PIZZA - SOMETHING IN THE AIR

 

PIZZA: SOMETHING IN THE AIR

 

As a New York transplant, I’m a pizza snob.  Most NYers are, though Chicagoans give us a run for our pizza money.  NY thin crust style vs. deep dish - that is the question.  Well, not for NYers who are loyal to their pizza to a fault.  We challenge you to go to any pizza joint in NYC, buy a slice on the run or sit down at a table (or stand at the counter), take a bite and NOT savor pizza nirvana.

Sharing a whole pie with family or friends is a perfect, inexpensive dinner out (or “take-in”), but grabbing a slice is an “on-the-run” gourmet experience in Manhattan.  You want to shop during your lunch break but you’re starving?  Grab a slice.  You only have a few minutes to eat before curtain-up at the theater, but you need to stop your growling stomach from adding to the sound effects during the play?  Grab a slice.  It’s late and you’re finally leaving work, you’re hungry, but you don’t want to cook?  Grab a slice to go… maybe two… or three you can heat in the oven when you get home.  Meatball, pepperoni, mushroom slices and more, at your lip-tips for a few bucks.  Culinary satisfaction worth a million.

This joyous food experience (can you tell I love pizza) has arrived in Ojai.  Slices of NY style pies to take out or to stay-in are ready for you in Tere Karabatos and wife, Kristen McGuiness’s AIR Pizza “parlor.”  The restaurant’s hand-tossed pies include all the classic NY-styles: cheese with house-made sauce, mozzarella and Grana Padano cheeses and toppings such as sausage, pepperoni, or wild mushrooms or other veggies if you have a craving, plus some inventions of its own such as the “punk rock” pizza, dubbed Meat Puppet, a shout-out to the rock group of the same name, topped with a variety of meats and grilled chicken, 

 

and the Mira Monte pie with wild mushrooms, yellow peppers, Kalamata olives, ricotta, garlic, basil and Grana Pandano cheese. Kvell over the sourdough thin crust (or gluten-free crust, also available).  How this gem of a joint ended up in the magical valley of Ojai is a tale of recovery and discovery. 

 

 A life-long athlete, Tere is a southern California boy, mostly from Arcadia.  His father, a restaurateur, owned a slew of coffee shops, truck stops, diners and the like (not at the same time).  His dad was also a chain-smoking alcoholic who spent most of his days and nights at whatever restaurant he owned at the time.  To be closer to his father, Tere began to work in ‘whatever’ restaurant dad owned, chopping food, busing tables, cleaning the kitchen. ‘Whatever’ manual labor a kid could do, he did.

Though born in America, Tere’s first language was Greek, because of his Greek heritage.  His mother, who suffered from bi-polar disorder and often unable to be a guiding parent for Tere and his brother, taught English to herself and to Tere.  She also encouraged him to expend his hyper, high-strung energy playing sports, beginning with Little League.  Baseball became a passion, and like many talented young boys before him, Tere dreamed of playing in the majors, but soon realized that, as good as he was, he wasn’t talented enough to make the show.  But he never lost his love of playing sports and turned to soccer, skateboarding and surfing.  It was sports, especially surfing, that taught him a steely determination as he practiced and practiced ‘til he mastered it.  

Unfortunately, his childhood freedom from lack of parental supervision led him to start drinking at age twelve.  His “gateway drink” to many years of alcohol abuse was his father’s stash of Budweiser.  At fifteen, cannabis became Tere’s “gateway drug” to battling years of drug addiction.  He dropped out of high school and paid for his booze and drugs by working various jobs.  He dabbled in construction, found gigs in restaurants and sold sports equipment.  When he was able, he’d skateboard or catch a wave.

One evening while drinking and smoking with his father, Tere had a sad moment of self-realization…he was becoming his father, and this was not the man he wanted to be.  He needed help.  His brother brought Tere to Alcoholics Anonymous and “Hollywood Late Night” AA gatherings which he describes as a “Rocky Horror Picture Show” experience… one in which he felt at home.  He related to those in attendance, from the famous to the infamous, and he understood how AA’s 12-Step program could help him.  It was in AA that he met Kristen.

Connecticut born and Texas raised, Kristen was parented and guided by her mother who worked for a corporate lawyer.  Her father, a major drug smuggler who believed marijuana should be legal and accessible to everyone, was in and out of jail most of her life.  Kristen left Texas when she entered Hamilton College in New York, then worked for years in the city in the book publishing business at St. Martin’s Press, Simon & Schuster and Harper Collins. Traumatized by 9/11, Kristen left NY and moved to LA, only to return to NYC in 2006 to work with Judith Regan at Regan Books. When Regan Books relocated to LA, Kristen went, too.  During her years in LA, she also worked in the feature film business and as an assistant to a top-Hollywood agent.  While Kristen’s career appeared fulfilling and glamorous, she developed a serious drinking problem over the years. 

Settled in Los Angeles, she became a fundraiser for an LA-based non-profit serving low-income families.  She went to AA, picked up a pen (keyboard) and began writing. Her first screenplay, “The Betty” was optioned and her first book (non-fiction), “5150: The Magical Adventures of a Single Life” was released.  Living a single life in LA, entering her thirties and newly sober, she began her social experiment… 51 dates in 50 weeks and discovered that finding love was a harder struggle than finding sobriety. Today Kristen is in the process of developing her own publishing imprint for fiction and non-fiction books, and is working on her first novel, “Live Through This,” which is scheduled to be published by Rise Books in August.

When Tere and Kristen first met they were involved in other relationships and initially became good friends.  When those separate relationships ended, they spent more time together, fell in love and later married.  They lived in Paris for a year, “which was actually the first time we talked about opening a pizza shop. AIR Pizza Paris?  Who knows?” she says.  They’ve now been together a dozen years, married for ten and have two children – a seven-year old daughter and a four-year old son.

Now sober, Tere was mentored in LA by Salman Agah, the founder of Pizzanista pizzerias that specialize in NY-style thin-crust pizzas.  While Tere was perfecting his pizza-making craft, Kristen had an unexplained revelation while watching the Taylor Sheridan movie “Wind River” and told Tere they had to leave LA and move to Ojai to raise their family. Tammy and Stefanos Bernardi, owners of Ojai’s popular Osteria Monte Grappa restaurant, took them under their wings and helped them bring AIR Pizza to fruition.  Tere, a UCLA trained alcohol and drug counsellor who ran a Sober Living program in LA, wanted to continue helping others struggling with addictions and named the new restaurant AIR Pizza – Athletes In Recovery – in honor of Tere’s athletic background and his respect for athletes.  He has opened the restaurant’s doors to all in need for meetings on Monday mornings where they follow a basic twelve-step program which includes finding a new freedom and happiness, discarding self-pity and exploring ways to help others through past experiences. 

Pizza in Ojai – Tere and Kristen have got you covered, and if need be, recovered.