Pizza

Being that I live in a dense suburban neighborhood, pizza chains abound—Pizza Hut, Domino's, Papa John's, you name it, we have dozens of outlets. But we also have a number of independently owned and operated pizzerias, from pizza-only to the full Italian menu.

A recent addition to this group is located about a mile and a half from my house, hidden in a strip mall across the street from the Balboa/Victory corner of the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area bike path. It's called Dough Girl, and it has an interesting history and purpose.

The business was launched five years ago by Mar Diego. Previous to her debut as an entrepreneur, she had a chequered past—she sold drugs and was incarcerated for five years, worked in the kitchen while in prison, and when she got out, she went to culinary school, then racked up some years gaining experience in various restaurants. She opened Dough Girl for the dual purpose of serving up some tasty pizza and helping homeless and drug-addicted local youth to shake their own pasts by giving them jobs, responsibility, and a future.

It's a tiny shop with mighty ideals, and seems to be working out. Some kids who she took in as teenagers are now in their early 20s and taking the lead in bringing in other disenfranchised youth. They start out cleaning the premises and putting together pizza boxes, graduate to salads and lemonade, and then learn to make pizzas with Mar.

It also has a pretty interesting menu, with categories of "earth," "land," "sea," "fire," and "alien." Some of the pizzas on offer include chicken and pesto,  the "hottie" (with five kinds of peppers), white pie alfredo, the "animal style" pizza inspired by In 'n' Out (featuring french fries and American cheese), lobster tail bisque, and lox pizza with dill cream sauce. They do both regular and vegan style pizzas, in two sizes ("selfie" and "big dough"). (You can also get "regular" flavors, like plain cheese, pepperoni, and veggie.)

The façade is pretty dull—a narrow store front amongst a dozen others—so I did a quick sketch of part of the indoor aspect, which is slick and classy in black and white and wood.

Uniball, watercolors, in Bee sketchbook.
#artinthetimeofselfquarantine
https://www.doughgirl.pizza/menu