lauded Instagram pop-up with extremely limited hours operating somewhere in the area.
I turn my attention to the potato-taleggio, which visually calls to mind the lunch-only lemon alla palla slice at Pizzeria Bianco in the Arts District. White pies aren’t my favorite, but I can’t stop myself from finishing almost a quarter of the slice before letting my friend have a taste.
The pistachios add great texture to each bite, and the creamy flavor of the nuts blend seamlessly with the mix of two cheeses. The carbiness of the fingerling potatoes and sweetness of the scattered red onions almost make me forget I have to try about four different burgers in about half an hour, which honestly says quite a lot in and of itself.
If you stick to the classics, there’s nothing fancy about the slices at Friends & Family Pizza Co., but they are quite delicious. Go for the specialty pies, however, or build your own, and you’ll find an almost New York-style triangle that utilizes gourmet ingredients—dough is made with a whole grain flour mix from Pasadena’s Grist & Toll—for maximal delight. I find myself mentally re-ranking the L.A. pizzas I’ve had, and while I have a few more months and a half-dozen more places to visit until I update our citywide guide, I will say that Friends & Family is already on my shortlist.
Meals from Table at Third & Fairfax fall into three categories: Skip It, Worth Trying and Must Have.
Vendor: Friends & Family Pizza Co.
Order: Slice of cheese, slice of pepperoni and slice of potato-taleggio
Verdict: Must Have. Crispy, thin crust and gourmet ingredients add up to a straightforwardly delicious pizza worth coming to the Farmers’ Market for.