Long Beach marches to the beat of a different drum, and that's evident in the new La Focacceria, a shop that crafts pizza from focaccia bread.

The shop opened in July in the former home of the vegan cafe Fermento. It's owned by wholesale product developer John Edwards. About 10 years ago, he created focaccia bread that was sold at Costco nationwide, which gave him the idea to open a focaccia shop. For this venture, he teamed up with his daughter Mary Kraemer, who previously ran the healthy eating-focused Fit Food Kitchen.

Each 10-inch pie is $20, with a dense, crispy focaccia bread crust that's halfway between a regular pizza and a Sicilian. Choose from quirky toppings such as taco meat, chicken Parmigiana, clams casino or bacon, egg and cheese.

On a recent afternoon, a "salad supreme"

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