Highland Park has no shortage of innovative eateries ranging from street food and pop-ups converted to storefronts to fine dining establishments from noted restaurateurs. One of the neighborhood’s newest highlights combines both of these categories with the recent opening of Wildcrust on York Boulevard.
Similarly to how Supamu Okinawa Onigiri took off as a pop-up and food truck before finding a permanent home in Koreatown, Wildcrust also originated as a pop-up upon finding a devoted following after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Per an interview with Eater, Chef and founder Miles Okabayashi hopped on the sourdough bandwagon that many of us did in 2020. Upon returning to his native Los Angeles after nearly a decade working at Michelin-star restaurants in New York, Okabayashi became fascinated with sourdough and how it ferments. Rather than bringing this culinary art and science to bread-making, he took it to pizza-making after the pandemic-era purchase of a wood-fired pizza oven. This delicious concept of wood-fired sourdough pizza took off as a pop-up.
Today, the pop-up now has a permanent home in Highland Park in a sunny, unassuming spot on the quieter side of Highland Park’s main drag.
Wildcrust has a small outdoor patio and cozy interior that feels like a mash-up of a hipster coffee bar and an Italian restaurant. With a menu featuring classics like margherita pizza and burrata in addition to inventive twists like lamb tzatziki pizza with Calabrian chiles, both carnivores and vegetarians quickly pack the joint during dinnertime.
Wildcrust is located on 4705 York Boulevard off Armadale Avenue and at the time of writing, is only open for dinner from 5-10PM Tuesday through Sunday. The restaurant plans to add lunch service in 2025 and you can learn more on their website. Reservations with Resy are recommended, as they quickly fill.
