Meet the red-sauce joint drawing lines in Valley Village

"In his years of operating a pizza catering service, DeSantis found business growth to be slow and steady. With his first restaurant, it's been "off to the races." "I just didn't expect it," he said, "but it's the best-ever problem to have." He made his name in L.A. with Fire & Wood mobile pizza ovens, but at Anna Pizza, he is digging even further into the recipes of foods he grew up eating."

"The New York native landed his first job at 15, folding cardboard boxes in a pizzeria. He worked his way up to dishwashing, then cooking and eventually managing. He later moved to Los Angeles without a plan, and when he ran through his savings, he returned to his first love: pizza. He began at downtown's Urban Oven but in 2021 purchased a mobile pizza oven and launched his own catering company, Fire & Wood."

"At that point he was operating out of his 460-square-foot downtown apartment, with an extra double-door refrigerator in his living room. He bought a second truck, moved to a commissary kitchen and begged his sister to move to L.A. and help him with the catering business. Then he bought a third truck. When the Palisades and Eaton fires tore through Los Angeles, DeSantis deployed his fleets to first responders and others in need."

Thomas DeSantis, a New York native who started in the pizza industry at age 15, built a successful catering business with mobile pizza ovens before opening his first restaurant, Anna Pizza, in a Valley Village strip mall. The restaurant serves Italian American cuisine including Wagyu meatballs, fresh pastas, and New York-style pizzas, drawing inspiration from his grandmother and East Coast upbringing. DeSantis began his entrepreneurial journey in Los Angeles by launching Fire & Wood in 2021 from his downtown apartment, eventually expanding to multiple trucks and a commissary kitchen. During the Palisades and Eaton fires, he deployed his fleet to support first responders and those in need.

Read at Los Angeles Times