Olio Pizzeria Enoteca and Bar - Santa Barbara, CA

One week ago today I was up in Santa Barbara and it was a rainy night. It was the night before the Santa Barbara Marathon and I was very concerned about the weather the next day. At the time, I wasn't sure if I should even carbo load or not. I was going to bail on the race if the weather was bad.

In the end, I still had to have dinner so we drove over to State Street to find a restaurant that was not already packed solid. It was dinner time and there were lots of runners in town. Not to mention all the naval personnel on leave due to Veteran's Day. There was a 45 minute to 1 hour wait everywhere we checked and it was raining pretty hard outside.

We had originally wanted to eat at Olio e Limone, which was a fancier restaurant next door but they were booked up until 8:45pm. We ended up running next door to Olio Pizzeria and waited for 20 minutes before we were seated at the bar. It was the best seat in the house. I got to see them make my pizza up close and personal.

This is a wood-gas hybrid oven they used to bake the pizzas. They were turning out pizzas at the speed of light. 

This is the Boscaiola, a sausage and mushroom pizza. This came out ten minutes after we ordered it. Of course I could not have any of this because of the cheese but...

...look! They make a plain baked pizza crust called Pane Alle Erbe & Sale Di Salina, fresh baked with herbs, garlic and sea salt. This is about the best pizza bread I've ever had!

This is the Insalada Di Polipo, an Octopus ceviche-like dish with celery and parsley vinaigrette. It is a bit heavier than ceviche because it is heavier on the olive oil as opposed to the lime juice. Really tasty!

This is the Gamberetti al Aglio e Olio Piccante, a garlic-y shrimp dish in a spicy chili oil covered by a thin layer of thinly sliced potato rounds, in an au gratin style but without the butter and cream sauce I suppose.

So good! Want a taste?

Hello cheese and salami case!

Then I saw what they did with the stuff in the case, this is the Salumi e Formaggi Assortiti, which is an assortment of meats and cheeses of the chef's choosing. Um, I'm totally getting that next time. 

Haha, he posed with it for me because I was taking so many photos at the bar.

I was already really full by this point and luckily they let me do a half order of assorted biscottis with a nice cup of tea. I'm so glad I tried this because these were amazing! One was crunchy, one was chewy and one was cakey. A perfect ending to a delicious meal.

I was a happy girl!

Olio Pizzeria Enoteca and Bar
11 W. Victoria Street, Suite 21
Santa Barbara, CA
(805) 899-2699