Cauliflower Crust Comes to Rusty’s Pizza Parlor

Rusty’s Pizza Parlor, which has been a Santa Barbara favorite since its 1969 founding, is now serving Outer Aisle’s eight-inch cauliflower crust as an alternative base for their popular pizza pies. 

A nationally distributed company founded in Santa Barbara in 2013 by Jeanne David, Outer Aisle sells a variety of bread alternatives, including the cauliflower-based Plantpower Pizza Crusts and Sandwich Thins. “I created Outer Aisle in my home kitchen here in Santa Barbara because I love pizza and couldn’t find a decent low-carb substitute for crust,” said David. Seeing her vision come full-circle with one of the best pizza parlors in town has been a dream come true, I’m told.

Rusty’s Pizza owner Tyler Duncan, son of founders Roger and Carol Duncan, said Outer Aisle’s crust fits perfectly into Rusty’s product line. “The response has been amazing,” said Duncan, who introduced the option a month ago. “Sales of the cauliflower crust have been doubling each week. We see a hockey-stick growth with this product. It’s exciting because it’s another local partnership and that’s one of Rusty’s big pillars in terms of how we want to operate with other locals. It’s an outstanding product that fills a need we couldn’t service beforehand. Now everyone at the table can be satisfied.”

Duncan’s friends, family, and customers have been asking for a gluten-free pizza crust at Rusty’s for a while now, and Outer Aisle’s low-carb, gluten-free crust “checks all the boxes,” said Duncan. “When there is someone in the family who has a special need or just wants something different, we can now serve that to them, and it works within the Rusty’s framework. We are very pleased with the outcome.”

The crust contains two servings of vegetables, 10 grams of protein, and just three net carbs. “For a lot of people who are Keto or just low-carb, taking the empty carbs out of their diet meets an increasing niche that’s much larger and broader than vegan,” explained David. 

I recently visited the new Rusty’s in Summerland and ordered one of the cauliflower crusts. I was very impressed — it tasted great and I didn’t feel a carb “crash” afterward, which is usually the case for me with a regular crust. They don’t slice the pizza, instead providing a knife for customers to handle themselves. That’s another measure to handle the crust less in case customers have a severe issue such as Celiac disorder, which can be triggered by the smallest amount of wheat flour. 

The new Rusty’s Pizza cauliflower crust option is now available at all nine locations in the Santa Barbara region. Call (805) 564-1111 or visit rustyspizza.com or outeraislegourmet.com.

John Dickson covers restaurant openings, closings, trends, menu updates, and more on The Restaurant Guy column, which is a staple of his regional hospitality website SantaBarbara.com. 

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