Maybe it was a sign that the quarantine had driven me crazy, but I spent $20 on a pint of ice cream. That’s right. Twenty dollars, and I felt super lucky to do so.

Last year, Antico opened to rave reviews for its rustic Italian food and ice cream, made daily with their fancy schmancy Carpigiani machine from Italy. When the pandemic hit, they immediately pivoted to serving focaccia-style pizzas, along with a Caesar salad and that ice cream. Their strawberry shortcake ice cream, made with Harry’s Berries, incites foodies from near and far to descend upon Antico, like shoppers trying to buy toilet paper at the beginning of the pandemic, eagerly spending $20 for a pint. 

Takeout and delivery is available, though they strongly encourage calling for takeout, both from their profit standpoint and your own experience, since your food will be fresher. Once you let them know you arrived for your pick up, they will then fire your pizza in the oven. This will take at least 10-15 minutes, depending on how busy they are. 

You will have to hand over your credit card for payment (unless you do it over the phone) and sign the credit card slip. They do provide sanitized pens for this, along with a handy bottle of hand sanitizer. 

Your pizza will be piping hot, fresh out of the oven, and depending on how far you have to travel, may need a quick warm up blast when you get home.

Our $25 cheese pizza had eight hefty slices, with a light coating of tomato sauce and a blanket of cheese.  The slices are about an inch thick and approximately 5-6 inches long by 4 inches wide. We each ate one slice – another would have made us feel  uncomfortably full – and is probably best paired with a small salad to balance it out.

The pizza was fine, nothing extraordinary, about what you would expect from focaccia dough, covered in tomato sauce and cheese. Unfortunately because my daughter doesn’t like toppings, we weren’t able to try a more interesting version. We managed to make multiple meals out of it, which is always a plus.

The night before, I had seen someone post that they got the last strawberry shortcake ice cream. With that knowledge, it was almost a relief when I placed my order knowing that they were out of stock, and I would only be paying $14 for their honeycomb ice cream. However at pickup, I asked if they had any more strawberry shortcake and was thrilled/horrified when she told me they had one more left.

Was it worth it? It tasted like creamy strawberries, with a slight buttermilk tang and small chunks of cake. It was utterly delicious. If we had gone to an ice cream shop and bought scoops for my family of three, it would cost about the same (don’t you love how I try to rationalize this). Plus, knowing how expensive the dessert was, I made smaller scoops, thus milking it for a couple of desserts. That honeycomb ice cream was heavenly, too. If I return to Antico, it will be for the ice cream, rather than the pizza – although I’ll probably throw in the pizza since it’s a bargain in comparison and feel like it was money well spent.

Location – 4653 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website – https://www.antico-la.com
Kid’s Menu – No
Vegetarian Friendly – Yes
Vegan Friendly – Not during the pandemic.
Gluten-Free Options – No on the pizza. Yes for the ice cream.