••• 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.”
················
Sign up for the Siteline email newsletter for the freshest food news in town.
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.
Bettina‘s pizza tastes great, but i feel in general people opening pizza places never had a „real“ italian pizza…
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.
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!