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!

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.

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