Marrying cheese and curry at Dean’s Pizza and Thai

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES

When it comes to food, the word “fusion” usually only means one thing: someone is out of ideas. Fusion food, after all, is a culinary catch-all, the cuisine in which more isn’t just more—it’s better. Because of this, fusion food rarely succeeds, usually ditching any true multiculturalism for a few hapless, trendy combinations (which explains why, after some 30 years of popularity, it’s now all Tex-Mex egg rolls and chipotle chicken wraps).

So it would seem that in concept, Dean’s Pizza and Thai should follow suit, pairing all sorts of meats and vegetables and sauces that would otherwise never come within five feet of each other. But for the most part, the restaurant doesn’t fall in that line. Rather, Dean’s is simply a place of convenience—its parallel menus a marriage not of creativity but of deliverability. And that’s a good choice, because Dean’s isn’t easy to come upon—a dingy storefront crammed into a corner shopping center, with only a few red and green booths to spare.

The first half of Dean’s menu—the Italian side—is probably the biggest draw. Full of the standards—pastas, sandwiches, lasagnas, pizzas—Dean’s Italian food doesn’t offer any surprises but pleases with its low-priced, respectable offerings. Sometimes it’s a bit hard to tell what may or may not be pre-made, but Dean’s doesn’t seem to care—and doesn’t try to hide it, either, as evidenced by the empty Cheesecake Factory freezer boxes that line the counter.

The other half of Dean’s menu—the Thai portion—is also packed with staples. From pad Thai to larb, Dean’s Thai offerings follow the same straightforward path as its Italian food. The chicken satay, for example, is what you’d expect: tender pieces of chicken colored bright yellow by a dusting of turmeric. Indeed, the Thai food fits into Dean’s well—good enough to hold you over, cheap enough not to put you out more than a few bucks.

But while Dean’s keeps most of its two cuisines separate, there is one fusion-influenced intersection: the Thai curry pizza.

The pizza is, of course, one of Dean’s most popular dishes, as it’s the lone tie-in between the restaurant’s two opposing sides. It helps, too, that the Thai curry pizza pulls you in with novelty—the kind of thing those faceless, corporate chains have been doing for years, and that Dean’s finally does right.

There are a few different ways to order the pizza, but the constant is the red curry sauce. Smooth on first taste, the sauce ignites a few bites in—a slow and even burn that tastes like every good Thai curry should. Then come the pizza’s options, the first of which is the choice of ordering it without cheese. If you do, the pizza ends up more like focaccia bread—the dough slightly herbed and flavored with only a thin layer of sauce, the various toppings held in place only by gravity. But order it with cheese and—amazingly—it works much better. Admittedly, it does take a few bites to get used to—there’s a reason (or two, or three) why Thai food doesn’t use cheese—but the combination is ultimately a good one. As far as toppings are concerned, there’s either tofu or chicken. The tofu is cooked well—crispy but still just a bit gooey—and so is the chicken—similar to the satay. With all that, the Thai curry pizza succeeds as more than just an oddity of fusion food—it’s a legitimately good pizza.

What’s more, the Thai curry pizza seems to be representative of what Dean’s does right—a cheap, simple, and easy way to bring both Italian and Thai foods to your front door. And, as chances have it, Dean’s actually gets better when you combine the two.

DEAN’S PIZZA AND THAI 929 REDONDO AVE | LONG BEACH 90804 | 562.987.3297 | OPEN DAILY 11AM-11PM | FOOD FOR TWO, $10-20

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