How Grá Grew into One of L.A.’s Best Pizzerias, One Sourdough Pie at a Time
Here’s one for you: an Irish advertising executive with no restaurant experience comes to Los Angeles and says, ‘I’m going to open an all-fermented pizza restaurant right before a global pandemic, in a part of town no one knows exists — and it’s going to be very successful.’
Funny, right?
Well, the joke is on everyone else. Not only did Grá (“love” in Irish) recently celebrate its fifth anniversary, it has survived every obstacle L.A. has thrown its way, and today is thriving in its odd little pocket of Echo Park-meets-Westlake. Grá tends to fly a bit under the radar, but it is quietly creating some of the best pizza in the city (just check out its recently bestowed Michelin Bib Gourmand for proof).
Owner Michael McSharry is equally passionate about music, food, and interior design. “When I broke it down, I realized I could open a restaurant that brings all three together. It was kind of one of those a-ha moments. I’d worked in five-star hotels in Dublin, so I was already very geeky about hospitality,” he says.
How did this Irish expat go from ad exec to pizzaiolo, and what makes Grá so unique? Here’s how it all came together.
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It nearly didn’t.
When McSharry was looking for a restaurant space, he was up against a ticking clock. As an Irish citizen, he could only come to L.A. for three-month stints, then return to England or Ireland for three months, until coming back to do it all over again.
“It was not an easy task, but I was really committed to it, because I felt a calling to open this restaurant. I was coming over and back, and I was getting knocked back by a lot of landlords in L.A. because they were like, ‘sorry, who are you?’ The last time I came into the airport, they were like, this is the last time you’re coming over here without a visa,” McSharry laughs.
Knowing that time was of the essence, he found a space that might work. “I picked up some sourdough bread and I came down to the space with the landlord and all his partners standing in a circle. I passed around the bread. I said, ‘Are you all familiar? This is what real two-year-old sourdough is. This is going to be the crust of the pizza.’ And the main landlord went, ‘Yes, my daughter is gluten intolerant. This is all we eat in the house. I love it.’ And I was like, ‘oh my god, finally somebody understands!’”
Five years later, Grá is the living embodiment of its dedication to fermentation — a slow, meticulous process that, when done right, produces the tastiest flavors in the world.
All fermented, all the time.
Why is fermentation so important to McSharry? As an avid pizza fan, a diagnosis of gluten intolerance several years ago devastated him. “But then the first sourdough pizza came to London, and I was totally fixated by this new form,” McSharry explains.
McSharry dove deep into fermented dough, training at pizza spots Sodo and Pizza Pilgrims in London and even doing a stint at the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana school in Napoli, considered the birthplace of pizza. At the same time, he was also exploring the world of natural wine. “That piggybacked with the sourdough pizza,” McSharry says. “Natural fermentation also exists in fermented foods. Wouldn’t it be really great to bring them all together?”
When you come to Grá, you’ll quickly realize that every part of the menu has an element of fermentation. The ever-changing seasonal menus include sourdough flatbreads with an assortment of dips, fermented cucumbers, and kimchi. Shared plates might include lettuce salads with kashk (fermented dairy products) as the dressing, or diced watermelon infused with fermented tomato juice and served with fresh feta and mint on sourdough crackers.
But the reason you come to Grá is for the pizza. Crackling, leopard-spotted crusts with soft, warm, chewy insides provide the canvas for McSharry’s array of oft-fermented toppings.
The most original pie is the Kimchi, with daikon kimchi, mozzarella, scallions, cilantro, and sesame seeds – it’s a pizza that truly embodies Grá’s ethos. But other pizzas range from a basic (yet spectacular) margherita, a white pie with pistachio pesto, ricotta, and lemon, or “The Banger,” a tomato-based pizza with mozzarella, salami, ‘nduja, fermented mustard seeds, honey, and basil.
The fermentation doesn’t end with the food: the natural wine list travels the world, with standouts like the 2019 Savadonnay Croix & Courbet, a buttery chardonnay, or the 2022 Rosso Isi Alessandro Viola, a nero d’avolo-based red from Sicily. Orange wines, rosés, and sparkling varietals are also well-represented, along with ciders, piquettes, beers, and aperitifs.
The tunes are just as important as the pies.
McSharry’s other passion is music. On Fridays and Saturdays, the restaurant brings in DJs who only spin vinyl on the restaurant’s HiFi system, which imbues the room with a full, pure sound. “Vinyl is the oldest form of recorded music, and the highest quality,” McSharry says. “And the food is the highest quality — we only source organically — so the elements all naturally weave together.”
DJs play for four hours on the weekends and consist of artists from around L.A. spinning everything from jazz and Balearic to folk and modern electronic. Every once in a while, there’s live jazz, too. When DJs aren’t working the 1s and 2s, McSharry puts on one of his constantly updated playlists, which you can find on Spotify.
The rustic design reflects the craftsmanship of the food and drink.
“I always wanted a really rustic space that had elements of wear and tear, or the feeling of having been lived in. Sourdough has been around for thousands of years, as has natural wine fermentation,” McSharry explains. “The elements of the space had to connect with the concept. That’s why the materials are mainly stone, wood, and brass — to tap into that sense of old craftsmanship,” he says.
Rustic charm, Grá’s got in spades. The entryway leads guests along stone-laden floors into a room with open rafters, hanging greenery, exposed brick, unfinished wood, and brass handrails. An indoor/outdoor patio provides a respite from winter rains or summer heat waves. There are private nooks for intimate dates and large communal tables for boisterous groups.
McSharry’s goal of ‘lived in’ very much comes to fruition here, with a shabby open kitchen where wood-fired pizzas crack and pop against the backdrop of his latest playlist. For a restaurant that almost never came to be, Grá is certainly doing something right.
