Although we enjoy what we do it is always rewarding to have people tell us that they enjoy our efforts. We bake frozen pizzas and then sell them to distributors and stores who in turn offer them to the public. Along this journey, we try to keep a level head, our feet firmly rooted, and our hearth burning. Both positive and critical feedback get a fair shake with all of us here. We are humbled by compliments and attentive to suggestions and criticisms.
Here's what the press, a few retailers, and customers - the very real people that enjoy our efforts - have said about our work.
CCM ~ Central Coast Magazine
May / June, 2010
"Ultimate Chef ~ Most Dedicated Locavore" ~ Not only was our dish delicious, but it showed serious dedication to honoring local food fources."
edible Santa Barbara
Spring, 2010
Winner: Food Artisan
Winner: Best Chef / Restaurant
December 12, 2009
"5 Stars (highest rating): You can fully understand why fanatic Angelenos migrate hours north every weekend for a single meal."
December 10, 2009
"Don't think of it as health food, even if it is: a gourmet experience filled with flavor and free of unsettling mystery."
October 9, 2009
"After this meal, I certainly found myself revitalized, though slightly ruined because every subsequent meal for the following few days left me unsatisfied. However, I was inspired to rethink my own kitchen and its products and to seriously ponder the farms and farmers who work to put food on my grateful table."
Summer Issue , 2009
"I watch it all, feeling nourished—knowing that my food has been handled with respect from farm to plate by people who share my passion for food and the life it brings us."
September 21 , 2009
Yelp should have an option of 6 stars titled "Wowie Zowie!!!"
September 14, 2009
"Los Alamos is home to one of the best local, organic restaurants in California - Full of Life Flatbread. The chefs have a gift for letting the food speak for itself. And it is almost impossible to get a bad meal. This is a place I will continue to come back to, knowing that although the menu will never be the same, I will always receive the same extraordinary dining experience."
A Real Customer email!
September 3, 2009
I have never tasted a better pizza ..... and it is healthy for you! I was
thrilled when I discovered them! Just recently I was diagnosed with Type 2
diabetes and one of the things which I felt like I would have to delete from
my diet was pizza. NOT ANYMORE! My blood sugar actually went DOWN to the lowest
it has been since July 2009 after eating one of your pizzas. ORGANIC INGREDIENTS!
ZERO SUGAR! HANDMADE! ORGANIC FLOUR! I am so impressed with how quick and
easy it is to heat up the pizza and how absolutely delicious they are (I've
tried all of them). I will be telling all of my friends and my Nutritionist
and doctors about your amazing pizzas. Please share my favorable comments
with the staff at Full of Life
Shari Gabaldon, Phoenix, AZ
September 1, 2009
"It was all about the flatbread pizzas in the brick ovens," said Adrienne Caryle, 24, of San Francisco. "Full of Life Flatbreads were out of this world." ... Oh yeah, Pearl Jam was good too. - this review was for the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco
August 4, 2009
"5 Great Tastes from Wally's 2009 Central Coast Wine and Food Celebration - Top-flight restaurants from L.A. and California's Central Coast. Here are five great tastes: Tavern (Suzanne Goin), The Hungry Cat (David Lentz), Full of Life Flatbread, Pier 46 (Eric Gonzales), and Cut (Wolfgang Puck)."
Mary 10, 2009
"... the most amazing food I’ve ever had... there simply weren’t words for how impressed I was. Putting all fabrication and exaggeration aside, I was truly stunned when I set foot at Flatbread."
March 25, 2009
"A pizza parlor in your kitchen."
March 16, 2009
"Best of Expo West - Full of Life Flatbread Pizza. I am extremely impressed with the flavor and the crust. And thrilled to have another option for a healthy fast food. I think this pizza is truly excellent. Absolutely and without reservation the beest frozen pizza I have ever eaten."
February 28, 2009
"One of the finest flatbread pizza restaurants on the west coast makes its homee here...Foodies travel for hours each way to savor Full of Life's stone hearth-bakeed flatbread pizzas. The name may be deceptive, as there is more to the restaurant than mere pizza."
February 18, 2009
"I love pizza... Full of Life All Natural Pizza, a frozen pizza made with whole grains — and topped with minimal amounts of highly flavored cheeses. The chewy crust is made with organic whole wheat, topped with organic sauce and some of my favorite cheeses. These pizzas are proof that less really is more so long as you opt for good quality ingredients. Full of Life All Natural Pizza comes in a range of flavors to suit; Tomato Sauce and Three Cheese for tepid eaters."
January 13, 2009
"I try to eat as organically and sustainably as possible. I shop carefully at the market, my husband goes to the Farmer’s Market biweekly, and he’s even started a garden so we can have fresh fruits and vegetables right in our own backyard... I recently visited Hearth in the Cottonwoods on a Sunday. I had reviewed the menu before we got there, and was very excited. My husband was ecstatic. We weren’t disappointed... it was so delicious.. I think this is testament to the quality and freshness of the ingredients. This truly was the kind of meal I had to tell everyone I knew about. I blogged about it, I emailed friends the website, we discussed having my husband’s birthday there. That was the kind of impression it made on us! Why can’t more Los Angeles area restaurants mimic the local, organic, sustainable approach taken by Hearth in the Cottonwoods and Full of Life Flatbread? We took a few pieces of our flatbread home, which inspired us to purchase the frozen version at our local Whole Foods on our next trip to the market."
January 8, 2009
"Here are the 12 most impressive meals I ate in 2008, regardless of cuisine or price level, excluding Los Angeles. No.1 Flatbread, Los Alamos, CA."
Carla from Chicago -
December 16, 2008
"I recently purchased a frozen flatbread pizza and without a doubt it is the greatest pizza ever!"
December 1, 2008
"The food at Flatbread is delicious and incomparable to anything I've had in Los Angeles. In fact, we had eaten at Pizzeria Mozza just the night before , and my husband and I agreed that their was no comparison - the meal at Full of Life's Hearth in the Cottonwoods out-shined Mozza easily. They go into more detail about the restaurant, menu and their practices at Full of Life Foods. If you can't make the trip, you can purchase their flatbreads at Whole Foods. However, this is not a substitute for a meal up there, merely something to tide you over until you can visit them."
The Coast News
November 20-26, 2008
"Full of Life Flatbread should be a destination for everyone! As humans, we strive for comfort and the familiar. It is in our DNA to recongnize vegetables and fruits in season and crave them. When a chef brilliantly combines the neighborhood fare to present a flavorful dish that is pleasing to both the palate and the eye, he is a hero in my eyes. Welcome to Full of Life Flatbread in Los Alamos... a Bastion of Wonder."
October 22, 2008
"Tired of the same ol’ Friday night pizza? Full of Life’s new line of certified organic, locally sourced frozen Flatbread Pizza is putting a fresh spin on a family favorite... these naturally delicious pies are made from fresh, seasonal produce, so you can add a little spice to your cuisine routine."
Septembers 7, 2008
"... a restaurant where almost everything passes into and out of the enormous, igloo-shaped wood oven, and the whisper-thin flatbread, the “Porkfolio” charcuterie plate and the soupe au pistou made with fresh shell beans are wonders to behold. As everybody around here will remind you, this is Sideways country, and the wine list is stuffed with ultra-allocated small-producer bottles from the surrounding hills."
July 16,, 2008
"Flatbread - The Anti-Steak of California's Central Coast Wine Country - Flatbread is a phenomenon, a quasi-pizzaria using local, sustainable, seasonal ingredients. There will be a wait, but the flatbreads, über-organic sort of pizzas, are delicious, made almost exclusively from the produce of the local farmers markets." - Pulitzer Prize winning writer Jonathan Gold
February 27, 2008
5-Stars - "Incredible food, wonderful people, a unique & memorable experience"
February 20, 2008
"Flatbread is producing the best flatbread/pizza in the region, they’re doing it in a thoughtful way with consideration for the land, and at least as important, they’re doing it in a way that’s fun for customers."
The Santa Barbara News Press
November 9, 2007 Edition of The Scene
Foodie Finds: Going green is certainly the thing to do. Flatbread pursues their philosophy and approaches food with great respect. The Flatbread team shops at local farmer's markets and stocks all local wines, supporting small farms that often have a much smaller environmantal footprint. The Flatbread menu reflects the seasons, featuring food that is seasonal and fresh for all thier specials.
GAYOT.com
The Santa Ynez Valley Journal
October 26, 2007 Edition
Delicious Nourishment - certified natural Chef and Nutrition Educator Micah Elconin raves "When the doors open, people from all walks of life enter into their own personal Mecca for nourishment. ... acquiring all the ingredients it uses from less than 300 miles away. Everything including their flour, cheeses, oils, and of course their produce."
Central Coast Travels
September 29, 2007 Edition
"A must-visit if you're hankering for a pleasant, upscale but casual and unique dining experience."
Variety Magazine
September 18, 2007 Edition
"Mario Batali and Nancy Silverton, prepare to throw down: Flatbread pizza."
Central Coast Magazine
July / August 2007 Edition
'07 Best Of Picks - Flavor packed and made from seasonal ingredients, please don't call it pizza.
Santa Barbara Independent
The Land of Sand Dunes and Flatbread - Los Alamos is a 25-minute drive from coastal access tantamount in beauty to any of the coastline I drove through in Northern California. And it proved to be the perfect Memorial Day weekend getaway.
At Flatbread, we put our name on the list—the restaurant
doesn’t take reservations—and settled in at the bar for pre-dinner
drinks. The mirror above the bar was emblazoned with the words, “Food
remembers the acts of the hands and heart,” which is exactly the motto
you want your food preparers to live by. And the bar snack? A giant wooden
bowl of fresh sugar snaps. I understood instantly why this place was worthy
of an hour’s drive; this was no ordinary restaurant.
A beer lover to the end, I enjoyed a pint of Butte Creek pilsner while the
others oohed and ahhed over the huge selection of local wines. The Alma Rosa
was so perfect, in fact, that my fellow diehard beer drinker handed me the
pint she’d ordered after trying a sip of her friend’s Pino Gris.
“Drink this,” she said. “I can’t not order that wine.”
The non-drinkers among us enjoyed the sarsaparilla, an all-natural soda similar
to root beer.
After about 45 minutes, we were seated at an outdoor table. Despite the friendly
wait staff’s constant offers to turn on heat lamps, it was balmy enough
that we never needed them and didn’t feel at all disappointed to miss
out on the lively dining room atmosphere. After a few minutes of contemplating
the one-of-a-kind menus (literally: the cover of each one was illustrated
with a different drawing), one of our diners piped up almost desperately,
“We’re going to share things, right? I just imagined having to choose
just one kind of these pizzas and got really sad.” So when the waitress
came over, it was an ordering free-for-all, each of us calling out our pick
until we’d ordered what we thought would be entirely too much food: several
salads—which someone aptly described as “dynamic”—and
five large pizzas. But when the traditional cheese Medicine Wheel arrived
first and was gone within minutes, we all knew there’d be no leftovers.
I come from a family that likes to cook—as in, having donuts on Saturday
mornings meant forming circles out of dough and dropping them in vats of oil.
My dad’s specialty has always been pizza, so I know what to expect from
homemade dough, sauce made from fresh tomatoes and garlic, and toppings to
order. Well, I hate to say it, Dad, but even your pizza didn’t prepare
me for the Flatbread experience. Even though it’s thin crust, “bread”
is an appropriate word for it because each of the ingredients was so distinct
that the blanket term “pizza” really doesn’t apply: this was
homemade bread covered in the finest cheeses, herbs, and vegetables.
Of our five pizzas, my personal favorites were Punctuated Equilibrium (Kalamata
olives, sweet peppers, feta cheese, rosemary, onions, and garlic) and Cheese
and Herb, while others swooned over the Revolution (mushrooms and caramelized
onions) and Pepperoni and Peppers. But the fact was, though I normally have
very distinctive likes and dislikes, every bite of every pizza was heavenly.
The patio was decorated in handmade prayer flags, each with a different drawing
or message. We laughed at “Make wine, not war,” but partly because
Flatbread is one of those places that lets you believe in that kind
of simplistic idealism. That there are bustling restaurants dedicated to that
way of thinking makes it seem at least that maybe we didn’t irrevocably
screw up our earth.
The feeling that everything just might work out alright after all was hammered
home when dessert arrived. I don’t think any of us minded that they were
out of the brownie sundae when the plates of fresh strawberries with melt-on-your-tongue
meringues and homemade whipped cream arrived. And as for the gourmet s’mores—have
you ever spent 15 minutes meticulously roasting a marshmallow to perfection?
This was that marshmallow, except it was huge and drenched in dark chocolate.
At the end of the weekend, Flatbread converts the restaurant into a production
bakery, from where they make frozen pizzas available at such convenient locations
as Albertson’s, Gelson’s, and Lazy Acres.But as long as I’m
within 100 miles of Los Alamos, I don’t plan to taint the Flatbread dining
experience with convenience. I have a sneaking suspicion that the trip was
half the taste.
Santa Barbara News Press
June 1, 2007 Edition
Flatbread is the Best Pizza Reviewed - Delivered.
March 29, 2007
"Flatbread makes what's probably the best pizza on the West Coast"
San Luis Obispo New Times
March 29, 2007
Enjoy artisinal food - get it fresh or frozen from Flatbread.
When I first tasted Flatbread I had an epiphany. The flavor and the chew was delectable, crisp wheat crust transported me back two decades to my first taste of Acme Bread from Steve Sullivan, baker at Chez Panisse in Berkeley. When I sampled Flatbread I realized that it was the best pizza I'd ever tasted - and I worked for Chef Wolfgang Puck.
A Tour Guide to Central Coast Wines (Chronicle Books)
March 2007
The book is loaded with dining advice too, even where to get a great wood-fired pizza at the end of a hard day's wine touring (hint: It's in Los Alamos). The Central Coast Food Connection - Flatbread's all-natural artisinal pizza topped with organic ingredients draws the crowds.
Santa Barbara News Press
February 9, 2007 Edition
4-Star Restaurant Rating - Excellent
All Love at Flatbread! I've been singing the praises of Flatbread's Hearth in the Cottonwoods for weeks now. The Los Alamos outpost is the epitome of hippies with an excellent marketing plan who have stayed with the times without sacrificing their ideals. Nor have they sacrificed their love of organic-local-artisanal and sustainable ingredients and beverages.
Come Friday and Saturday nights, though, the place changes into its restaurant hat and it is apparent that Flatbread is the place to be in the Valley, playing a gracious host to locals, destination diners and the who's who of the wine world.
The hearth is one of the most creative and crafty hot spots I've seen with a beautiful tile mosaic "backsplash" and candles perched on the stepped bricks, giving it a special glow. Once seated, with a view of the hand-hewn, wood-fired oven, we watched the raw flatbreads transformed into bubbling hot nourishment.
I was full, full of peace, love and happiness. Not to mention flatbread that will change your definition of pizza and have you coming back for more.
Santa Barbara - The American Riviera
January 24, 2007 Edition
Every region has its stash of great roadside eateries, places locals haunt and tourists hanker for. These sleeves-up, non-franchised, no-reservations outposts are driven by cooks, bakers and pit-masters who are true Americana folk artists, preserving regional cuisine infused with a dash of local color. In Santa Barbara, the area’s rich and diverse agricultural and culinary roots run deep – as does the devotion of local chefs helming the stoves.
Seeking a perfect union of fire and rock? Hightail it to Flatbread’s weekend restaurant – Hearth in the Cottonwoods. Here, owner Clark Staub and artisan bakers cull local organic and sustainably grown ingredients (within a 300 mile radius) including the water and wood source to turn out a selection of stunning pizzas from a primitive 900-degree wood-fired oven. Utilizing local rocks and clay, the oven is the pride of Staub, who hand-crafted it with the help of local masons. On weekends, the bakery’s stone hearth lends a cozy atmosphere to the bustling restaurant which has become a hot spot for local vintners given its Los Alamos location. Fresh yet funky, the interior is home grown with tables hewn from local recycled barnwood, wine barrel stools, a mirror-backed bar and old fashioned wood paneling from nearby Lompoc Penitentiary. More than 85 local wines are offered with 15 by the glass, as well as a few salads and specials, determined by the local produce in season.
Santa Maria Sun
January 2007
Foodies worldwide wait in suspense for the newest flavors - Poised to fill a growing demand for flatbread the folks at Flatbread will continue to turn out thousands of their mouthwatering pizzas. Made from locally grown, mostly organic ingredients, these delectable discs also bear the savory flavors imparted by a "primitive wood-fired oven," a retro appliance increasingly favored by discerning cooks.
Radio Interview broadcast on NPR Radio Station KCBX
October 2006
Flatbread baker Clark Staub is interviewed on the NPR radio show "Keeping it Fresh on the Central Coast" with Charles Myers on public supported radio station KCBX. Listen to the October broadcast.
SAN FRANCISCO TRIBUNE
October 29, 2006 EDITION
"An old stage stop not far off Highway 101 between San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara, Los Alamos is a good setting for a haunted mansion. Two of the most interesting places in town are only open on weekends. Flatbread Co. makes irresistible-looking organic pizzas. Mostly they're frozen and shipped to retailers, but on Friday and Saturday nights the place opens as a restaurant. It looked wonderful."
OAKLAND TRIBUNE
September 14, 2006 EDITION
"My dinner was a symphony of late-summer flavors, including a flawlessly blistered flatbread. A stupendous wine list dedicated to Santa Barbara County producers, and the house organic Flatbread Red Ale, and Flatbread is a worthy destination restaurant."
SANTA BARBARA INDEPENDENT
September 7, 2006 EDITION
"What's Hot? Flatbread. Just when you thought you'd never have to hear another Sideways reference...bam! The funky gray house and production kitchen, fashioned of recycled materials, turns into a hopping restaurant and veritable who's who of winemakers on Friday and Saturday nights. Made from organic and sustainably produced ingredients, the flawless smokey pies emerge from a handmade 20 ton eartthen oven laden with seasonal ingredients."
SANTA BARBARA SEASONS Magazine
Set / Oct / Nov '06 Issue
"Sourcing ingredients from local farmers who share their reverence for the land, this Los Alamos restaurant draws large, lively crowds, who come for the down-to-earth, polished rustic atmosphere, and menu of super-fresh and delicious flatbreads and salads."
COAST NEWS - San Luis Obispo County
August 9-15, 2006 Issue
"Our trip took us to an anomaly in dining. An experience so church like with reference toward the food and the act of eating it, I felt like I should have worn a hat. The best organic meal I have ever experienced... I had the freshest, tastiest salad ever, (and) my husband, Mr.Dessert Special, about dropped dead from pleasure.The service was wonderful and you could tell that every employee was truly pleased to be working in this place. You could taste the love in the food. A great story, amazing food and a funky town, this was a night to remember, a story to be told."
June12, 2006
"Eating local helps ensure an authentic culinary experience, giving people exceptional taste and freshness while bringing them closer to the source.... in tiny Los Alamos, pizzas made from local ingredients are cooked in a wood-burning oven in the open kitchen. Glasses of local wine are a fixture on diners' tables, and it's a great place to eavesdrop on conversations by local vintners about the state of the current crop."
TRAVEL AND LEASURE - GOLF MAGAZINE
May / June, 2006 Issue
"This artisinal bakery magnanimously transforms itself into a pizzaria two nights of the week. Delicious wood-fired pizzas baked in a massive stone oven, employing all local, incredibly fresh, organically grown ingredients. What a gift to the area, and arguably the best pizza I've ever had. Pizzas are ridiculously low-priced for what you get." - Rex Pickett's Sideways Tour
MALIBU TIMES
May 26, 2006
"What would motivate four foodies to drive 500 miles roundtrip, in a gas guzzling Hummer for a day excursion not found in any brochure? Flatbread Pizzas. We are wanted to know if the flatbread pizzas and housemade desserts at Flatbread in Los Alamos, nestled in the Santa Ynez Valley, met or surpassed the current buzz... At Flatbread, Staub was baking pizzas nonstop, placing them with surgical precision into a primitive wood-fired earthen oven, which he built, by the way... This is the "kinda" place you hear about from friends, especially those organically inclined...Each pizza is a labor of love, not a statement of corporate conformity."
DELECTABLY CRISP
Wendy Buxton wrote us on February 14, 2005 and told us: I saw the testimony from San Francisco, and wanted to add ours: We purchased 6 Flatbreads and shared two of them with friends in Sacramento. Cooked directly on the oven rack, they come out delectably crispy, but not hard. Our friends were very impressed, and now know that they can purchase them at Taylor’s Market on Freeport Blvd
SAN LUIS OBISPO TRIBUNE
November 17, 2004
Frozen pizza can often leave a bit to be desired; Not so with Flatbreads.
SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER
October 13, 2004
Wood-fired and frozen? Not all frozen pizzas are created alike.
SANTA MARIA TIMES
September 29, 2004
It’s About Time! Great food. Great wine. A focused and well-reasoned wine list with very reasonable prices. I’m talking about Flatbread in Los Alamos. Wake me up. Is this a dream?
SANTA BARBARA REPORTER
July 29, 2004
Slice it up: This is one flatbread that rises to the occasion.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
July 21, 2004
The rustic pizzas taste fresh and savory, with a crisp crust to match.
SANTA MARIA SUN
June 10, 2004
Flatbread reaches new heights. Local bakers fire up taste and nourishment...
