The hottest pizza in Southern California isn’t coming out of some fancy restaurant or trendy pizzeria — it’s being baked in a guy’s apartment kitchen, and getting your hands on one is practically a lottery.
AJ Miller doesn’t have a storefront, a commercial brick oven or a delivery fleet. The Connecticut transplant simply cranks out 15 pizzas a week from his Ocean Beach apartment.
More than 3,500 people are now chasing just 15 weekly order slots, with the pies selling out in less than 30 seconds. The 15-inch pizzas have become a viral obsession among Gen Z and millennial foodies, helping Miller build a social media following of more than 114,000.
“I think people do like what they can’t get, so the exclusivity does play into it a bit,” Miller told Axios.
Miller moved to San Diego in 2020 and quickly found himself missing the East Coast-style pizza he grew up with in Connecticut. Unable to find the kind of pie he wanted in Southern California, he decided to teach himself how to make it.
He began documenting his pizza experiments online, eventually attracting followers who wanted to taste the results themselves.
Then, after getting laid off from his marketing job this past summer, Miller decided to turn his kitchen hobby into a business.
What started as a text list of just 75 interested customers has since exploded into Echo Apizza.
The name is from his favorite stye of pizza, which is New Haven style “apizza,” which is made in a coal-fired oven and known for its paper-thin crust. It’s similar to New York-style pizza, Miller said.
The Connecticut specialty is known for its thin, crisp crust, often cooked in coal-fired ovens at temperatures reaching 800 to 900 degrees. It’s similar to New York-style pizza, Miller said.
But without a commercial oven, he had to get creative.
He sets his standard home oven to its 550°F maximum, baking the pies directly on a heavy baking steel plate to transfer as much heat as possible to the crust. He then finishes them under the broiler to achieve the signature blistered edges.
The dough gets a three-day cold fermentation using sourdough, while toppings are sourced locally. Once they’re ready, people can pick them up the following Friday.
“It took a couple years to really perfect my craft,” said Miller. “I don’t think anything’s ever perfect, so I do think there’s little tweaks that I make each time, and it could always be better.”
His pizzas reportedly sell for $25 to $30 each. Miller told Axios he is making a profit but not enough to live off. If he ramps up slowly, he added he may one day cook in a professional kitchen or even a restaurant.
As for now, he is continuing to make his pizzas from home and posting them on social media, full of commenters who are singing his praise.
“Found a guy in San Diego who makes pizza out of his apartment oven and it literally changed my life,” one user posted.
