••• The Tyler x Lieu Dit tasting room on Canon Perdido has started serving burgers and fries on Thursdays after 4 p.m.
••• The Black Sheep is raising funds for a full liquor license. One offer includes buying a $500 gift card (to be used anytime) and you’ll get a $250 gift card to use after the bar has opened.
••• Now that Lion’s Tale, the new lounge in the Montecito Inn, has had its grand opening, the full food menu is available. Here it is….
And here’s the happy hour menu. Love the idea of a martini shot—the first few sips are always the best anyway.
••• Men are no longer required to wear a jacket at Caruso’s, reports C. I bet too many showed up without one, and the restaurant only had so many loaners….
••• Bettina is celebrating its sixth anniversary through Tuesday with a slate of East Coast–inspired specials, including the famous clam pie. Also intriguing is the pizza alla lasagna (below), with meat sauce, mozzarella, béchamel, and hand-rolled pasta. Pasta on pizza really is a thing, or at least it used to be when I moved to New York City in the 1990s. I don’t recall seeing it much in recent years, but then I spent less time in slice joints as I got older.
••• “What’s going on at Rusack Vineyards?” emailed A. “Ballard Canyon tasting room ‘minimally staffed’ (effectively closing?). Wine club pickups at curbside only? Talk of a ‘next chapter’?” Rusack sent a letter to its wine club members saying that it’ll be narrowing its focus—producing fewer, better wines vs. larger quantities geared to a broader audience. As a result, the fall wine club release is the last one. There will be a new allocation program, details to be announced. And as of November, access to the tasting room will be very limited to non-allocation members.
••• Lama Sama has been hopping from the get-go, and I had a very enjoyable time there the other night. But the standout food item was something you might pass right over: the miso kale Caesar salad with brown butter panko crumbs and toasted sesame seeds.
••• Pascale Beale has a new cookbook, Flavour, coming out next month: “Organized by key seasonal ingredients and punctuated by delightful anecdotes and practical tips, the cookbook—Pascale’s 11th, and the fifth in the Market Table series—presents nearly 150 easy-to-follow recipes that range from strikingly colorful starters like stuffed zucchini blossoms to flavor-packed mains like salmon and braised savoy cabbage curry, and desserts to drool over such as rhubarb and blueberry crumbles. There are also ‘seasons in a jar’—pates, butters, relishes, and vinaigrettes that enhance dishes all year long.”
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Been to Betina at least half a dozen times always thinking this time I will understand what everyone raves about but each time I am leaf thinking “this is what passes for excellent pizza in Montecito?” Not terrible but certainly not close to great.
Well, everybody has a right to an opinion even if it is so off the mark. Maybe don’t go anymore and keep a table open for someone who loves and appreciates Bettina?
Not sure why the original poster keeps returning to Betina (sic) if it’s “not terrible” at best. Yes, please, keep the table open for others that appreciate their food.
Don’t worry, Mark, you are not the only one “so off the mark” 🙄. Give the Nook Pizza a try, if you are like us, you’ll enjoy that a lot better.
What are your favorite pizza spots in town? Little Caesar’s? Rusty’s? Revolver? lol
Revolver is absolutely fantastic pizza and I would never lump them in the same sentence as Rusty’s and Little Caesars.
Revolver, Bettina, St Bibiana, L’antica are IMO the heavy hitters in town, with Nook and yes, Ginos (whole pie, not slice) being right up there with them.
There’s a reason Rusty’s and terrible beer like Fig Mountain win Independent reader polls and it’s certainly not the quality of their product.
I laughed when I saw that Rusty’s had won best pizza in the latest reader polls! What’s even funnier to me is how expensive Rusty’s is. A medium “Rusty’s Special” will regularly come in more expensive than pizzas at Bettina. Rusty’s pizzas may taste cheap, but their effect on your wallet is anything but.
I’m getting a hint of “recent transplantism” to Santa Barbara in these comments lately. There’s a time and place for all types of pizza, be it Rusty’s and yes even a Little Caesars! Oh and didn’t Fig Mtn win big nationally?
Here’s my honest response to that – I grew up in the Bay Area, and the Rusty’s equivalent up there is Round Table. As a kid, I loved Round Table, and every once in a while when I’m back up north, I’ll get a Round Table pizza. Mushrooms with white onions on the classic crust, truly hits home. There is truly something to be said for nostalgia when it comes to food – sometimes the stuff we grew up eating just satisfies in a way that’s not really going to resonate with the people who didn’t grow up eating it. So while I love a Round Table pizza on occasion, I’ll also freely admit it’s basically garbage tier pizza, and I’m not scratching my head when other people don’t get excited about it. And I’d never in a million years put in a vote on a poll declaring it to be the “best pizza.” The adults I know who like Rusty’s are all people who grew up eating it, and so while I fully understand why they like it, the same way that I like Round Table, that doesn’t actually make it good pizza – especially in a town where there are soooooo many other better alternatives. And my point about the cost still stands – I’d throw way less shade at Rusty’s if the price per pie was closer to Little Caesar’s, cause that’s about what it’s worth. The fact that a Rusty’s pizza regularly clocks in more expensive than Bettina, Revolver, St. Bibbiana, Lucky Penny and the like just baffles me. A medium Rusty’s Special is $25. The Bettina Meatlovers pizza is the identical cost. The difference in quality, flavor and labor are vast, and yet the price is the same.
FWIW I’ve lived here for five years now, but I can tell you right now how I’ll feel about Rusty’s after I’ve lived here for 20.
Bettina‘s pizza tastes great, but i feel in general people opening pizza places never had a „real“ italian pizza…
Discussions about “real” pizza are so tired.
Yep, there is not much to discuss what an authentic Italian pizza is. That doesn’t change the fact that we love Bettinas.
Bettina folks are from Roberta’s, a lauded Brooklyn pizza establishment. I’ve been to Italy, I’m just back from New York and I’m a foodie. Bettina makes not only excellent pizza but an entire menu of amazing stuff. Michelin agrees.
Especially the meatballs are great… sooo good
Regarding LamaSama: I really like the space – clean and open and inviting, though painfully loud. The Lama Dog beer selection is great and the service is on point. Sama Sama also had good servers but their insultingly small portion size and high prices won’t have me choosing to eat there again. Compare Blue Owl’s fried rice salad with Sama Sama’s. Blue Owl’s is almost 3 times as big, has great flavors, and way more fresh veggies. Sama Sama’s, on the other hand, was “double take” small and 90% rice. I spoke with a friend who mentioned that their Sama wings order, though tasty, was tiny. I’d love this place to succeed in this location but I can’t imagine my impressions are unique.
Yeah, I went last weekend, and generally enjoyed it. The beer selection is excellent as you would expect. I found the Sama Sama food to be good but the portions were ridiculously tiny. I think it was five or six chicken wings for something like 20 bucks.
I’m not super thrilled about the sports bar vibe that I got, but I’ll try again sometime that’s not Sunday in the middle of 20 screens showing NFL games.
We’ve long thought that secretly the best wings in town are the chili lime wings at Your Choice, which is just across the street and a few doors down from the new Sama Llama. Very similar to the Sama Sama Vietnamese wings, and a bigger portion to boot. We absolutely love the the new Sama Llama since it’s walking distance for us, but I’m pretty sure at some point we’ll put in a phone order at Your Choice for some wings and pick them up on our way overto Sama Llama.
I’m a big fan of Empty Bowl Friday night wings. Very spicy. We had the Vietnamese wings last night at Lama Sama and they were all right. I think the whole place was pretty slammed from two World Series nights and just opening up for business.
I can’t wait to add Flavour to my favorite cookbook collection by Pascale Beale!
I can’t wait to add Flavour to my favorite cookbook collection by Pascale Beale!
I’m a New York pizza guy who has lived in So
Cal for many years. I’ve been to almost all the
great newer pizza places in Los Angeles and I’m happy to report we have caught up to NY
My issue with Bettina is the pizza is very inconsistent and the last time oily and over
sauced with little cheese
I like Llama Sama. It’s close to our house – hooray!
But, the food prices are just stupid. If a family of 4, two eating a burger and fries from the kids’ menu, two eating an adult burger and fries, would spend ~$100 on food alone. The $10 tray of Sysco tater tots prices out at $0.25 per tot. The fried rice salad is a small bowl of rice and a couple granules of sausage for $20. It’s just too much.
Swerving away from the pizza topic, it’s interesting reading about the black sheep liquor license fundraiser, I know they had a full bar at their old location on Ortega… what happened to their liquor license? I haven’t been to the new location, and didn’t know they were just Beer and Wine…Liquor licenses are hard to come by in SB!
I whole heartedly agree with this review on Lama Sama! Place is gorgeous, staff are great and attentive, and we had such high hopes for the food. Our party ordered the $20 burger and thought there would be some sort of chips or fries that would come with it, but just a tiny burger arrived on the plate all alone. And I got seriously the smallest laughably tiny $24 duck salad with like the tiniest portions of dried shredded duck, and $8 for like 10 tater tots. I agree with other commenter’s, go for the drinks but save your money on the food! (Unless you want to go home hungry and sad about being ripped off).
Lama Sama: I’m thrilled this business has opened in San Roque as it’s definitely needed in this area. I have enjoyed Lama Dog in the funk zone for some time (food selection much better!). I went right after they opened with friends and was not terribly impressed for these reasons. Sooo loud and impossible to get a seat, kids running all around screaming and unattended while parents boozed, very small wine menu. The service was ok. The food, this was my biggest issue. The menu was small, limited and no healthier options, southeast Asian food is definitely not for everyone and the prices were outrageous for what it was. I certainly don’t mind paying for good food but this was over the top. I got the duck salad which was $30 with tip and was the tiniest portion I’ve ever been served and it had so much dressing I only ate two bites, it was gross. I ordered at my seat from the barcode menu and had to get up and retrieve my food from the kitchen window (no server & tipped). My friends ordered at the window and their food was delivered by a server (no tip). What???? I was so confused by this odd service. The food part of this establishment needs a serious reboot.
Agreed that food costs are high but unfortunately it’s a symptom of a broken model. That said, why hold food to a higher standard than $10+ beers?