HAVE YOU recently driven by the Silver Lake strip mall where the legendary Happy Foot Sad Foot sign spun for 30-plus years? During dinner hours, crowds swarm the parking lot for one of the year’s breakout sensations — a sports bar that serves Indian American dishes. Owner Avish Naran crisscrosses influences with a we-do-whatwe-want irreverence that feels innate to the city, though there is nothing else quite like Pijja Palace in Los Angeles.

In a room that gives off the air of a businessclass lounge in a Scandinavian airport, surrounded by 13 screens playing whatever game happens to be on that night, you might start with the “green” wings dressed in a cilantro-mint-chive chutney. The early hit is malai rigatoni, its sauce a gentle mixture of cream and tomato masala carrying the reedy twang of coriander seed. Naran and executive chef Miles Shorey do their best to eschew labels, but I’d couch their pies in the vein of East Coast-style bar or tavern pizzas — thin, chewycrisp crusts with plenty of sauce and cheese all the way to their blackened edges. Don’t go too crazy with the build-your-own combinations: A relatively mild vindaloo sauce topped with chicken tikka and tandoori onions is plenty.

• 2711 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, pijjapalace.com