It’s just past 5 p.m. on Monday night, and the tables outside of Revolver Pizza on San Andres Street are already full. The bar is packed shoulder-to-shoulder, and the scene is frenetic, with cooks jumping around the kitchen, servers squeezing in and out, and customers trying to figure out where to order.
But it’s not the humble parlor’s beloved pepperoni and white pizza pies flying out of the hustling kitchen — it’s plates of steak Diane, manila clams in yuzu broth, shallot and leek tarte Tatin with horseradish whip, and chilled stone fruit with basil and chile that everyone eagerly awaits. It all feels way more Lower East Side Manhattan than sleepy Westside Santa Barbara.
Most are also ordering a curious — some would like to believe revolutionary — sandwich: the Pyramid Burger, a triangular take on America’s favorite handheld, treated with the same snappy, vinegar-laced fixings that you find on an Italian grinder. Washing that down are the boundary-busting wines of Scott Sampler, from the tangy lineup of Scotty-Boy! wines like El Sandweech to the more extracted vins de garde from his L’Arge d’Oor label…