Pleasure Pizza’s Eastside Eatery is, at most, 100 yards from the original, smaller location on 41st Avenue and Portola Drive. Derek Rupp, who owns both, opened up the Eatery in 2011 because wanted to make more than just pizza. Plus, he liked the location. “It’s a killer spot,” he says.
SCW: What did you most want to cook at the Eatery?
DEREK RUPP: Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. We have an eclectic mix of dishes from Indonesia, Mexico, classic American breakfasts. We’re doing briskets and eggs right now.
Do your favorite pizzas change?
I really love the Telecaster [Chipotle pesto, pepperjack cheese, pineapple, bacon and tomato cream sauce]. It’s just my all-time favorite. And also the Santa Barbara [Mozzarella, Parmesan & pepper jack cheese, spinach, artichoke hearts, and green onions] is just so good.
Pizza My Heart won world’s best pizza at a Las Vegas competition last year. Were you skeptical?
There’s tons of great pizza in Santa Cruz. I like their pizza, actually. It’s different than mine. They’re thin crust. We’re what I call West Coast-style pizza—more sauce, more toppings, more cheese. It’s different. It’s like cars. You’ve got your Ferraris. You’ve got your Porches. You’ve got your Cadillacs. They’re all killer cars. I did compete for my first time in the competition last year in March. My first time doing it, and I didn’t get through the first round. But I’ll be back, and I’m pretty confident we’ll be winning something very soon.
How do you make your dough?
It’s sort of a secret, but classic pizza dough is sugar, salt, yeast, water. We put a lot more than just those ingredients in our crust, and our crust is awesome.
Is that what makes your pizza?
It’s our signature.
Do you find inspiration in other foods?
I go to the city, and I eat at Tony’s in North Beach, and he’s a world pizza champion multiple years in Italy, and his Neapolitan pizza is incredible. I had a really good burger [from 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco] the other day. The way all the flavors came together, I thought: we should do a cheeseburger pizza. We did a killer bacon cheeseburger pizza.
Shortboard or longboard?
Mostly shortboards. We pull these boards [at the shop] down all the time and take them out. I invite friends, good customers, and we take all the boards down, clean them up, wax them up, take them down to the point for a few hours.
