A Slice of Beach Boys History at Pizza Show

When you think about the Beach Boys, you likely think of surfing, hot rods, and perhaps plaid. What you probably don’t think about is pizza. But in the 1960s the original surfing crooners could be found at Pizza Show, a local Italian restaurant in their hometown of Hawthorne. Pizza plus rock-n-roll history? I’m sold!

Exterior of Pizza Show. Squares spell out "Pizza Show" with "Pizza" edged in red, and "Show" edged in green. A tall sign to the left also reads "Pizza Show" with a small sun image below. Below the sun it reads "Dining Room Food to Go"

Pizza Show started when Jay Evans moved to Inglewood in 1955, and opened the first Pizza Show the following year. Two years later he opened the location in Hawthorne, and it quickly became a teenage hang-out on weekends. Today Pizza Show is still family owned, and on it’s second generation, Gary Evans, a man who takes pizza seriously. “It takes a minimum of a year to train properly,” Evans said in an LA Weekly article, “Pizza tossing is a scientific thing, having to do with getting the air bubbles and dough density just right to make the crust crunchy and tasting great.”

The restaurant’s interior supposedly hasn’t changed that much from its early days, and I will say it still has that fun, kitschy Italian vibe with murals and wild ironwork chandeliers.

Interior of Pizza Show, with murals that make the place feel like a small Italian village, faux doors and faux shutters line the wall, iron chandeliers hang from the celing.

Pizza Show menu, featuring an illustration of a chef holding pizza and spaghetti, a stack of pizza boxes sit in the lower right of the menu.

Myself seated in a booth pulling a slice of pizza from the pie.

Interior of Pizza Show - Mural of a faux window, with a flower bed jutting from the bottom of the painted window.

Interior of Pizza Show. Maroon upholstered booths line the walls that have been painted to look like small Italian buildings with bricks, windows, and doors.

Interior of Pizza Show - with a small tuscan roof jutting from the wall, three barrels of wine also jut out from the wall, giving a faux vineyard feeling.

Exterior of Pizza Show. Squares spell out "Pizza Show" with "Pizza" edged in red, and "Show" edged in green.

Visit Pizza Show at 13344 Hawthorne Blvd., in Hawthorne, just a hop, skip, and a jump from LAX.

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