The hottest pizza in Southern California doesn’t come out of a fancy restaurant or trendy pizzeria: It’s cooked in the kitchen of a man’s apartment, and getting your hands on one is practically a lottery.
AJ Miller does not have a storefront, commercial brick kiln or delivery fleet. The Connecticut transplant simply produces 15 pizzas a week from his Ocean Beach apartment.
More than 3,500 people are now looking for just 15 weekly order slots, with pies selling out in less than 30 seconds. 15-inch pizzas have become a viral obsession among Gen Z and millennial foodies, helping Miller build a social following of more than 114,000 people.
“I think people like what they can’t get, so exclusivity plays a little 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 type 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 eager to taste the results for themselves.
Then, after being laid off from his marketing job last summer, Miller decided to turn his cooking hobby into a business.
What started as a text list of just 75 interested customers has since exploded into Echo Apizza.
The name comes from his favorite pizza stye, which is the New Haven-style “apizza,” made in a coal-fired oven and known for its paper-thin crust. It’s similar to New York pizza, Miller said.
The Connecticut specialty is known for its thin, crispy crust, often baked in coal-fired ovens at temperatures reaching 800 to 900 degrees. It’s similar to New York pizza, Miller said.
But without a commercial oven, he had to get creative.
He sets his standard home oven to its maximum temperature of 550°F, baking the pies directly on a thick steel plate to transfer as much heat as possible to the crust. He then finishes them under the grill to achieve the characteristic blistered edges.
The dough undergoes a three-day cold fermentation using sourdough, while the toppings are sourced locally. Once ready, people can pick them up the following Friday.
“It took me a few years to really hone my craft,” Miller said. “I don’t think anything is ever perfect, so I think there are little adjustments that I make every time, and it could always be better.”
His pizzas reportedly sell for $25 to $30 each. Miller told Axios he was making a profit but not enough to live on. If he progresses slowly, he said he could one day cook in a professional kitchen or even a restaurant.
For now, he continues to make his pizzas from home and post them on social media, filled with commenters singing his praises.
“I found a guy in San Diego who makes pizza in his apartment oven and it literally changed my life,” one user posted.
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