Wildcrust Thrives With So Much More Than Just Its Signature Pizza
The pandemic brought us pop-ups aplenty, but only a fraction transitioned into permanent restaurants. One pop-up that survived the leap is Wildcrust, a cozy and communal spot on the border of Eagle Rock and Highland Park, starring a 48-hour-fermented pizza dough and chef Miles Okabayashi’s experimental Japanese-influenced cuisine.
Okabayashi grew up in Los Angeles, but decamped to New York for culinary school and jobs at Perry Street, Torishin, and Uncle Boons. He returned to Los Angeles in May 2020, sourdough starter in his luggage, after convincing TSA not to throw it out. The invention of Wildcrust, he says, was due more to ennui than inspiration. “I definitely have a restless mind,” Okabayashi says. “I was bored during the pandemic, and pizza was a chance for experimentation.”
He started slinging sourdough into a wood-fired brick oven he built from scratch. His informal pizza parties in his mother’s backyard on the West side started with friends, then drew in droves — up to 80 guests at a time. His brother Sam Okabayashi and his sister-in-law Jean Okabayashi helped him handle the crowds, and they started charging for pies.
The next year, the trio hosted pop-ups at Melody Wine Bar and Square One Diner. In October of last year, the family opened Wildcrust in Eagle Rock. Here, chef Miles, co-owner and brand manager Jean, and general manager and beverage director Enoch Ahn walked us through everything you need to know before you go.
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The dough is a labor of love
Today, diners at Wildcrust munch happily on Miles’s Neapolitan crusts, with no idea that eight years ago, a young chef in Bushwick carefully stirred its foamy predecessor every day. Wildcrust’s pizza dough proofs at room temperature for eight to 10 hours, and then moves to the walk-in for 48 hours.
“It’s very challenging,” Miles says. “We had to order 40 pizza dough proofing boxes, so they take up half of the walk-in. There’s a lot of keeping track of dough and how much you need to make 48 hours in advance.” The result is worth it, he says. “It tastes better. It’s better for your gut. You don’t get that classic bloated feeling.”
The pizza goes beyond Neapolitan classics
The wood-fired pizza isn’t your typical Neapolitan collection. Sure, there’s marina and margherita, salame and funghi (the salame in particular, with its fermented chile honey, is fun). But the funghi, instead of a traditional white sauce, features a tomato sauce, as well as a raclette with a creamy umami flavor.
Fortune favors the bold at Wildcrust, with those willing to venture to the fringes of the menu rewarded with an action-packed pie with rich ‘nduja, smoked scamorza, sun-dried tomato, and white ricotta sauce. The popular lamb tzatziki, besides braised lamb and tzatziki sauce, plays host to a wild crop of flavors: feta, mint, shallots, and Calabrian chile.
Come for the pizza, stay for everything else
“We’ve seen reviews where people say you come for the pizza, but you come again for the other menu items,” Jean says. “That perfectly sums up what we’re trying to do.”The menu is divided into smaller plates, grilled dishes and pizza, and you could theoretically have a great time here sans pizza entirely. Octopus, prawns, and duck all make an appearance, in a far more upscale menu than most diners would expect from a neighborhood pizza joint.
The starters section stars comfort food: meatballs in a chipotle tomato sauce with parmesan, a little gems Caesar topped with brown butter bread crumbs and a mountain of grated parmesan, and well-breaded crispy duck leg croquettes with roasted garlic aioli. For something lighter, try the hamachi crudo, a refreshing take with braised nori, white ponzu, and yuzu kosho, flecked with sesame seeds and furikake.
Okabayashi’s yakitori expertise shines on the grill menu
Miles’s grilling technique, gleaned from careful study at Japanese yakitori destination Torishin in New York, is on display at Wildcrust with its wood-fired grill. You can see it in the luscious, just-charred octopus tentacle paired with a rich romesco sauce, wrapped sinuously around a thick slice of potato pave. His prawns, influenced by his time at the Thai restaurant Uncle Boons, are grilled and brushed with red curry butter, then plated with an herb salad with a Thai seafood vinaigrette. “A lot of people are surprised when they taste [octopus and prawns] at a neighborhood pizza place,” Jean says.
Even the meatballs are finished on the grill after being roasted. Veggies from the grill convey a surprising amount of heartiness, like thick quarters of cabbage resting in pecorino sauce, topped with fragrant basil oil and tangy, chunky sun-dried tomato. “People come in [just] for the grilled cabbage,” Miles says. “You don’t understand how good cabbage can be until you have this one.”
The wine list skews more classic than natty, but don’t sleep on sake and Japanese beer
Enoch Ahn, the general manager and beverage director, isn’t against natural wines, beloved in the neighborhood—but this isn’t that spot. The European wines on the menu, including a 2019 Monferrato Superiore ‘Le Cave” Barbera and a 2022 Clos Bellane Cotes du Rhone Villages Valreas Rouge, skew more classic and pair easily with most of the pizza menu.
Sake might seem like a surprising addition, but pays homage to Miles and his brother Sam’s Japanese heritage. Try pairing the hamachi with the Tatenokawa “Seiryu Stream” junmai daiginjo, a clean and polished sake that picks up the citrus elements in the fish. In the next few weeks, Ahn plans to debut some springy spritzes, as well as several non-alcoholic cocktails, including an espresso Negroni and an ume fizz.
The communal tables are for you, even (or especially) if you’re flying solo
The moody, industrial lighting and intimate curved banquettes lend Wildcrust its vintage vibes, along with the fact that it’s built out of an actual auto body shop from the 1940s. The terrazzo floors are dark and moody too, and the red hues across the restaurant are brooding rather than cheery, including a red tile that covers the backsplash at the expo pass and the pizza oven.
Designer Jared Frank muted the red and green of Italy to a subtler pistachio color for the wall-mounted cabinets and a claret red for the curved banquettes, along with brighter red pendant lights hanging above. Mirrors with a pistachio trim hover above the banquettes, expanding the feel of the intimate room.
Three communal tables fill one side of the dining room, ready to host larger parties or diners who want to share a table with a stranger. The Okabayashis were inspired by the original backyard pizza popups they hosted, sitting around Costco fold-up tables and chairs. “There was this really beautiful sense of community, at a time when people needed a communal table to sit around and reconnect, and that’s the heart of why we started doing this in the first place,” Jean says. Solo diners are welcome to sit at the communal tables, too, for when you want to be around people without necessarily being with people.
The future is unwritten: more desserts, lunch, and maybe even a yakitori spot
Miles is ambitious. He wants to order flour from local mills since he doesn’t have enough space in the small restaurant to grind his own wheat berries, and he’s got his eye on experimenting with thin, crispy, tavern-style crust. Opening for lunch is also a goal, with sandwiches on sourdough.
The food and drink menu will change seasonally. If all works out well post-avian flu, fan fave Liberty Farms duck breast will be back on the menu. Desserts will also be expanded beyond the current offerings of Earl Grey ice cream with graham cracker and milk ice cream with honeycomb coffee and balsamic vinegar.
It’s unusual for a restaurant to so gracefully skate the line between friendly neighborhood pizza joint and experimental Japanese-influenced eatery. With its vision as a communal gathering spot, Wildcrust is a welcome addition to Eagle Rock that promises to keep evolving.
