Coltiva: Italian Pizza with a Seattle Twist

Garret McAleese loves pizza, he's also the owner of Coltiva - Pizzeria e Barra on Lower Queen Anne.

"We’re all about making delicious pizza that kinda blends Italian goods with Northwest goods together,” McAleese said.

Coltiva pizzas combine Italian cheese and flour with Pacific Northwest meats and produce, some of which comes from his parents' farm, The best of both worlds, according to Garret.

“We have our own family farm down in Oregon, that we can grow eggplant, lettuce, whatever we want actually. The tomatoes go into our pizza sauce,” McAleese said.

And, even though it's against the "rules" for traditional Neapolitan pizza, Garret said he uses sourdough for his crust. Cultured here, in the salty Seattle sea air, for a true local flavor.

"Our top sellers, people love the fennel sausage, we make that in house. Or course the traditional margarita we have an all white base pizza it’s a called the figura," Garret said.

“The vibe in Coltiva is definitely like you're in someone’s house, like a kitchen in Tuscany,” Garret said.

Though, Coltiva's oven is probably not something you'd have at home.

“Our oven is made in Italy, all hammered copper, made in Rome, all electric, Italian brick on the inside,” Garret said.

And that oven delivers bubbling, crispy, delicious thin crust pizza. That tastes as good as it looks.