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Yahoo!It is housed in an unassuming outpost along Bell Street in Los Alamos, but Full of Life Flatbread has become an exporter of certified organic and locally sourced frozen flatbread pizza to markets and distributors in approximately 20 different states. Started by self-taught baker Clark Staub, the humble little factory was inspired by a realization that food should, in Staub’s words, “satisfy by tasting good, be nutritious, and carry with it a sense of the place and people who grew and prepared it for us.” It’s a philosophy both down-to-earth and high-minded, but it works.
Carole Topalian
Clark Staub’s Full of Life Flatbread exports organic and locally sourced frozen pizzas to markets and distributors in approximately 20 different states.
From Friday through Sunday, the production area is filled with tables (built of recycled wood from area barns) and becomes a lively restaurant, which is how I had the pleasure of stopping by with friends to sample some pizza on the spot, in full view of the 900-degree wood-fired oven, with Evan the Baker at the helm. The buzzwords at Flatbread are local, organic, and quality, beginning with Giusto’s unbleached whole-grain flour, the seasonal produce of neighborhood farms, and even ingredients such as cheese, sausage, and olive oil obtained from carefully selected sources within a 400-mile radius. The result is a pizza that defies the conventional archetype, but don’t think of it as health food, even if it is; it is a surprisingly satisfying and gourmet experience filled with flavor and free of unsettling mystery.
Carole Topalian
Full of Life Flatbread Pizza
The bread itself is thin but substantial, with a rustic home-baked flavor that the toppings enhance without overpowering. The varieties we tried were Central Coast Sausage, Fire-Roasted Tomato Salsa, Smoke-Dried Tomato, and an offering called Shaman Bread, which featured fresh garlic, Cuyama organic pistachios, and charred red onions, lightly topped with a local version of raw milk serena-type cheese. One of our dinner companions was organic farmer extraordinaire Chris Cadwell of Tutti Frutti Farms, who recognized quite a few Farmers Market patrons and the names of local farms, and pronounced the place “extreme local,” which in his domain is a high form of praise.
Even the oven at Flatbread is handcrafted of local materials. Built of rocks and clay from the area, it’s an igloo-shaped hearth with a heart, literally-there’s a heart-shaped clay tile set artfully into the side. A formidable-looking woodpile is stacked high against a wall nearby (“We split it ourselves,” said Evan), and it’s impossible not to notice the colorful prayer flags strung from the ceiling across the room, a platter of pomegranates that just happens to have been placed upon a barrel by the door, and, at the risk of sounding hippie-trippy, a certain affirmative energy in the air.
Carole Topalian
Full of Life Flatbread Pizza
On factory days, Monday through Thursday, the high-ceilinged room is cleared of dining tables and the staff forms an old-fashioned production line. The pizza is made in small batches, packaged, and placed in a deep freezer in the back room until a truck pulls up to carry it away. It is perhaps romantic, but not that much of a stretch, really, to think that some pretty good Santa Barbara County karma is shipped out with those frozen boxed pizzas.
There are six packaged varieties of Full of Life Flatbread Pizza currently available: Tomato Sauce with Three Cheeses; Mushroom with Caramelized Onions and Tomatoes; Olive and Feta with Cornmeal Crust; Cheese and Fresh Herb; Margherita; and Flax Seed and Pistachio with Red Onions and Rosemary. “We just recently got our first order from the East Coast,” one employee announced with pride. Here in Santa Barbara, look for them in the frozen foods section at Gelson’s, Lazy Acres, Tri-County Produce, and Whole Foods Market, or check out fulloflifefoods.com for more information.
4•1•1
Get your fill of Full of Life Flatbread at 225 Bell Street in Los Alamos. The restaurant is open Friday-Saturday, from 5-10 p.m. and on Sunday from 4-8 p.m. Call 344-4400 or visit fulloflifefoods.com.
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Great spotlight article on Full of Life Flatbread! This amazing product is also available at the Isla Vista Food Co-op and I'm not sure why it was not mentioned as a "local" source for this great local product. Just to clarify, your only locally owned, community grown cooperative grocery store in the county carries this amazing product with pride!
CaitlinLaurence (anonymous profile)
December 10, 2009 at 12:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I heart the IV Food Co-op....so glad they carry this yummo pizza!!!
YellowSnow (anonymous profile)
December 10, 2009 at 9:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I sure hope Ms. Ward or the Indy got paid under the table for this piece of pure fluff. Let's explore why.
First, it is SO important that "The buzzwords at Flatbread are local ..." but it is never explained why "local" includes an order from the "East Coast". The mafia in Paramus, New Jersey thinks Santa Barbara is "local"? Now I'm really afraid.
But maybe I'm too jaundiced and "local" only means that the ingredients are obtained nearby. But then we learn that olive oil is "obtained from carefully selected sources within a 400-mile radius." That is more than 13% of the entire USA. I seriously doubt Staub "carefully" knows every olive oil source from Petaluma to San Diego to Las Vegas and all points in between.
But let's put aside quibbles and look at the descriptions of the food itself. We learn that it is "free of unsettling mystery". Oh, good. Last time I ate out I was really concerned with an "unsettling mystery" about where the food came from.
Presumably this was settled by one Chris Cadwell who declared the place "extreme local" which I can only assume means Full of Life Flat Bread only serves people within 300 feet of its location. No, wait, they have distributors in 20 states.
Again, let's not quibble about the food and its sources. What about ambiance? Ms. Ward observed that "it's impossible not to notice the colorful prayer flags." What are prayer flags? What are they doing in a public restaurant? What are people supposed to pray for - that the county Health Department has not been bought off?
With this article, Ms. Ward took the "risk of sounding hippie-trippy,..." Sadly, she failed.
SezMe (anonymous profile)
December 11, 2009 at 3:09 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Sez, so your problem is with the the way the article is written apparently, and not the food so much?
I'll admit to being a fan of the place and eating there weekly...frankly I wouldn't care if the ingredients came from Mars - the food is great, the ambiance is lovely, the staff is friendly and thoughtful, and it feels like home to this Valley local.
And I believe that prayer flags can be displayed anywhere anyone wants...unless this is China and I missed something. Besides, they are pieces of fabric, illustrated by customers (mostly children) that are strung up as decoration in a prayer-flag manner. It's a cute, creative decoration-theme and does not beg us to Buddhist calling.
Have you even been to Flatbreads? Oh, wait...maybe you should just call Domino's and leave the precious few tables to those of us who love the place.
winegal (anonymous profile)
December 11, 2009 at 7:10 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"Sez, so your problem is with the the way the article is written apparently, and not the food so much?"
-- winegal
YES!. Of course. The article was a journalistic Katrina. The Indy needed to be called on their poor work and I took on the task.
I guess it is true that no good deed goes unpunished.
SezMe (anonymous profile)
December 11, 2009 at 4:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I for one thought it was a nicely written and light-hearted little article, which, like the other articles in this week's food section, was obviously geared to spread the word about a Santa Barbara-based food product and business. I have to wonder what "SezMe" craves for the Christmas season. Maybe a hard-hitting expose of some complicated scandal in the Los Alamos pizza factory? An in-depth philosophical discussion of terms like local and organic? (In fact, on the subject of "local", the comment poster exhibits confusion about the idea of locally sourced -- for a Santa Barbara consumer -- versus local destinations. And what's with the wacky mafia-stereotype slam on Paramus? Is that supposed to be humorous?) Anyone who has ever actually gone into Flatbread's recognizes how suitable Ward's colorful and slightly tongue-in-cheek description and tone are. There IS a positive energy (maybe it's those sweet, nondenominational prayer flags), a neighborly feeling, and an honest attempt to serve food that is healthy and delicious with ingredients whose origins are known and as LOCAL as realistically possible. So SezMe has attempted a good deed here? Sorry, but it comes across more like a mean-spirited, unfounded blast from a frustrated wanna-be critic.
localguy (anonymous profile)
December 13, 2009 at 11:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)
SezMe:
Your complaints were: puff peice, local is not defined, and prayer flags.
Puff peice: a welcome review of a local and cherished restaurant that is trying hard to stimulate local food economies and food-making communities, by not only buying locally sourced produce for its restaurant and its nationally distributed frozen pizza line, but by hiring local people with disabilities, and promoting the welfare of agricultural laborers through food sovereignty and food security principles as established in the field of political ecology.
Local is not defined: Locality is a geographical place as well as a community concept. As stated above, Full of Life sources as much of its ingredients through local food producers-then it sends the bounty of their creations out to the national community. As far as locality is concerned within the context of the United States, if people in Alaska are eating Full of Life frozen pizza instead of DiGiorno's which pays no attention to local sourcing and food-miles traveled, then even that is more local.
Prayer Flags: these are square scraps of cloth in varying colors that children and other artistic customers have drawn pictures on. The staff has strung them up and hung them around the restaurant. They are no different than the four leaf clover cut outs that are hung at the Albertson's grocery windows in Buellton when people donate a dollar for cancer research on St. Pattrick's day. Except people don't give money to flatbread for the prayer flags. It's a feel good thing, and it promotes community building. Children from Olga Reed elementary school also created the art on the tiles of the ovens.
"Weave the social fabric." That is what people in the local food movement are trying to do, and Full of Life is doing a good job. Of course they deserve praise!
jessicaschley (anonymous profile)
December 13, 2009 at 12:37 p.m. (Suggest removal)