La Val’s Pizza in Berkeley, California, says it’s the city’s longest running restaurant. Opened in 1951, the La Val’s location on Euclid Avenue was added in 1955. That’s the location that many University of California-Berkeley (Cal) students have frequented for decades—and not just for pizza.
In the pizzeria’s basement is a 60-seat theater called La Val’s Subterranean. It is currently home to a local theater company, Theatre Lunatico, and has for many years hosted plays of all kinds, from Shakespeare to the works of modern playwrights. Legend has it that the basement has also seen parties hosted by the likes of Jerry Garcia and John Fogerty, reports SFGate.
The pizzeria—which owns the basement theater beneath it but leases it out to Theatre Lunatico—leans into its unique history. On its own website, the pizzeria writes: “Come for the pizza, stay for a play… or vice versa.”
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“La Val’s Subterranean is a 60-seat venue with a storied past, located right down a flight of stairs inside the restaurant,” the pizzeria’s website states. “The former home of the Shotgun Players and Impact Theatre, The Sub is now run by Theatre Lunatico.”
“The Sub is literally underground theater,” the pizzeria added. “What could be better?”
Fortunately for pizza lovers and theater-goers alike, La Val’s is said to serve up a mean slice of pizza, too. In 2000, owner Izat Eliyan took over the pizza shop with his business partner, Steve Wickes, who passed away in 2012. Eliyan told SFGate that the duo’s first order of business was to focus on the quality of the pizza. For example, the company switched from machine mixing to hand-mixing its dough.
“We got rid of all this artificial stuff, and we went back to the right way of doing pizza,” he told SFGate. “Just water, yeast, flour, sugar and salt.”
Situated a few blocks away from Cal’s famed California Memorial Stadium, where the Bears play their home football games, La Val’s is busiest on Saturdays during the fall. Alums flock back to campus to watch some football—and to get a slice that reminds them of their college days.
“Sometimes I joke about this. I say my regulars are all over the country,” Eliyan said. “But whenever they come back to Berkeley, they come into La Val’s.”
A handful of them might even wander downstairs to catch a play, too.
