Four years ago while in Los Angeles, I stayed at my cousin’s place in an area called Sun Valley. It’s just a random area, nothing special about it but one day I found out about a small pizza place in his neighborhood called 786 Degrees. I ended up trying it out and loving it, not only because the pizza was so great but also because of the excellent customer service. I ended up leaving the Yelp review below:
Since I last visited the place they’ve won a number of awards and even opened a second location. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, I get a totally random message from the chef and owner on Instagram telling me he’s coming to Kuwait for a pop-up event.
I ended up finding out the chef (Ali Haider) actually grew up in Kuwait and lived here until he graduated high school and then moved to the States for university. Over the years he stayed in touch by following various Instagram accounts and eventually met the owner of a local Italian restaurant called Grano and now he’s going to be having a pop-up over two days. Like how random is that? The chef from a tiny little pizza place I tried 4 years ago in Sun Valley is coming to Kuwait for a pop-up?
I’m hoping he’ll be using his own dough recipe and tomato sauce since I’ve had the pizza at Grano before and it wasn’t that special. The pop-up is on May 20 and 21 and I’m trying to find out what the plan is exactly since Grano is pretty tiny so can’t fit that many people. Once I get anymore details I’ll update this post but for now you can check out the Instagram account of @786degrees and the Instagram of Grano @grano.restaurant.
9 replies on “Pizza Pop-up From LA to Kuwait”
It was a great pleasure to meet Chef Ali in Los Angeles right before covid. At the time, I was studying at CSUN. Super humble guy, we would visit his Sun Valley Location couple of times a week lol!! 🙂
I hope 786 Degrees stays and opens up multiple locations in Kuwait. His pizzas from around the world are top notch.
I work close to Grano and I stopped by as soon I saw your post. I did not get to talk to him as he was swamped with media interviews and the place was too busy. I would love to try his award winning pizzas sometime, looks really promising.
786 Degrees reminded me of my memories in Los Angeles. What made it feel more special for me though was the hospitality in 786………….truly worldclass. I hope many more people flock to this resto, I would recommend them to anyone who loves pizzas. Kuwait is lucky to have Chef Pizzaiolo Ali!
I am in LA now his pizza from his Pasadena location blew me away. I’m so happy they finally decided to expand. Congrats 786 Degrees. You deserve all the success and more power my friends………… Regards to the chef 🙂
Nice write up mark! Bro I have high expectations for this place. I trust your judgment. I’ll try to visit them as I’ve been craving for some good pizza. Please update with more info with regards to menu if ever you get any more details. I appreciate your content. Tnx
Weird how all the comments literally came in a few minutes apart a day after I posted 🤔
lool…. when you have it going good.. but then you do too much 😉
Lol I just noticed this, are you able to check the IP address of all the comments?
I consider myself a lifelong global pizza connoisseur. No joke. It has contributed to my obese torso i carry around. Im never on that side of LA but if i am i will make sure to try it out. Thanks for the post Mark.