When I pop into the new Rozzi Pizza for our assigned interview, chef-owner David Rosner instantly asks me, “Mind if I work while we talk? My 9:30 delivery got here at 1:30, so I’m behind.” Somehow, he could not only carry on a lively conversation with plenty of eye contact — he’s big on that — but he also kept methodically, smoothly measuring up and cutting to weight pizza dough balls, rolling each into a shiny globe set away for later. “This is my retirement job,” he tells me, “but I’m working 10 times harder than when I wore the white coat as executive chef.”
If Santa Barbarans don’t know Culinary Institute of America grad Rosner’s name, they certainly have eaten his food — he’s led kitchens at numerous spots, including Café Luck, the Wine Cask, Monarch, and University Club. But owning a pizzeria had been a childhood dream, and since he turns 50 this November, he figured it was time. “It’s nice working with tweezers and flowers and making something really pretty,” he says about his fine dining career, “but there’s something about being ridiculously precise with one item. When people ask me how my day is, I genuinely look at them and say, ‘I hang out at a pizza shop all day — I’m great!’”
And not just any pizza shop, but the kind he remembers growing up in New York. Note the “R” logo for the shop mimics the MTA subway line. “As much as it’s an eatery, it’s a culture,” he explains. Yes, he serves up a big 18-inch thin-crust pizza, and you can get any specialty pie by the slice. But it’s also about community. Rosner even signs every box (there is a tiny patio for on-site dining, but most sell to go), making sure he picks up something about every patron as he takes their order. He didn’t hire a second employee until he was open for two weeks, in case the concept didn’t work. He says, “Say I learn the guy is from D.C. — I’ll sign his, ‘Hey, D.C. Gus, great talking to you. Love, Rozzi.’”
The love comes in nine specialty pies, but at the top of the list for Rosner is the classic cheese — he says he eats a slice every day. He explains there’s a slice shop formula for developing a classic New York–style menu: “You need cheese; naturally, pepperoni; one specialty meat [his is the Hey Papo with prosciutto]; then the schmo — sausage, mushroom, onion. So, we’re largely staying in the umbrella of a concept.”
That doesn’t mean he doesn’t sneak in a bit of Santa Barbara. His wife’s favorite pie is the Hawaiian, so he opted to go with carnitas as the porky part. It’s called the Queen’s Pie, a tribute both to the borough and Rosner’s wife, Lisa, who is Margerum Wines’ tasting room manager and director of events…