We were about to move to New York before this whole pandemic thing went down. And while living and working from a shoebox apartment would’ve grown old after about a day, the one thing you can’t argue with is New York pizza. We were a little sad to miss out on that.
So it’s great we found Bettina in Montecito, because the other thing you can’t argue with is how damn good Bettina is. Now that we discovered it, we have zero reason to lament not moving to New York. Sorry! We’re suburbanites.
So Bettina. It’s Napoletana style. It has thick and chewy (code for ‘perfect’) crust, unbelievably flavorful toppings, AND they do halvsies if you ask (half one kind of pizza, half the other — only requirement is that both kinds need to share the same base sauce). Which is perfect if you’re me and can’t narrow down the options.
The other great thing about Bettina is their non-pizza dishes. We tried the arancini (rice balls) and farro arugula salad, and both were to die for. We’ve gone to some pretty great pizza places in our day where the sides are just that – sideshows to the real deal – but these sides stood out all on their own.
What we got, and would get a thousand times over:
- Half pepperoni pizza (Tom’s favorite), half sausage-olive pizza (Jenny’s favorite)
- Whole cherry tomato pizza (Mozzarella, goat cheese, zucchini, pesto, garlic confit, basil – Jenny’s other favorite. Don’t make me choose.)
- Cacio e pepe arancini
- Arugula farro salad
https://www.bettinapizzeria.com/
1014 Coast Village Rd, Santa Barbara