It sits perched on the edge of Point Dume, as much an escape as a place to eat. Tall glass windows line the walls of the sunlit dining room, offering a view of Zuma Beach that is also visible from the patio.
Greg Bashant helps run the restaurant that his wife Kristy owns, which opened late February 2011 when the two Las Vegas transplants moved their family to Malibu.
Kristy’s replaced the eatery that was once owned by the neighboring Malibu Country Inn hotel, which shuttered the former restaurant after trying unsuccessfully to keep it afloat.
Eventually, in came Greg and Kristy, who transformed the space into what it is now. They remodeled the decor, installed pizza ovens and changed the menu. The two sought to revamp it completely. The two hold no affiliation with the hotel, aside from sharing the land.
In the approximately year and a half they have been open, the Bashants have aimed to bring their family dynamic to both their staff and their employees. Greg Bashant feels the family ownership breeds an environment of the staff caring about the food quality and respecting one another.
“People care. If it’s not your restaurant, you don’t care as much. It’s like your house,” Bashant says.
Kristy’s serves an array of dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and guests can sip libations at the rooftop bar with picturesque ocean and mountainside views.
The breakfast menu features several egg-based dishes and healthy options such as the Veggie Scramble, which is loaded with mushrooms, spinach, peppers and gruyere cheese. Or one can go the route of the Bananas Foster French Toast, which is served with Meyers dark rum sauce and drenched with sugar, honey and rum from Barbados.
For a mid-day meal, health-conscious guests have been known to drop in for the apple and prosciutto salad, which comes with Fuji apples beneath havarti cheese and meyer lemon vinaigrette. Others might sample the crab cake sandwich, served with classic remoulade, tomato, onions and sprouts.
For dinner, Kristy’s rolls out their upscale entrees, with selections ranging from their catch of the day, the grilled ‘rare’ ahi tuna, shrimp penne arrabiata, filet mignon and free range chicken breast.
But it is Kristy’s unique pizza selection that sets it apart. Served at both lunch and dinner, the menu boasts a diverse selection that consists of the margherita, mushroom, Greek, smoked ham, spicy chicken sausage and prosciutto.
The crunchy, thin-crust pizzas are cooked in a traditional wood oven from Italy. And Kristy’s strives to keep the supplies natural, using an array of woods, including almond and pecan.
But two pies that may pique curiosity are the prosciutto and the Greek.
The Greek feta cheese pizza is topped with Kalamata olives, red onions, arugula and tzatziki sauce, the traditional Greek cucumber sauce mixed with garlic and onion.
The prosciutto pizza comes with mascarpone, roasted pears, arugula and a choice of grilled Mexican shrimp or chicken. Kristy’s aims for a salty and sweet flavor, as the prosciutto offers the saltiness and the pears give it the sweetness.
And Kristy’s continues to experiment, trying out new toppings daily, sometimes at customers’ requests. They have used an array of sauces like garlic and pesto. No newbies to pizza, the two ran a pizza food truck before Kristy’s. They still do so every once in awhile, most recently serving at the Chili Cook off.
“Pizza is something that we definitely enjoy doing,” Greg says.
Kristy’s is right off PCH at 6506 Westward Beach Road. Telephone number 310.457.2602.