Pizza Guru, Santa Barbara, CA

I don't need a super fancy meal to feel special, so my birthday dinner was pizza and beer from Pizza Guru in Santa Barbara. I knew it was on State Street which is the main strip, but it was actually on the far end, so we didn't end up walking like we originally planned.

This place seemed to be the place to go for good food, good laughs, beer, and tunes. Some seating, several people came in for pick up while we were there, and the groups that we there when we got there were still there when we left. We hung around for a while too, as there was more beer than planned involved in our meal.

This was the one place I did a little research about before I went on our trip. I discovered they make gluten free crust from scratch and it was super tasty. The pizza in general was moderately priced and so with the $2 up-charge for gluten free crust our small 7 inch pizzas were $9 and $10 respectively. We ordered the "White House" which had sun dried tomatoes, chicken, garlic white sauce, artichokes, and fresh herbs. The chicken was dry, but overall the flavor was good.

I'm glad we decided to order 2 small pizzas for variety because if we stopped at the white house I'd be just a little bummed. The Big Cheese however was the BOOM! Is that still something cool to say? Well it was the best of the best...mozzarella, fontina, asiago, Gorgonzola, parm, herbs, and garlic sour cream. Let's ignore calories, ok...it was amazing, and to top it off, we sprinkled more Parmesan on top of it, and dipped it in ranch dressing!!! I wish we had gotten at least a medium of this one. Now in terms of the crust, it was thin, browned nicely on the bottom, not too crunchy, and firm enough to hold all the toppings.

As beer is commonly paired with pizza, it was nice to see they had multiple gluten free beer options, including green's which is one we hadn't tried yet. Made from millet and buckwheat it had a different flavor, not bitter like I normally feel beer is. I didn't get that bitter taste until the end. I'm not sure really what the normal price for a pint size bottle of beer at a restaurant, but it was $6.00. Whatever, it was my birthday.

Also, the place is mainly covered in chalkboard walls, and so we wrote on the bathroom wall. Check out our fun filled video review: