I caught the smell of wood smoke half a block away as I was walking to this new little pizza place in downtown Salt Lake. My visit this week was the result of another walk I had taken on a week or two earlier.
Most afternoons I need some time to get out of my office and stretch my legs out and breath some fresh air. I am usually surprised at how much ground I can cover walking around downtown Salt Lake on a 15 minute break from work. A week or so ago as I was heading home from work, driving past one of my favorite downtown restaurants, Red Rock Brewery, and I noticed a very unassuming new sign painted along the top edge of the brick building immediately south of Red Rock. At the time, being in the car, I couldn't really figure out what it was, but you could see the chairs and tables through the windows.
Several days later, that chance sighting turned my feet in that direction while I was out for a quick walk one afternoon. Walking past, I had one more piece to the puzzle. The name on the sign -- Settebello. Back in my office I did a quick search for Settebello online and could only find a web site for a pizza restaurant outside of Las Vegas in Henderson. No mention of another location, not even a coming soon teaser.
That same evening as my brother drove out of town on our way home, I drove past the place again to show it to him and this time there was a big white banner strung across the trees in front of the restaurant. It was simple and to the point, black letters on a white background proclaiming "Wood-fired Pizza, Now Open." The was all I needed. Wood, fire and pizza all in the same context and I'm sold. That was last week.
We scheduled our visit for this week on Thursday. While highly interested in anyone cooking pizzas in a wood-fired oven, my expectations were somewhat tempered by the fact that I knew they had just opened the week before and I assumed that would still be working on some of the kinks and getting settled into a routine with a new place and new employees.
Typically my eating experiences are with my brother whose office is close to mine. This time my parents and another brother joined us for lunch. So it was a group of five at Settebello.
The initial impression as a patron is a little weak. As you walk up to the door there is a little hesitation, because it feels kind of like you are coming in the side door instead of the main entrance. Though small and not particularly welcoming the front door leads into a wide open space with a strategically placed hosting podium right in front of you once you get inside. Off to your right is the simple kitchen with a small looking wood-fired brick oven in the corner. The smoke-y smell comes on even stronger inside the restaurant, but fortunately, there wasn't any smoke with the smell. It's nice that you can see the pizzas and burning wood right as you enter. Immediately to the right is a large open space that you can tell they haven't really decided what to do with yet. At the moment there are chairs lining two walls for people waiting and then a big dead space in the middle. All the seating is off to the left from the front to the rear of the restaurant.
We had a table in the back. The menu is filled with 5-6 appetizers -- salads, bruschetta, etc. -- and the pizzas. And drinks on the back. The pizzas are the obvious focus. All of them come in a 12" size and are served on a plate, uncut. The first couple are the base pizzas, either a marinara or a margherita. They sounded more a less the same, except the marinara didn't have any cheese on it. From there you could build your own on top of one of the basics or pick one of their pre-built ones farther down the page.
It's my opinion that if you run a pizza restaurant and you can't get a cheese pizza right, then nothing else is going to be right. So on a first visit I almost always order a cheese pizza -- in this case the margherita. The pizza came as promised with crushed tomatoes, fresh buffalo milk mozzarella, and some fresh basil sprinkled across the top. There is not a question about the quality of the pizza, it is some of the best I've had in Utah. The crust was nicely charred, the tops of the crust bubbles a rich dark brown. The only complaint I have is that you can tell they are still working on getting the right oven temperature. The cheese had started to melt, but they had to pull it out of the oven too quickly to keep the crust from burning and the cheese wasn't fully melted. That is the only complaint I had though. The service was attentive and overall it was a good experience.
It is definitely worth several return trips to see how it is after they have worked out some of the new restaurant kinks. Our server also told us they are still looking for the right person to head up their dessert making, so no desserts on the menu yet. And there were several items on their menu that I wanted to go back and try now that they've proven themselves with the basic cheese pizza.
Settebello
260 South 200 West
Salt Lake City, UT
801-322-3556
www.settebello.net