Paperboy Pizza

Paperboy Pizza was a compact pizza concept inside the Gallery Food Hall on Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade. ADC designed the interior to feel less like a conventional food-hall tenant and more like a slightly gritty, retro pizza shop discovered along an urban street.

The material palette helped establish that character. A concrete countertop was paired with a warm live-edge wood die wall, while Venetian plaster and custom graphics gave the surrounding walls the layered feel of a graffiti-covered alley. Cold-rolled steel panels wrapped the storefront, adding another raw material to the composition, while a strong version of classic pizza-shop red framed the entrance and helped the small tenant stand out within the larger food hall.

ADC carried the concept into the kitchen and service area as well. Bright pink tile along the cookline spells out the Paperboy name, turning a functional kitchen surface into one of the restaurant’s most recognizable visual elements. The custom graphics, finishes, kitchen layout, and storefront were developed as one complete environment rather than separate design pieces.

The result was a small-format restaurant with a strong personality: deliberately rough around the edges, nostalgic without feeling themed, and visually distinct enough to attract attention within a busy multi-tenant food hall.