ROCA Pizza, the Roman-style California-based (hence ROCA) pizzeria, is making its way to Pacific Palisades, located at 1061 N Swarthmore Ave.
The new pizza restaurant will take over Sunlife Organics, which closed its doors earlier this year. ROCA Pizza is expected to replace them at the beginning of 2022. The new restaurant is the latest creation from California Pizza Kitchen co-founder Rick Rosenfield and his wife, Esther. The two became obsessed with Roman-style street food while on vacation in Rome.
As a result, they opened an initial popup restaurant in Glendale at 769 Americana Way. Rosenfield tells What Now Los Angeles this location is expected to close later this year. The first permanent location will be at Palisades Village. ROCA Pizza is also opening a new location in Marina Del Rey in mid-2022.
ROCA Pizza specializes in pizza ‘al taglio,’ which translates to ‘by the cut.’ Their pizzas are baked in steel pans inside an imported Italian oven, then cut with scissors instead of a pizza slicer. On top of the fresh, organic, and locally sourced ingredients, ROCA Pizza’s dough is cold-fermented for up to 72 hours.
“At CPK, we always said that pizza is a canvas you can paint on, and now Roman-style pizza creates the perfect canvas for today because its unique crust allows it to retain its quality when you reheat it at home,” said Rick Rosenfield on their website.
The third ROCA Pizza will sit comfortably within Palisades Village, which opened in late 2018. Since then, over 40 different businesses have moved in for optimal walking traffic and location. Gino Angelini is planning on opening Angelini’s Ristorante & Bar in this area sometime in Winter 2021.
Correction: An earlier version of the article misstated the Marina Del Rey location was expected to open in Fall 2021. The new location is expected to open in mid-2022.
