Move over Starbucks and Little Caesars, there’s a new coffee and pizza joint in Santa Maria, with an average wait time that’s on par with both corporate competitors, if not less.
Fire and Vice owner Aaron Running described his new venture as a cozy coffee shop and lunch spot by day, and a booming bar and pizza kitchen by night. One thing that remains consistent, regardless of natural sunlight, is the restaurant’s fast-paced drive-through, for those looking to take their coffee, breakfast burrito, pizza, burger, hot dog, or salad on the go.
But for those looking to stick around rather than make a quick getaway, there’s plenty of space at Fire and Vice for patrons to lounge in.
“I personally like to go to a coffee shop, flip open my laptop, and work for hours on end,” said Running, who sought to rectify a trend he noticed in Santa Maria—the only coffee shop options for students, workers, or any hopeful loungers to camp for the day all happen to be Starbucks.
Running also aimed to provide a higher grade of specialty coffee when he opened the doors of Fire and Vice in October of 2021.
“I wanted to compete against Starbucks, with better coffee,” Running said. “Everyone kind of gravitates toward Starbucks because that’s what they know—you gotta grab those people and get them out of their routine to bring them over. Starbucks, as far as quality, is a lower grade of coffee. They kind of over-roast their stuff.”
Fire and Vice has a plethora of espresso concoctions—americanos, cappuccinos, cortados, lattes, macchiatos—alongside its teas, frappes, and other coffee shop staples.
“I usually get a chai tea, but our Frappuccinos are pretty amazing too. Well, they’re not Frappuccinos, because that would be a Starbucks thing,” Running amended. “Our frappes!”
There’s always room for customization when it comes to these drinks, and Running expects to add even more options in upcoming months.
“We have tons of cool syrups and stuff, so we can do a lot of cool mixes. We’re gonna do a cereal line soon, with ones that’ll taste like Cocoa Pebbles, Cap’n Crunch, Froot Loops,” Running listed.
Running’s inspiration to make Fire and Vice a spot for both coffee and beer came from New York’s gastropubs, where patrons can find coffee in the morning and beer at night.
While Running considers coffee and beer to be the vices his restaurant’s name refers to, the fire alludes to the venue’s wood-fired pizza oven. Running, who also owns the Copenhagen Sausage Garden in Solvang and the SB Biergarten in Santa Barbara, has dealt with pizza before, but never with a drive-through format—a feat pizza places rarely attempt.
“We can get a pizza out in three minutes, from start to finish,” Running said. “Because we’re using a wood fire oven, we’re cooking at 725 to 730 degrees. Once it’s in the oven, it’s like two minutes or less cook time. Couple minutes to top it, couple minutes to cook it, and you’re done. We really practice that, and we have it down pretty well.”
The wood-fired pizzas available at Fire and Vice include classic pepperoni, supremo, Margherita, spicy Hawaiian, veggie, barbecue chicken, and Running’s personal favorite: the fig-buck-goat, aka the FBG, which features dried figs, goat cheese, mozzarella, garlic oil, green onion, buckboard bacon.
“When we were designing our menu, I was like, this is one [the FBG] that has to be on there,” Running said.
As if pairing a pizza parlor with a coffee shop wasn’t eclectic enough, Fire and Vice also has a specialty sausage menu as well, which includes bratwurst, kielbasa, currywurst, bockwurst, and other offerings.
“It’s really hard to get sick of the food here since you have so many choices,” Running said.
Send your favorite vices to Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 13-20, 2022.