Neapolitan Pizzeria Made Well-known From ‘Eat Pray Love’ Opens in Santa Barbara

L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele’s second Southern California location opened in Santa Barbara on November 9. In 2019, L’Antica made its Hollywood debut as the primary U.S. location for the 152-year-old Naples restaurant. The restaurant’s widespread recognition is due partially to its point out within the bestselling memoir Eat Pray Love, and it was perpetually immortalized within the movie adaptation starring Julia Roberts.

L’Antica moved into Santa Barbara’s historic Ember Mill constructing, which previously housed the long-standing Copper Espresso Pot from 1927 to 1982. Proprietor Francesco Zimone redesigned the area to reflect the Hollywood location by showcasing pizza manufacturing by way of an open kitchen. There’s a smaller indoor seating space, a bar space, and a courtyard that seats 60. Tables additionally spill onto a busy State Avenue sidewalk.

Head pizzaiolo Michele Rubini maintains the strict pizza-making standards dictated by the unique Naples restaurant. Chef Rick Body developed L’Antica’s Santa Barbara’s total menu to supply informal lunch counter service with pasta and salads, in addition to a salumi and deli counter. Workers will maneuver to take-out within the later afternoon hours and later to full dinner service.

Recent pastas are sauced with pomodoro, nerano, and cacio e pepe. Mains embrace a branzino, a 16-ounce Tasmanian steak, and, in fact, the Neapolitan-style pizzas cranked out of a personalized wood-fired oven. West Hollywood’s Gelato Competition will supply the dessert beginning in winter, whereas beers and wines hail from California and Italy.

If that’s not sufficient growth inside a brief interval, Zimone plans to open a multi-level West Village location in New York Metropolis on December 9, with yet one more in Lengthy Seashore’s Belmont Shore subsequent summer time.

L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele’s hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. for lunch counter service, 4 p.m. to six p.m for take-out-only, and from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. for full service. Reservations can be found by way of OpenTable.