Totally Local: The Indefatigable Mollie Ahlstrand
After nearly 30 years, the mudslide of 2018 put an end to her elegant Trattoria Mollie on Coast Village Road.
She opened a new Mollie’s next to the Granada on State Street, but COVID-19 crushed that endeavor too.
Armed conflict broke out in the Tigray region of Ethiopia in 2020 and the country is now under a State of Emergency. Mollie has family in Tigray and the fighting has affected many of her relatives.
Mollie had a devastating accident that totaled the car she was driving up near Toro Canyon and left her close to death. She spent a full month at Cottage Hospital after a 13-hour surgery led by Dr. Moore, who said aloud that he didn’t understand how she survived. When released from Cottage, she spent the next few months in bed. Eventually, her broken bones began to heal and after nearly a year of rehabilitation, she was able to get up and move around with the help of a walker.
Then a cane.
Today, she scurries around like a mouse on a treadmill (she’s a small one, at 4-ft 10-inches) in her new space just off the Casitas Pass exit in Carpinteria. She’s settled in and completely re-designed what had been a Domino’s Pizza outlet.
Mollie’s opened quietly in July of this year, but the trickle of customers drawn to her place has already become a steady flow.
She may have to hire more help if that keeps up.
Which goes to prove you can’t keep a good woman down… at least not for long.
If you’re new in town, Mollie has been serving up dishes featuring her unique blend of Italian staples with an Ethiopian flair for the better part of half a century.
She has cooked for Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Kirk and Anne Douglas, been hosted by President Obama and his then Vice President Joe Biden. She has given cooking lessons in Santa Barbara to some of the best chefs in town.
Mollie is a celebrity in her own right and her place in the culinary firmament is warranted and secure.
The “Local” news is that Mollie, whose own place in Carpinteria is closed on Sundays, will be cooking some of her specialties beginning December 10, on Sundays at LOCAL, the restaurant at 1187 Coast Village Road, just a hop, slip, and couple hundred agonizing steps away from her former restaurant.
You should know this about Mollie:
She’s old school.
She was old school before there was an old school.
Which means she makes all her own pasta right in her shop in Carpinteria.
She molds each of her famous turkey meatballs (w/raisins) by hand.
Mollie’s lasagna is right up there with the best of the best.
Ditto for those turkey/raisin meatballs, tiramisu, panna cotta…
…And pretty much everything else.
If you decide to have dinner at her place, she’ll be at the stove and often she’ll be helping serve the food.
I did say she was old school, didn’t I?
Lasagna at LOCAL
For her first Sunday stint at LOCAL on December 10, Mollie has proposed the following menu items:
Antipasti
Bruschetta
Insalata Mele e Noci (Mixed salad with apple and walnuts)
Minestrone
Primi Piatti
Pappardelle con Asparagus e Scampi
Lasagna Bolognese
Secondi
Polpette à la Mollie (turkey meatballs w/ raisins, spaghetti Bolognese)
Branzino al Forno
Dolce
Tiramisu à la Mollie
The menu may change depending upon ingredient availability, and there is a possibility she can snag a white truffle or two direct from Alba, Italy. Prices will be the same as she charges in Carpinteria, which are very moderate indeed (Lasagna at $21!). Mollie promises you won’t go home hungry.
Call to make Sunday night reservations at LOCAL:
(805) 770-2269
Mollie’s Italian Deli
1039 Casitas Pass Road
Carpinteria
(805) 452-2692
Mollie’s is open six days a week for lunch from 11 am to 2 pm and for dinner Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 5 pm to 9 pm, by reservation only. Mollie’s also has a thriving take-out business, and you can order dinner-to-go every day (except Sunday) to pick up before 7 pm. If you want her special lasagna, make sure you order a day ahead of time.
Lunchtime table space is very limited so ordering ahead of time for takeout is a good idea.
