As the only inland outpost of a San Diego beach-town pizza chain, Surf Rider Pizza brings New York-style slices to La Mesa Village on La Mesa Boulevard. The hand-tossed, thin-crust dough bakes into wide-cut foldable slices from scratch for every service, joining City Tacos and a growing roster of independent kitchens that have rebuilt La Mesa Boulevard into a walkable dining strip since 2018. The La Mesa location opened in November 2018 as Surf Rider's fourth restaurant, expanding the brand inland from its original Mission Beach, Ocean Beach, and Pacific Beach storefronts under the CRG restaurant group. Signature pies include the Surfrider — topped with whole roasted garlic cloves caramelized until butter-soft — and the LM Deluxe, a La Mesa-exclusive build, alongside ricotta-stuffed calzones and house-baked cookies. Gluten-free crust and a vegetarian calzone with artichoke hearts round out a menu built on fresh-batch ingredients, an approach to sourcing that mirrors the produce-driven vendors at La Mesa Village Farmers Market on the same boulevard every Friday. The kitchen specializes in ricotta-and-mozzarella calzones with artichoke hearts and a signature roasted-garlic technique that slow-cooks whole cloves before embedding them into the Surfrider pie's mozzarella layer.