June’s Pizza Is Oakland’s Favorite Late-Night Slice Shop

The Midnight Diners is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and graphic novelist Thien Pham. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area’s after-hours dining scene.

When we pull up to the unmarked West Oakland warehouse at a little past 9 o’clock on a recent Friday night, there’s already a long line out the door. It’s a big, semi-industrial building — all exposed pipes and corrugated metal. The only signage to indicate that this is a place of business is an old, spray-painted wood board propped up on the ground: “June’s Pizza,” it reads.

June’s has emerged, somewhat unexpectedly, as one of the most celebrated pizza restaurants in the Bay Area on the back of its wood-fired, decadently cheese-strewn margherita pies. The pizzeria got plenty of acclaim during its renegade, early-COVID-era days as an unpermitted (and eventually shut down) shipping container pop-up. Last year, after its brick-and-mortar opened on Mandela Parkway, Esquire even named it one of the best new restaurants in the entire country.

But the reason we decided to make this pilgrimage now is because we heard — also somewhat unexpectedly — that the place has become one of the East Bay’s most popular late-night restaurants. Unexpected in the sense that June’s really only sells one thing between the hours of 9 p.m. and midnight: margherita pizza by the slice. That’s it. Nothing else.

Would that be enough to hold our wandering eyes? We had been a bit skeptical. But by the time we finish our meal, we’re hard-pressed to think of anything more perfect to eat at the end of a long night.

June’s has become something of a destination restaurant for out-of-town visitors. But during its late-night hours, the place feels more like a locals’ hangout. Maybe a DJ is spinning records, or maybe the restaurant’s hosting a listening party for a new rap album. But the overall vibe is akin to a big, convivial house party hosted in someone’s high-ceilinged living room. On the night of our visit, the crowd feels quintessentially Oakland — racially diverse, skewing toward twenty- and thirtysomething artistic types. At the table next to ours, a group of chic Asian Americans in designer eyeglasses chatters happily over their marg slices and a bottle of red wine.

June’s is proof that giving the customer fewer choices is sometimes the smartest move. Even during non-late-night hours, the restaurant only ever sells three types of pizza: margherita, pepperoni and a limited quantity of whatever seasonal special they’ve come up with that week (say, fingerling potatoes, green garlic and ham). There are no salads, no cute little appetizers, no bread sticks, no desserts.

And after 9 p.m., when June’s starts serving slices, the menu winnows down even further. Most nights, they only offer the margherita, which could scarcely be simpler — just cheese and tomato sauce with a stack of super-fresh basil leaves on the side, so you can top each slice as you please. The kitchen’s signature move is sprinkling the bejesus out of every pizza with a flurry of grated parmesan, covering the whole surface with a feathery umami dust.

The first bite is blistering hot, super crispy at the thin tip, and soft and melty on top. We love the interplay between the bright red sauce, salty cheese and well-blistered crust. The dough has just a hint of sourdough tang, and it puffs up and gets chewier and more flavorful as we get closer to the crust, offering different textures from bite to bite.

We fold our slices in half, New York–style, and dip the crusts in the restaurant’s housemade sauces — an earthy roasted garlic number and a tangy, “limited edition” wakame Caesar dressing that has a strong anchovy umami punch. (That one is so good, I bring the leftovers home to make a helluva delicious salad the next day.)

One slice in, we understand perfectly now why June’s doesn’t offer a bunch of different pizzas, because this is a taste that we would never get tired of — one we could come back to week after week.

Tonight is our lucky night, though, because the restaurant is also selling pepperoni slices, which aren’t always available. These have an entirely different vibe, despite being built on the same base as the margherita — the pizza is much richer and more intensely flavored, and has a surprisingly spicy kick from the small, dense rounds of pepperoni.

Ultimately, the success of June’s is a testament to the power of doing one thing really, really well. The lack of bells and whistles also helps keep the after-hours menu relatively affordable. Slices are $5 ($6 for pepperoni), and they’re big. Most diners won’t wind up eating more than two or three in one sitting.

The only danger? Not long after we arrive, we overhear the chef telling a customer that they only have three balls of raw dough left. By a little after 10 o’clock, there are maybe three pizzas’ worth of slices left, and it seems quite likely that they’re going to sell out before the hour is out. So as we head out into the night, we make plans to come back soon for another late-night pizza session — but maybe not too late, to be safe.

June’s Pizza is open 4 p.m.–midnight daily at 2408 Mandela Pkwy. in Oakland. The restaurant serves slices only starting at 9 p.m.