3265 Lakeshore Avenue, Oakland, CA | (510) 268-8849

Yes, another pizza post… and something again quite different from both Porky’s Pizza Palace and Pizzaiolo. I love Arizmendi! They are a worker-owned cooperative based on the working model of the fabulous Cheese Board Collective in Berkeley, offering amazing breads, morning pastries and pizza, using good quality ingredients. Read this great article in the SF Chronicle by Janet Fletcher that describes its 30 year history and what it means to be a collective.

When I lived near Lake Merritt in Oakland, I would come here for the zampano, a squishy sourdough roll brushed with olive oil and dusted with parmesan cheese and red chili pepper flakes. They taste like heaven if you are lucky enough to get them hot out of the oven, but almost as good if you reheat them in the toaster oven. The Happy Consumptive has a post with pictures of these addictive rounds of bread here.

Along the back wall is a refrigerated unit stocked with artisan cheese, salads and some condiments that go very nicely with the baked goods. They sell pizzas too, half baked for you to finish at home.

The pizza of the day was with mushroom, onions, capers, mozzarella and goat cheeses, parsley parmesan, garlic and olive oil. These pizzas rarely have sauce but don’t need it with so many delicious toppings and I must point out that they only offer the one type of pizza for the day and it is always vegetarian. Here’s a link to the pizza schedule for the San Francisco branch, just to give you an idea of what to expect, however I’m quite sure each location has different toppings.

The cheese and toppings and crust are always well balanced and since there is no sauce, I have never had the topping slip off of the crust. It’s very substantial, but not heavy and definitely not greasy. These are good sized pizzas, about 16″ ($18), also available by the half ($9.50), slice ($2.75) and ($17) for the half baked.

The sourdough crust is considered to be thin and measures about a half inch in thickness, full of air bubbles but with a crunchy crisp bottom. Although these contain no meat, the savory toppings are so flavorful and prepared in such a way that they have density and texture lacking in most vegetarian pizzas and best of all, I have never had one that is waterlogged and soggy from the overuse of fresh vegetables. Sometimes the ingredients sound strange and avant-garde with nuts and goat cheese, but the simple flavor combinations never fail to satisfy in ways never imagined by the big chains.

They published a cookbook that I of course purchased and have yet to make anything from. This is another definite YES!! you must try this if you have never been! And besides the pizza, there are the zampanos, and the gigantic crumpets and sweets and pastries and more… This location rated 4.5 stars with 240+ reviews on yelp.com.


















































