Brooklyn Style Sicilian Grandma Pie Found at Milana's New York Pizzeria

There is one thing in LA I have a hard time finding.

Apparently, Sicilian pizza in square form is almost non-existent, but what's harder to find? Grandma style Pie pizza. Nooooo, not talking about Little Caesar's pizza or some thick deep dish, but a square form that is considered Grandma's style, which is more simplistic, but yet not too many places would carried it.

Think of a pan style pizza with thin layer of cheese on top of bucko layers of tomato sauce, where the crust would become crispy around the edge. Instead of thick stuff style pizza, it's more of thin layer with crust being more flat layered with the huge amount of sauce over the cheese.

I think a lot of people are familiar with Pizza Hut's pan style pizza where the pizza pie would be cook in a pan and the outer crust would be baked to crispy style oily perfection. Think of Grandma's style pizza of that nature, but with olive oil on the crust with the pie being tomato-ized with the sauce.

Milana's New York Pizzeria was the one restaurant I can find in Los Angeles area that served that kind of pizza... Brooklyn style Sicilian. Being frank, most people associated with thin crust with new york pizza. You can pretty much guessed the conflict of people surmising that Sicilian pizza is pan style thick, but also getting New York pizza crust to be thin.

Can it be a combustible mix? Believe it or not, This type of pizza is a rarity in this part, but very cherished.

Let's break it down a bit, Sicilian pizza's dough will be riser and thick. Whereas in the Brooklyn style Sicilian, it's a grandma pie where this is coated with olive oil in the pan to make the dough soft and chewy. You can see the dough for yourself on how thick it was. For some, it looks thin slice, but was very deliberately crispy and not a riser as some expected like a midwest style Sicilian pizza (square or rectangle) based on the preference.

Based on Bon Apetite, apparently Grandma Pie such as this thin style Sicilian is getting more popular in the east coast, so that's why I was hankering to find any place that would carried it. Hard to find such an unique style pizza out here on the west coast unless a transplant can bring it over. As you can guess, Milina from New York is bringing it over.

Oh, what else is impressive in this non-descript shop along 4th street in downtown Long Beach that would make me come back for more? It's their bread sticks! No kidding on that one. With their marina sauce, this was divine. Love the soft chewy texture over the hard thick ones you get from the other bakeshop that offered these. You will love it baked out of the oven where the breakdown on these sticks are just like breaking open a muffin.

Great to have something like this exist. You can have always have a grandma to bake a pizza like this for you, but it's always great to find a place that does make this type of pizza.

Milana's New York Pizzeria
165 E. 4th Street
Long Beach, CA 90802