• vegan pizza in AWESOMETOWN!

    11
    January 4th, 2011quarrygirlLA restaurants, tomato joe's

    i bet you guys didn’t know that i grew up in awesometown. that’s right, valencia has officially declared itself the town of awesomeness. see for yourself:

    fuck yeah, awesometown!

    i don’t know if you have ever been to valencia, but when i think of the city covered in tract housing where everything closes by 10pm, “awesome” isn’t the first word that comes to mind. however it may be worthy of the awesometown name thanks entirely to tomato joe’s, a small takeaway pizzeria with insane vegan pies that are…well…more awesome than most pizza available in los angeles.

    sally's secret garden (veganized): extra virgin olive oil, follow your heart mozzarella, fresh basil, white mushrooms, red onion, green pepper, roasted garlic, fresh tomatoes

    my parents still live very close to awesometown, so whenever i visit them, a trip to tomato joe’s is a must. we stopped by their house over the holidays and came bearing gifts of vegan pizza.

    my parents always get the same thing: the sally’s secret garden pizza, made vegan, on thin crust (pictured above). the pizza comes with an olive-oil based sauce rather than the standard tomato, and is covered in a variety of vegetables including white mushrooms, green peppers, onions, and tomatoes. i’ve never tried it because i absolutely HATE bell peppers, but my parents assure me its wonderful. tomato joe’s has two vegan-friendly crust options, thin and beer (stay away from the “regular crust”), and my folks always order the thin ‘n crispy. i’ve tried a bit of their crust before, and i must say it’s quite spectacular, as is everything at tomato joe’s.

    for vegan pizzas, tomato joe’s is still using follow your heart cheese, even though almost all other pizzerias have switched to daiya at this point. i must say, whatever they do with the follow your heart is magical…it tastes perfect. i have complained on this blog about FYH cheese in the past, but tomato joe’s is one of the small handfuls of places that really knows how to work with it. so much so, in fact, that my parents are always shocked to discover how good the vegan cheese is. the first time they tried it, they were convinced it was real….and they are omnivores who eat cheese on a regular basis!

    garden combo (totally customized): beer crust with no cheese, vine ripened tomato sauce, spinach, fresh tomatoes, artichoke hearts, fresh garlic

    on our recent visit, the husband and i split an enormous garden combo pie with lots of substitutions. first off, we ordered it on the 16″ beer crust, which i would say is a must when you visit tomato joe’s. it’s huge and perfectly doughy, and flavored with the incredible award-winning hefeweizen from wolf creek brewing next door.

    i am not exaggerating when i say that this is the best pizza crust i’ve ever tasted. for our toppings, we changed around the garden combo special until we had all of our favorite vegetables—spinach, fresh tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and fresh garlic.

    i don’t know about you, but sometimes i’m just in the mood for vegan pizza without cheese. although the follow your heart at tomato joe’s is excellent, we decided to get this pizza without it. no cheese or cheese substitute at all. isn’t that mad?! i swear, it actually tasted really good for a change. all the flavors of the vegetables and sauce were able to shine with the distinct beer taste in the crust. in the past we have stuck to the vegan cheese and meat options, and were always blown away, but there’s just something to be said about the clean and unprocessed vegetables + dough combo.

    we first discovered tomato joe’s back in 2008, when we heard about them on scvegan.com. over the past 2 years, the vegan pizza options in los angeles have skyrocketed…and tomato joe’s still remains the best of them all (with the exception maybe of masa, who makes a totally different kind of pizza). i highly suggest you take a trip to awesometown and fill up on this stuff. the secret is in the fine ingredients in both the sauce and the crust…you can’t go wrong.

    tomato joe’s
    27732 McBean Pkwy
    Awesometown, CA 91354
    (661) 263-8646

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11 responses to “vegan pizza in AWESOMETOWN!” RSS icon

  • i want a pizza that can give me back my lost years spent in “awesometown”.

  • Thank you so much for the wonderful review. We are so glad to offer the vegan options to you. Vegans are very important to us. Vegans represent people who care about the earth and the animals. Something we care about too. We travel miles to bring you the best vegan options we can find and we appreciate the kind words from you that make our hard work worth it.
    Thanks again!

  • Gauri Radha गौरी राधा

    That looks great!!

  • I love that place.

  • Hey S.Brown, not sure if you are the owner or employee but let me just personally thank you for not skimping on the fine details to make one of the best pizzas in town. Yes, I live about 48 miles from you but I ALWAYS exit off Valencia Blvd from the 405 for a large pizza from you guys. I’ve been vegan for five years and I’ve tasted practically every damn vegan pizza in the Los Angeles area and none of them come close to your DIVINE pizzas! As a vegan, we tend to spend a little bit more extra cash on food and it sucks when we still wind up eating bland food. Tomato Joe’s delivers on the taste big time!! Thank you again.

    Sincerely,
    Oscar
    A Pizza Lover

  • I definitely need to stop by Tomato Joe’s. It was on my list of places to go to when I was up in Valencia during the Tom’s sample sale. The only reason I could’nt go is because my beloved bff was having knee issues and I had 2 screaming kids in the back wanting to go home. But I will make sure I go next time. Also, as QG says in the review, I do appreciate just good old fashion veggies and dough. That’s what I ate all throughout my second pregnancy and I have a perfectly healthy and adorable baby. 🙂

  • Our family has to stop at Tomato Joe’s almost every time we drive up north. We looovve their pizza!

  • I grew up in NEWHALL! I still only use Newhall as the address rather than Santa Clarita Valley. Awesometown was the ruin of a great little town with no stoplights until Awesometown (and all those other housing tracts) was born.

  • hey don’t hate!
    i left the stank of burbank for the fresh air of awesometown and i love it!

    valencia is a great place to be vegan, thanks to a really well stocked whole foods, tomato joe’s, karma indian resteraunt, and most importantly (imho), sprout’s farmers market, which has the BEST prices on vegan staples like coconut oil, daiya and even special supplements.
    f yeah awesometown!

  • I’ve had a ton of vegan pizza, but Tomato Joe’s is hands down the best. I just wish I lived closer!

    For vegans going to Magic Mountain, Tomato Joe’s is only about 5-10 minutes away. I make a point to go there on every Magic Mountain trip (Magic Mountain is about as vegan unfriendly as it gets). Great roller coasters and the best vegan pizza in so cal – it’s an unbeatable combination!

  • Asking for pizza without cheese is a nice way to get a vegan pizza here in China. The problem is, the request is so odd that waiters and cooks tend to ignore it (as if they’re thinking “he couldn’t POSSIBLY have meant that”), even if they understand the English…


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