Two Brothers, One Pizza Obsession

Mission Viejo, CA – On a Tuesday night on Marguerite Parkway, the line at Coastline Pizzeria stretches past the door. Inside, a young pizzaiolo tosses a round of naturally leavened dough into  the air with the easy confidence of someone who has done it ten thousand times. A family in the  corner booth is halfway through a Bonfire, the pepperoni-and-hot-honey pie that regulars order  without looking at the menu. In the back of the restaurant, a neon Coastline sign glows blue on  the wall. 

Six months ago, this same room was called OC Pizza. 

The transformation from a quiet neighborhood pizza shop into a Mission Viejo destination  serving 72-hour naturally leavened sourdough is one of the more understated restaurant glow-ups  unfolding in Orange County right now. And this spring, the broader Southern California food  community made it official: Coastline Pizzeria was voted the 2026 Golden Slice winner for Best  Specialty Pizza in Southern California during SoCal Pizza Week, a public-vote award drawing  pizza lovers from Los Angeles down through San Diego. 

How two brothers turned a Mission Viejo neighborhood spot into a SoCal’s most  wanted sourdough pizzeria 

Coastline is the work of two brothers with deep roots in Southern California hospitality. Before  opening the pizzeria, thcrapsey built and operated Churro Bar, a Spanish-style dessert concept  whose catering arm still runs today, and Jay’s Gourmet Catering, which served high-volume  clients including Amazon distribution centers. That operational muscle, the discipline of feeding  hundreds of people consistently, quietly underwrites everything happening at Coastline now. 

But pizza was always the endgame. 

“Pizza has always been a passion of mine,” Jason Martin, co-founder sayss. “It seems simple, but  there’s a ton of depth when you really get into it. And we’ve always loved hospitality just as  much as the food side. For us, it’s about making people feel taken care of, creating a place where  the staff remembers your name.” 

That philosophy shows up in small ways. Regulars are greeted by name. The staff is trained to  treat every guest like a repeat customer from day one, even on their first visit. 

The Golden Slice is only part of the story. Over the last several months, a steady stream of  Southern California foodie influencers has made the pilgrimage to Mission Viejo, cameras rolling, and the resulting content has done exactly what great pizza content does: made people  hungry. Creators like @forkingaround.tv and @eatwithperris have brought their audiences  straight to Coastline’s door, and one reel in particular took off, racking up views well beyond the  local foodie circuit and pulling in a wave of first-time visitors driving down from LA and up  from San Diego just to see if the pizza really lives up to the hype. The attention hasn’t been  limited to social either. The brothers were recently interviewed on the SoCal Restaurant Show on  AM 830, Angels Radio’s long-running program dedicated to the Southern California dining 

scene, where they walked host Andy Harris through the Coastline story, the sourdough process,  and what it meant to take home the Golden Slice. (Spoiler: judging by the line out the door on  Tuesday nights, the pizza is living up to the hype.) 

Now Open For Lunch 

The latest chapter at Coastline: lunch service is officially live, and the brothers have used it as an  excuse to flex a different muscle. Alongside the sourdough pies, the midday menu features a  growing lineup of chef-driven sandwiches built on house-baked sourdough seeded rolls made in house daily. The early standout is a cheesesteak that reads like a mission statement: chopped  ribeye grilled to order, sweet grilled onions, and melted provolone piled onto that same naturally  leavened roll. No shortcuts. No seed oils. Just a cheesesteak built the way it should be. It’s the  same philosophy that earned them the Golden Slice, applied to a whole new daypart, and it gives  Mission Viejo something the neighborhood has been quietly missing: a lunch spot that treats a  sandwich with the same seriousness as a specialty pizza. 

East Coast Craft, West Coast Ingredients 

Coastline’s identity lives at the intersection of two great American pizza traditions. The brothers  took their cues from the New York institutions that changed the modern pizza conversation,  L’Industrie Pizzeria, John’s of Bleecker Street, Mama’s Too, and Ceres, then channeled those  techniques into a Southern California ingredient philosophy. 

Every pie starts with a naturally leavened sourdough that ferments for up to 72 hours, producing  a crust that is simultaneously light, airy, and deeply flavorful. Grande Cheese anchors the  mozzarella. Sauces are made in-house. Coastline avoids seed oils entirely, cooking exclusively  with California olive oil and avocado oil. All fried foods, from wings to mozzarella sticks, are  prepared in beef tallow. 

Early reviewers noticed the details immediately, calling out the great char and undercarriage on  the sourdough base. One Yelp regular put it more simply: “The pizza I dream of. Fresh toppings,  not greasy, great ratio of sauce to toppings, and ZERO flop.” Order Online 

The Bonfire 

Ask anyone what to order and you’ll get the same answer: the Bonfire. 

A layered composition of pepperoni cups, hot honey, and finishing herbs on that trademark  sourdough base, the Bonfire has become the pizza that Coastline regulars order on repeat and the  pizza that the SoCal Pizza Week co-founder Joey “Pepperoni” Rubino singled out when the  Golden Slice was announced. 

“The love for the craft and quality of the ingredients going into Coastline’s pizza, especially the  Bonfire, deserves real attention from any pizza lover in Southern California,” Rubino said. 

More Than Pizza

What separates Coastline from the crowded Orange County pizza field isn’t just the sourdough or  the sourcing, though both are exceptional. It’s the sense, unmistakable the moment you walk in,  that the people behind the counter are genuinely happy you’re there. 

“At the end of the day, the goal is to build something people love,” says co-founder Gabe. “Not  just for the pizza, but for how they feel when they’re here.” 

Judging by the line out the door on a Tuesday, that goal is landing. 

Coastline Pizzeria is located at 25102 Marguerite Parkway, Suite A, in Mission Viejo. Open  daily for lunch and dinner, delivery, and takeout. coastlinepizzaco.com | @coastline_pizzeria