San Francisco is not a pizza-slice city.
Yes, there is very good pizza in the city and throughout the Bay Area. We have a plethora of different styles, from crunchy, cheesy Detroit-style square slices at Square Pie Guys to the soft, chewy, Neapolitan-style pie at Del Popolo — and Arinell’s was the best New York-style slice shop in the city before it shuttered last year. But we don’t compare to the Big Apple when it comes to grabbing a slice on the way home, for a quick lunch or late at night.
Now, there’s a new spot atop my personal leaderboard for best slice house in San Francisco — a no-frills place that welcomes all and focuses on serving bare-bones slices of pizza with great texture and flavor at a great price. Whether you dub it the most NYC-like pizza or a hella San Francisco pie, the best slice in this 7-square-mile metropolis is at Outta Sight Pizza.
I ventured over to 422 Larkin St. recently to give this place a shot. Between a casual Chinese restaurant and a cute Vietnamese restaurant, the big bright-orange letters with gold trim that spelled “PIZZA” across the large front window definitely gave me New York vibes.
Customers enter Outta Sight Pizza in San Francisco on March 7, 2023.
A glass case on the counter held about six to seven different pizzas, and the place smelled delicious. An eclectic array of music, from hip-hop to jazz to death metal, pumped through the vintage-looking-but-actually-digital boombox perched on a mantle above the seating area. Everyone was nodding their head as they chewed along, no matter what kind of music they preferred. Behind the counter, a small vintage letterboard displayed the menu, with slices ranging from $4.15 for cheese to $6 for sausage.
Affordable prices for San Francisco.
My order, on what turned out to be a fateful day for me, was a slice of cheese, a slice of pepperoni — the classics — and a slice of a white clam pie, the daily special. Each one came on a ridged paper plate, which is the only way they do it in New York City.
My first bite was, of course, the cheese slice. The blend of low-moisture mozzarella melting into the San Marzano tomato sauce was extremely classic. Visceral food memories instantly flooded my brain. It was a late-night slice at Joe’s in the West Village after the last note had been played at nearby Smalls Jazz Club. Or I was sitting on the sidewalk eating a slice from Scarr’s on the Lower East Side on a warm summer evening. Even foggy, inebriated memories of Proto’s, the slice shop around the corner from my New York City apartment, were suddenly clear again with a slice of Outta Sight in my hand.
The cheese slice at Outta Sight Pizza, as basic as it may sound, tasted like a great New York slice to me.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
Outta Sight Pizza in San Francisco. (Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE)
Then came the glorious pepperoni. When the little cups of cured meat curl around the edges, some with a crispy, burnt tinge to them, and the bright-orange oil drizzles down your index finger as you fold the slice in half at the crust … that’s the stuff dreams are made of. The saltiness of the pepperoni, which sometimes had little globs of mozzarella inside, is the perfect complement to the cream and tang of the cheese and tomato sauce.
The least New York-y of the bunch, the clam pie, was a scrumptious ode to the pie often associated with Frank Pepe’s in New Haven, Connecticut. The clams were fresh and with a hint of brine, while the ricotta cheese matched the faint saltiness of the mollusk. The chopped parsley and heavy squeeze of fresh lemon juice brought it all together.
The main difference between Outta Sight Pizza and the Big Apple stalwarts is the crust. A heavily tested recipe from owner and head chef Eric Ehler blends the two worlds together — the amazing bread culture of the West Coast matched with the history of pizza from the East Coast.
(Left to right) Eric Ehler and Peter Dorrance, co-owners of Outta Sight Pizza in San Francisco, on March 7, 2023.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE“I wanted a thin pizza that had some crust — good chew and eats like bread,” Ehler said. “But it’s sturdy enough to hold toppings.”
He said he wants his crust to have the texture of a baguette. As our interview was wrapping up, a patron who was eating in the shop walked by and said, “I overheard you, and it definitely tastes like a baguette,” and then gave Ehler a fist bump.
Ehler, who is originally from Iowa and moved to San Francisco around 2008, started developing his pizza recipe about 10 years ago. A skateboarder, who humbly said his favorite trick is a standard kickflip, Ehler had visited New York City a few times to check out the famous skate spots there, such as Coleman Park underneath the Manhattan Bridge. Scarr’s, a few blocks away on Orchard Street on the Lower East Side, was one of his favorites. While he cringes at the fact that everything has to have a label, he understands that his pizza will inherently be judged against others, and his recipe was, in fact, influenced by his trips to New York City.
Before running his own shop, Ehler held a bunch of different jobs at San Francisco restaurants but none with any formal training in bread. He learned about bread baking by watching YouTube videos after his shifts on the line. Ehler met the eventual Outta Sight Pizza co-owner, Peter Dorrance, in 2017 while working at Mister Jiu’s, chef Brandon Jew’s magnum opus in San Francisco’s Chinatown. The two hit it off quickly, they said. After running an Outta Sight Pizza pop-up at Fig & Thistle in Hayes Valley, they finally opened up their own spot in the Tenderloin last year.
“I think if you dig deep with anybody, everyone has a story about pizza [from] growing up,” Ehler said. “Baseball games — going to get pizza afterwards; bowling alleys — pizza; sleepovers — pizza. It always came back to pizza.”
Dorrance, a former boat captain, doesn’t consider himself a huge pizza aficionado. He loves pizza, but cooking-wise, it was never his thing. Growing up in Arroyo Grande, California, and even after moving to San Francisco 10 years ago, he always preferred pizzas with a doughier crust, almost sponge-like, from places such as Haystack Pizza on 24th Street in Noe Valley.
A slice of Pepperoni pizza at Outta Sight Pizza in San Francisco on March 7, 2023.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE“I’ve learned to appreciate pizza a lot more,” Dorrance said of working with Ehler on a daily basis. “But I wouldn’t say I’m an expert [like he is].”
“He’s underselling himself,” Ehler quickly butts in. “Now, he’s like a pizza snob.”
Each week, Outta Sight Pizza offers two new specials, which are announced on Instagram. The thing about a sturdy, baguette-like crust is that it can hold a bunch of toppings, and Ehler is always experimenting. Many of the specials are influenced by California Pizza Kitchen, a favorite of Ehler’s, such as a BBQ chicken pie that was on the menu this week. Or they’re influenced by foods that Ehler loves, such as an al pastor pie, which is on the menu now.
As for his wildest special? It’s in the research and development phase, but he assures it should be available soon.
(Left to right) Eric Ehler and Peter Dorrance, co-owners of Outta Sight Pizza in San Francisco, on March 7, 2023.
The thing about a slice shop is that it welcomes anyone who enters. In New York City, you’ll often see a Wall Street dude in a full suit standing next to a skater lugging around a board, both with satisfied smiles on their faces. A slice of pizza is a humble offering. At Outta Sight Pizza, it’s taken to a different level, yet it still welcomes everyone.
After all, as Ehler said, “Everything always comes back to pizza.”
Outta Sight Pizza, 422 Larkin St., San Francisco. Open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m., closed Saturday and Sunday.
