About Red Boy Pizza
Red Boy Pizza - San Rafael's Late-Night Sourdough Pizza Legend Since 1969
There is a certain kind of pizza institution that transcends the category of "restaurant" and becomes something more - a fixture of community life, a taste memory that spans generations, a place you return to not just because the food is good but because it feels like something that belongs to you. Red Boy Pizza is that place in San Rafael. And the sourdough crust is the reason why.
Red Boy Pizza was founded in 1969 and began as a single, 90-square-foot location in San Francisco, California. Founders Peter and Kitty Forstner owned and operated the business for more than 35 years, centering the entire experience around an authentic sourdough crust sourced exclusively from Bordenave's Bakery in neighboring San Rafael. Peter named the restaurant Red Boy Pizza after a drawing he had created as a young boy in his native Germany - the original Red Boy. More than 55 years later, that origin story still lives in every pie that comes out of the oven.
The Crust - A Mother Dough Dating Back to 1928
Everything at Red Boy begins and ends with the crust - and this is not just marketing language. The foundation of each pizza remains the sourdough crust, the mother dough of which was originally brought from in 1918 - vegan, containing simply flour, water, and yeast, naturally low in sugar, and made with no preservatives. Red Boy makes its sourdough crusts in store daily, which means every pizza that leaves this kitchen is built on something genuinely alive and genuinely local. The result is a crust with that distinctive chew and tang that Bay Area sourdough lovers have been craving for over half a century - a crispy bottom with a lovely chewy golden crust that is, as more than one devoted customer has put it, a secondary treat in and of itself.
The Sauce - Fresh California Tomatoes and Red Wine
The signature sauce is produced from fresh, hand-picked California tomatoes, combined with the finest herbs, spices, and other special ingredients - made fresh in-house using California tomatoes and red wine, with more spices than you care to know about. The combination of that sourdough tang against a sauce with real depth and character is what separates Red Boy from every generic pizza chain in the county. You simply cannot beat the combination of sourdough and red wine base red sauce.
The Menu - Classic, Creative, and California Through and Through
Red Boy features the freshest ingredients and a wide selection of toppings - from the classic Red Boy's Special loaded with salami, pepperoni, Italian sausage, mushrooms, green peppers, green onions, and black olives, to more inventive creations like the Pizza Roma with French brie, sun-dried tomatoes, red bell peppers, and fresh garlic, or the BBQ Chicken with fresh cilantro, or the Mediterranean-inspired Greek pizza with feta, spinach, black olives, and kalamata. Creative toppings include brie cheese, caramelized onions, artichoke hearts, pesto sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, ricotta, and fresh basil - the kind of selection that rewards both the traditionalist and the adventurous eater equally. 100% real California cheese, a local gluten-free crust option, non-GMO pesto with no pine nuts or MSG, and a commitment to sourcing as many local ingredients as possible round out a menu built on genuine quality standards.
The Hours - San Rafael's Late-Night Pizza Answer
One of the things that has made Red Boy Pizza a San Rafael institution is the hours. Open daily from noon all the way through to 1:30 AM - seven days a week - Red Boy is there when you need it most: after a late show, after a long night out on 4th Street, when the kids are hungry and nothing else is open. In a county where late-night food options can be scarce, that commitment to availability has earned Red Boy a loyalty that goes well beyond the quality of the pie alone.
A Bay Area Family Business - Still Going Strong
Today, though Peter and Kitty have retired, Red Boy Pizza remains a family-owned business with seven locations across Marin, Sonoma, and Alameda counties. The San Rafael location on 4th Street serves the community with the same dedication to freshness and quality that has defined the brand since its founding - dine-in, takeout, and free delivery to select areas all available.
2044 4th Street, San Rafael, CA 94901 (415) 258-0420 redboypizza.com
Open daily 12:00 PM - 1:30 AM. Dine-in, takeout and free delivery available.
Pro Tip: The sourdough crust is the star here - order it well-done if you want maximum crunch and that deep golden char that makes Bay Area sourdough pizza unlike anything else. The Red Boy's Special and the Pizza Roma are the two pies that best showcase what makes this place worth coming back to again and again. And yes - late night delivery until 1:30 AM makes this San Rafael's most reliable answer to a post-midnight craving.