A small, local chain of Brazilian-themed pizza restaurants called Sampa’s has opened up a new outlet at 820 Wilshire Blvd, the former site of popular pizzeria Dagwoods.
This is only the third outlet for the little-known restaurant chain, the other two are in Lomita and Marina Del Rey. Owner Gustavo Siqueira said that it had been about a year since he started looking for a new outlet and he was originally looking at somewhere in Orange County.
“Actually, I wanted to have another location in Huntington Beach. That's the next one. Probably in three months, we're gonna open another one there,” Siqueira said, adding, “So, then it was hard to find the right location for us, and I started looking around. I’ve lived mostly in Torrance and Culver City, but I used to work in Santa Monica and I love it here.
“I started looking around some places and I noticed that there were a lot of sites [in Santa Monica] where I could bring my brand. Then I saw this one here and I started reading about Dagwoods. They were here for almost 20 years and everyone had so many great things to say about them,” Siqueira said.
By moving into this particular space, Siqueira said that he was able to capitalize not only on the fact that much of the kitchen equipment already present was perfectly suited to his needs, but also that everyone in Santa Monica knows the location of Dagwoods and associates the site with quality pizza.
That said, it is far from a carbon copy of the erstwhile eatery. Subtle changes to the interior decor add a classic look and feel to the place and the high school-style, orange seats have been replaced by vintage Parisian cafe-style chairs and a white painted brick and dark wood motif with wrought iron-style finishings.
Siqueira said that the pizzeria will also operate as a coffee shop, opening at about 8:30am every morning and selling Brazilian coffee. Originally hailing from São Paulo, Siqueira said that pizza is extremely popular in Brazil’s biggest city, thanks largely to its large Italian community.
“In São Paulo, going out for pizza is an event, it’s not just dinner,” he said.
However, while appealing to Santa Monica’s Brazilian quarter, he appreciates that most of his customers are Americans, so they will have their favorites too. Consequently, there are tempting options on the menu influenced by Italian recipes, US as well as Brazilian.
“The difference between American, Italian and Brazilian pizzas is all about the toppings. It's the same dough we use, like thin crust, a very high product with Caputo flours, but it's all about the toppings. We use sausage from Brazil, our own sauce and our own cheese. And this is very important,” Siqueira laughed.
Fresh and healthy ingredients are a top priority for Siqueira who actually began his career as a fitness instructor in Brazil.
“We don’t put quite as much cheese on our pizza as Americans do, but we add a lot of toppings, a lot of sauce, it’s the perfect way. We have a very popular pizza in Brazil called a Portuguesa [for example] it comes with fresh tomato sauce that we make here, ham, onions, mozzarella, kalamata olives, oregano and boiled eggs. And that’s totally different, people say, ‘Boiled eggs on pizza?’ and yes, it works, so it’s a different mix and it makes a perfect pizza,” said Siqueira.
While boiled eggs might not appeal to everyone as a pizza topping, this reporter tried the Calabrasa, which is hot Portuguese sausage, onions, mozzarella and kalamata olives and it was up there as one of the most delicious pizzas sampled yet in Santa Monica.
Sampo, which is what Brazilians call São Paulo, also offers dessert pizza with all many of diabetes-inducing delights, including Nutella and strawberry pizza, banana flambé pizza (bananas, cinnamon, sugar), Romeo and Juliet pizza (guava paste and cheese) and churros pizza (dulce de leche, cinnamon, sugar and mozzarella). Plus there are salads, snacks and a whole host of additional tantalizing taste temptations on offer.
“Our chef, Marcus Roberto, won Best Brazilian Pizza Chef of 2017 and 2019 and Best Pizza Chef Outside of Italy 2019, designed all our menus. He started as our partner, but now he’s super busy catering for the celebrities in Hollywood, but we always go to him when we need to create something new,” Siqueira said.
Currently, until the coffee shop element of the business is set up, Sampo’s is open Mon–Thurs 11am–9pm and Fri–Sun 11am–10pm and the website can be found at sampaspizza.com/santamonica/
scott.snowden@smdp.com
