Zelo: Off-Colorado
My first Off-Colorado post has to be Zelo!! I'm trying to keep my Off-Colorado posts to be joints on streets perpendicular and close to Colorado. But today's restaurant is parallel to Colorado in Arcadia. It's just too damn good to pass up and it rightly deserves its own blog posting.Zelo is located in a non-interesting commercial area of Arcadia. I'm just happy I'm not doing FoothillChow - believe that!
Don't be concerned about the location because Zelo has the deepdish pizza in full effect! This is THE place for some serious deepdish cornmeal crust pizzas. This crust is amazing! I don't know how they do it. I've gone here a few times already and each time, they are consistent - the crust is always perfectly crunchy and delicious.
Using only the freshest ingredients, they have their regular pizza menu plus different special pizzas everyday. You can order by the slice, half or whole pie.This time I went for a Broccoli and Black Bean Salad and a slice. I should have turned the salad around for the picture but this puppy has broccoli, black beans, mushrooms, greens with a dijon balsamic vinaigrette. I ordered this salad to satisfy my curiousity. The salad was only okay for me. I knew I made a mistake in ordering it, as I noticed all the other slices being served to the other customers - I wish I had ordered another slice. Live and learn my friends.
The pizza slice I ordered with the salad was off the special of the day menu. It's a Potato Pancetta pizza. This beauty has thin roasted potato slices, Italian bacon, mozzarella, smoked mozzarella, and tomato sauce. I'm salivating as I write!This isn't Chicago style, it's unlike Zacharys up north in Oaktown and Berkeley, nor does it resemble the Numero Uno chain thick crust version. You just have to try it yourself.
So I delayed this post so I could go back again later in the week and show some more slices. This time I skipped the salad and went for two slices - one off the regular menu and one off the special of the day menu. Here we have their regular Corn Pizza and the special Spinach Pizza. The Corn pizza is tasty and unique - it has corn, mozzarella, smoked mozzarella, balsamic marinated, oven-roasted red onions, and chives. This pie is highly recommended for those going to Zelo for the first time. Apparently, it's their best seller and you'll see why if you taste it. The Spinach pizza has sauteed spinach, garlic, ricotta, mozzarella, and diced tomatoes. This was good but I'll go for something else next time.
OK, so I delayed this post again so I can make an excuse to go back. This time I went for a Veggie slice (top) - and a Sausage pizza slice (bottom) - both off the regular menu. The Veggie one has Roasted eggplant, marinated green peppers, sauteed onions, shrooms, tomato sauce and mozzarella. The Sausage has everything on the Veggie sans the mushrooms and eggplant and plus homemade sausage.
Three words: GO TO ZELO!
Zelo Cornmeal Crust Pizzas
328 E. Foothill Blvd., Arcadia, CA 91006 (626) 358-8298
Tues - Sat 11:30am - 9pm; Sun 3pm - 9pm
posted by chowchow @ 9:28 PM
2 comments
Today I went to the west side to whittle wood. I shit you not! I took a Japanese wood carving class on Abbott Kinney in Venice. Master Wood Carver, Yo Takimoto, when he's in Cali, teaches these wood carving classes in various stores. Very cool, fun, and relaxing. Check out the piece that I made with 1000 year old Yakusugi wood (with Yo's help of course).
I found Fritto Misto. This joint was located in an off-the-beaten-track location in Santa Monica. It's a cool Italian cafe with cool wood tables, made with wine crates. 
The picture may not do this dish justice, but I got a tell you, it was damn good. Chicken bits, roasted rosemary potatoes, tri-color bell peppers, red onions, mozzarella and egg all smashed together. Totally satisfied after this meal, I was ready for some serious whittling!
Hidden in the back corner of a minimall next to Blockbuster, right across the street from 
Still, the rotisserie oven here is wood fired, but I couldn't see where they store their wood. You can see the oven conveniently through the window so you can start salivating right away. This place isn't that big and was completely packed. Everybody had the Inka Cola pouring, devouring their food, and looked like they would be planted for a while, so I ordered my food to go.
but rather than go for some Saltado de Pollo or Ceviche or some other dish, and making this trip solo, I tried out the Rotisserie Chicken. I went for a half chicken plate with rice and fries (under $10). Once I got home, I devoured it like food was going out of style! The chicken was tender, smoky, and the skin was flavorful. Tasty! The fries were all right - maybe because it got a little soggy in the take out container. But really, it's all about the chicken. The smoky, garlicky, peppery skin - dang, I can still taste it now.
I also couldn't help noticing the Peruvian desserts in the counter cases. I just pointed to something that looked good. This thing had some crunchy layers of filo dough and a layer of carmel and topped with powdered sugar. It was crunchy and pretty good. Sorry, I don't know the name of this thing.
When you go new places exploring for chow, sometimes your IN, but most of the time your OUT. That's why I usually go to places for lunch - to check out the food and vibe and its cheaper. Today I tried out Yang Chow for lunch. It's located in the East Pasadena area right accross the street from the interesting looking Frank and Dean's joint. (That place was closed for lunch, unfortunately. Will need to give that place a go sometime.) 
The interior looks okay. But the only Chinese people in there was the staff. Not a good sign. Just as at Fu Shing last month, I ordered the Kung Pao chicken lunch special as a comparison. Bad move. You can see the freebie pickled cabbage above - too sweet for me. The egg drop soup was cornstarchy, thick and slimy. Not appealing. Had to put a lot of pepper in it but after a few spoonfuls I stopped. Couldn't put it down.
The Kung Pao was actually sweet tasting and very saucy! No good! Only green onions and peanuts and a few tiny bits of peppers. Give me Fu Shing anyday. And the rice was dry and old! Yuck. I won't be back here. Yang Chow - You're OUT!
This is a cool hidden cafe in Pasadena's east side. Driving around you may not even notice it. I went there for a quick lunch. It's in a house that's been converted into a cafe, art space, live music space. The interior is very comfortable with tables and couches with many rooms to lounge. Plop down with a cup of joe, plug in the laptop and get to work or read the paper or a book.
The cool thing is that the busy Colorado street is just outside but aside from a little traffic noise, you feel miles away. They have a back patio area that feels secluded from the bustle of the street. From what I can gather there is no wireless access.
I've had more quantity of food for the same price at other places, but the meal was good for a light lunch. With the chill factor atmosphere - I can see coming back to "get away" again in the future and I may have to try one of them crepes.
Needed to get a quick bite to eat, so I cruised over to Dave's Chillin-N-Grillin. I've been eyeing this place everytime I drove by. With a name like this, you HAVE to try it out. It's sandwiched (sorry for the pun) in between PC Bang and Lucky Money, a little east of Eagle Rock Blvd. The place is small and they prepare their grilled sandwiches expertly on a small hot plate. It goes to show you how you can make things happen with very little.
Every seat in the place was taken and Dave seemed to know everyone. The cool thing was the mix of high school students, oxy college students, Eagle Rock residents, blue collar workers, and seniors - all chillin together, eating while listening to classic rock. I got a good dose of Led Zeppelin while I ate.
I saw a few people come in and order just a smoothie and I saw someone having one and it looked damn good so I had to try a Berry Blast smoothie. Ask Dave - he'll tell you. Dave doesn't use ice in his smoothies so you don't get watered down stuff here, you get the real deal. 
The decor is a french cafe scene with French posters hung all over. The display cases in front full of fresh breads and pasteries. Promising. But I just had a jammin croissant at Cafe Los Feliz the other day. So instead of going for coffee and pasteries, I figured I would order something standard to do a comparison of various breakfast joints. I ordered a latte and the ham and eggs. The latte hit the spot. The ham was 2 slices of thick ham that was grilled. Not bad. However, I was disappointed with skimpy portions of potatoes and they were skimpy on taste. The scrambled eggs were standard. This didn't "wow" me but didn't scare me away.