When the Palisades and Eaton wildfires erupted in January, Juan Robles of Triple Beam Pizza, like many of his fellow pizzamakers in Southern California, wanted to help.
And almost by accident, the pizzerias were already in a great position to help, thanks in part to the Pizza City Fest Los Angeles, which returns for its third year in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday and Sunday, April 26-27.
“What I tell everyone is that Steve Dolinsky inadvertently helped us become what we are through Pizza City Fest,” Robles says of the L.A. Pizza Alliance, which helped coordinate response to wildfire relief efforts.
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“None of us really knew each other,” he says of the landscape before Pizza City Fest started bringing 40 pizzerias together for a weekend celebration of the dish. “A couple of us knew who we were, but we never met.
“Through this event, we all started conversing,” Robles says of the networking and friendship that the festival engendered. “Next thing you know, we have these huge text threads and all this stuff going on. We’re constantly in communication. We’ll go grab beers.
“That’s how the L.A. Pizza Alliance essentially formed,” he says. “It was nothing really intentional; it just kind of flowed and became what it is. It was just like a bunch of pizza friends getting together and going to drink beers, and next thing you know, we formed this. So it’s pretty cool.”
Even as the wildfires still burned, local pizzamakers jumped into action, first as individuals just looking for anyone affected by the fires who might need a meal.
@the.socal.local Pizza City Fest Los Angeles is returning to L.A. Live this weekend (April 26 & 27).
Here’s a sneak peek of what you can expect from the third year of the annual two day food festival. Tickets for Pizza City Fest Los Angeles include unlimited pizza and beverages plus panels, seminars & demos from pizzaiolos. Read more at the link in our bio.
: Carolyn Burt, SCNG @Reporter Carolyn “I had countless customers lose their homes,” says Paul Cody, co-owner of Pie Trap Pizza in Covina. “So the day after, I wanted to do something. It kind of started small, and then it ballooned into everyday drop-offs.
“I just felt bad for my city,” says Cody, who, like Robles, was serving samples of their pizzas at a recent event to promote Pizza City Fest. “We’re in Covina, it’s about six miles from Altadena. It was just a sad thing. I just wanted to do what I could to help.
“Other than that, it’s good pizza, too,” he says. “I just wanted to give out smiles.”
Within days, those informal text threads wove together to form the L.A. Pizza Alliance, Robles says.
“I started seeing everyone posting, ‘We’re sending this here, we’re sending this there,’” he says. “Whoever wasn’t in the loop would start asking one another, ‘Hey, how do you get the contact to go where to drop things off?’
“We all started covering different territories indirectly,” Robles says. “Next thing you know, Dave Turkell from Turk’s Pizza Party and Tommy Brocket from LaSorted’s reached out to say, ‘Hey, why don’t we all get together and do a collaborative effort, and send product out of one location?’ We all loved the idea and got into it.”
About 25 pizzerias got together at the Chinatown location of LaSorted’s Pizza, sending out more than 300 pizzas in four hours, Robles says. They spread word that pizzas were available for anyone in need because of the fires.
“We were putting out the communication that we were not gonna ask the whys or what are you doing,” he says. “If you need food, if you’re going hungry, if you’re at displaced, if you’re a fire department, if you’re a group that’s helping shelter people, you just had to call and say, ‘Can I get X number of pizzas at this time?’
“We just wanted to help people in that situation,” Robles says. “If we could do it through food, and give them at least a little 2 or 3 seconds to forget about what’s happening, that’s what we did.”
Pizza City Fest Los Angeles presents 40 pizzerias, including Triple Beach Pizza and Pie Trap Pizza, divided over two days on Saturday and Sunday, April 26-27. It is located on the L.A. Live Event Deck next to Peacock Theatre.
Tickets include unlimited slices as well as access to pizza demonstrations and panels and more. For information and tickets, go to lalive.com/pizza-city-fest-la.
