Somewhere between the realms of pizza and focaccia, wishful cravings became reality in the form of pinsa—one of Nella Kitchen and Bar’s signature Italian dishes. Described as a reinterpretation of an ancient recipe, the main characteristic that sets this Roman-style pizza apart from traditional pizza is its lightness.
“Pinsa comes from the Latin ‘pinsera,’ meaning to push the dough by hand,” Santa Ynez Valley local Dario Dell’Anno told the Sun. “It is a fluffier, more airy—for lack of a better term—dough with a crispy texture on the outside and incredible softness and lightness on the inside.”
Dell’Anno is the general manager of both Nella Kitchen and Bar (established in 2020) and its sister restaurant about 5 miles to the east, S.Y. Kitchen (established in 2013). Although Nella celebrated a soft opening (for outdoor dining) in August of last year, the Los Olivos eatery recently closed its doors to gear up for a proper grand opening sometime later this year, once state and local guidelines allow on-site dining to resume.
But Nella Kitchen and Bar was originally supposed to open nearly a year ago, Dell’Anno explained, when an unprecedented crisis made it an impossibility.
“Plans for the new restaurant actually began in December of 2019, and we were planning on a March 2020 opening,” Dell’Anno said. “COVID obviously changed those opening plans. We didn’t want to open Nella in any capacity until outdoor dining was allowed.”
“We were finally able to open in late summer of 2020, in a limited capacity, but weren’t able to do a true ‘grand opening’ before this recent shutdown closed the new restaurant to diners, once again,” Dell’Anno added.
While on-site dining is also currently suspended at S.Y. Kitchen in Santa Ynez, the restaurant will remain open for takeout options, and it recently updated its menu.
“We just expanded the to-go menu offerings by adding a few more entrees and salads, and launching lunch service in addition to takeout dinner service,” Dell’Anno said, discussing S.Y. Kitchen’s “online market” platform.
Through this feature on S.Y. Kitchen’s website, guests can preorder a variety of takeout options for pickup at the restaurant. Among the featured dishes is a rotating selection of house-made pastas, each made with wheat semolina, farm-fresh eggs, and organic flour and durum.
The different types of pasta to preorder will vary from week to week, depending on which ingredients are available from nearby farms, for example, and other factors. Each pasta is also served in reuseable packaging.
Patrons can also pre-order soups and sauces made from scratch, including S.Y. Kitchen’s popular wild mushroom sauce (sold in sealed packets), as well as freshly grated Grana Padano.
Speaking of sauce, S.Y. Kitchen’s online market also offers a unique assortment of bottled cocktails, including El Viejo (made with Del Maguey Vida mezcal, Fresno chili, lime juice, pineapple, basil, and sal de gusano) and The Valley Girl (made with Koskenkorva vodka, St. Germain, lime, strawberry, and basil).
Tying in to the sibling motif even further, both S.Y. Kitchen and Nella Kitchen and Bar can appropriately be described as the “brain children” of executive chef and co-owner Luca Crestanelli. Born and raised in Verona, Italy, Crestanelli moved to the U.S. in 2002. During the decade that followed, he worked as a chef for Vincenti, Toscana, and Bar Toscana, all in Brentwood, Califoria, before moving to the Central Coast and launching S.Y. Kitchen with co-owners Kathie and Mike Gordon in 2013.
In 2019, Crestanelli and the S.Y. Kitchen team set their sights on potential spaces to open a new sister restaurant in Los Olivos.
“Luca was the creative mind behind the menu and design,” Dell’Anno said, discussing the development of Nella Kitchen and Bar over the past couple of years.
“It was all rather fortuitous,” Dell’Anno said, commenting on their partnership with the Fess Parker Wine Country Inn, once an accommodating space at the hotel became available to house Nella. “The S.Y. Kitchen team had been looking for a space for a while to create the pinsa concept.”
Once Nella Kitchen and Bar is able to reopen for on-site dining, the restaurant will eventually provide room service options to guests at Fess Parker Wine Country Inn, as well as food and beverage service at the hotel’s pool area. Catering for private events booked at the hotel will also be provided by Nella.
As sister restaurants, the similarities between Nella Kitchen and Bar and S.Y. Kitchen are on par with their differences, much like any pair of actual siblings.
“The ambience and menu format at Nella is more modern, perhaps a bit more urban,” Dell’Anno said. “S.Y. Kitchen is refined-yet-rustic Italian, done in wine country farmhouse style—in terms of both food and decor. While Nella has the same Italian hospitality sensibilities, we wanted a more casual environment for lingering over craft cocktails, lounging with cheese and charcuterie boards, and gathering with friends over our signature pinsas.”
Reaching Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood is a piece of pinsa at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 28 – Feb 4, 2021.