vegan calzone with daiya cheese, tomatoes, and basil
we told you a few days ago that cruzer pizza in los feliz would be making the leap to become a 100% vegan pizzeria, and as of yesterday they have officially stopped selling animal products! i stopped by on cruzer’s first night of being an animal-free establishment and they even let me test some products and start designing my very own “quarrygirl pizza” to appear on their january menu!
although they don’t offer it now, cruzer was experimenting with some italian field roast sausage in the kitchen last night. this is one of my favorite fake meats ever, so i had to use it as a topping on the quarrygirl pizza.
other toppings included two types of marinated mushrooms…
daiya cheese, garlic, and plenty of olive oil…
i even got to put this in the oven myself and see it through the whole process!
the pizza came out absolutely wonderful. it was very rich and greasy, with a heavy mushroom taste and crispy crumbled sausage. there was no tomato sauce on it, but rather an oil base. by the time this actually ends up on cruzer’s menu, the sauce and flavors will be more sophisticated….but hey, it was great for a first try!
quarrygirl pizza (coming soon!) white sauce, mushrooms, field roast sausage, garlic, and daiya cheese.
while i was at cruzer, i also got to make a gluten-free pizza and test that out. i must admit, it was pretty damn good! the g-f pizzas are smaller and the crust is much crispier, but i quite enjoyed it.
it was great hanging out at cruzer on their first night as a vegan pizzeria, and hearing all the orders come in. there were even a few people that called up for meat pizzas, and ended up trying out the vegan ones instead! so awesome. although cruzer is using daiya, gardein, and yves products right now, they are looking to expand and carry a variety of vegan cheeses as well as other mock meats. stay tuned, because i have a feeling that their menu is going to get really fucking interesting. until then, go support cruzer anyway. hooray for LA’s first and only vegan pizza place!
this is where the meat products used to be at cruzer....all gone!
oh and BTW, now you can follow cruzer on twitter!
cruzer pizza
4449 Prospect Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 666-0600
Sun-Thu. 4pm-10pm
Fri-Sat. 4pm-11pm
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Check out the new quarrygirl.com FORUMS!
10:22 am on December 15th, 2009
Very strong!
10:38 am on December 15th, 2009
This is such awesome news, as this is my preferred local pizzeria. Any idea if they’re going to lower their prices at all?
10:44 am on December 15th, 2009
This is GREAT news. I think this much be the only 100% pure vegan pizza restaurant in CA? I know Pizza Pi in Seattle is vegan, but the pizzas are just not that great. If Cruzer can deliver (in both senses of the word) some tasty vegan pizzas, I think they will have a hit on their hands.
For me, I’m going to divert every cent of my not insubstantial monthly pizza allowance 100% to Cruzer. No more Z-Pizza or Wholefoods for me. I’ll probably still go to Purgatory as you can eat in there and take your own booze, but that’ll be the exception rather than the rule.
So awesome!
11:00 am on December 15th, 2009
What a fun experience to create your namesake pizza and bake one yourself! I’ll look forward to giving Cruzer another try soon.
11:15 am on December 15th, 2009
Holy fuck!
11:24 am on December 15th, 2009
[...] Update: Great photo-heavy post from QuarryGirl on Cruzer’s first day as a vegan establishment. Link. [...]
12:16 pm on December 15th, 2009
that calzone looks amazing
12:19 pm on December 15th, 2009
dear cruzers.. invest in a brick oven. fuck the conveyor belt.
12:48 pm on December 15th, 2009
No hot sauce?!?!!
12:52 pm on December 15th, 2009
i’m surprised the QG pie isnt soaked in beer
3:06 pm on December 15th, 2009
I love the owner! He is super nice and when I went there last time with all my friends, he said his daughter was Vegan, and he always wanted to move his business that way.
7:52 pm on December 15th, 2009
Your famous!
11:11 pm on December 15th, 2009
I really want to eat there!! After PETA reported on Twitter that Cruzer Pizza and Pasta went all vegan, my pizza hungry will finally be pleased with these vegan pizzas, I can’t wait to eat there!!
12:08 am on December 16th, 2009
Haha, that’s so funny. You’re immortalized in pizza now. I went there the first day they had Daiya cheese and got a calzone and a Margherita and ate about half in my car.
I think Daiya roughly has the taste and texture of process (American) cheese. I’d love to have a vegan cheese with a richer aged, bacteria flavor. Maybe some day.
10:03 am on December 16th, 2009
I love the calzone and hawaiian pizza. need to try the lasagna next.
thanks Cruzers. I am glad we have non Thai food vegan places popping up still.
10:24 am on December 16th, 2009
So nice to see that Cruzer is generous with the marinara on pies that call for it. Why is it that when you order a cheeseless pie, most places assume you want some dough with a drizzle of sauce & five veggies. Hooray for Cruzer.
8:06 am on December 17th, 2009
wow.
11:34 pm on December 17th, 2009
A vegan pizzeria is LA is so very cool! When does SF get one?!
6:16 am on December 18th, 2009
Quarrygirl u did it!! WOW! LA has an all vegan pizza place like that!! Let’s show them love!
Candy@YourHolisticAgent
Btw, Nick, I agree w/you! Daiya reminds me of Kraft singles. What do u think about Teese?
1:33 pm on December 18th, 2009
We went there last night. I ordered the bbq chicken pizza and hubs had a calzone. We loved our food. Wish we could have eaten there though. We ate in the car.
PS, they made a mistake on a XL veggie pizza and ended up giving it to us. It had jalapenos on it and I thought of you =D
4:38 pm on December 31st, 2009
That’s wonderful news! I hope they’re successful and can add some more locations closer to the West Side.
8:38 am on January 27th, 2010
Great!!! I am impressed!!!
11:20 am on February 2nd, 2010
I tried the GF crust and it was so hard and brittle it cut my mouth. Seriously. My gums still hurt. It is also A LOT smaller than the regular pizzas and costs more. The toppings were great. I don’t see why they can’t make a larger, more edible crust – Whole Foods sells a rice one that is regular size, and you’d never know the difference.
10:03 am on March 7th, 2010
This is soo awesome……..im in Las Vegas, does anyone know of a vegan pizzeria here? THX
7:13 am on March 11th, 2010
[...] clarita, it’s tomato joe’s. even with the billions of restaurants in los angeles and our very own vegan pizzeria, we don’t have anything like the thick-crusted, beer-flavored pies that come out of the scv. [...]