Pan Pie Specialist Bootleg Pizza Returns With New Name and Neighborhood

Bootleg Pizza, one of LA’s earliest and most widely-acclaimed pan pizza specialists, is back in action after a long hiatus — well, sort of anyway. Owner Kyle Lambert is cooking pizza once again, this time from a space in Mar Vista at 11736 Washington Place, but the Bootleg Pizza name isn’t coming with him. Welcome instead to Little Dynamite.

Lambert has been making crispy-edged pizzas since 2019, when he used a commissary kitchen space in Little Ethiopia to turn out pies that reminded him of days spent in suburban New Jersey. In late 2020, after running as a food truck for a time, Lambert moved Bootleg Pizza into a dedicated storefront on Pico Boulevard, but a business partner dispute forced the closure of the restaurant less than a year in. Everything from the space to the name Bootleg Pizza got caught up in a legal back and forth, so Lambert and partner Courtney Glowacz decided to move on entirely to a new neighborhood and a new name in Little Dynamite. The shop opens for service this weekend in Mar Vista, keeping lunch through dinner hours for on-site dining, pickup, and delivery.

Fans of Lambert’s deeply burnished pies will find a lot to like on the new Little Dynamite menu, starting with the simple Cheese Louise (mozzarella and sauce only), the pepperoni-heavy Pep’d Up, and the Hot Jimmy, with mozzarella, ricotta, hot sausage, roasted garlic, and plenty of black pepper and hot honey. More will be added to the menu in the coming weeks, including former Bootleg Pizza special pies, salads, and garlic knots.

Little Dynamite is a welcome return for Lambert, and for fans of his unique style of pizza. The arrival also comes as LA enjoys a fresh round of pizza obsession, with makers from Orange County to the San Fernando Valley crafting pies that speak to their own unique perspectives. Los Angeles is, without question, a pizza town — it just may not always look like the kinds of pizza seen in other cities and states across the country, and that’s more than okay.

For now, find pictures and progress reports on the old Bootleg Pizza Instagram account, but expect the name Little Dynamite to be in use everywhere by the end of the month. Hours for Little Dynamite run Wednesday to Sunday from noon until 8 p.m. (or sellout) at 11736 Washington Place in Mar Vista, across the street from Rutts Hawaiian Cafe.