Stoa Wine Bar & Market — Restaurant in Santa Monica

Relatively new spot in MDR. Both indoor and outdoor seating. However, indoor is very loud when busy. But most LA restaurants seem to be loud inside, maybe it is just me. We had a pizza and salad. But we had excellent help from the sommelier. I forgot his name but he knew the wines very well, made some suggestions based on what we wanted and offered us tastes too. We ended up with a wonderful bottle for our table. The menu is somewhat limited but this is called a wine bar and market, so the selections were fine. We got the olives for a starter. Nice selection in oil with rosemary and thyme. The Tomato Goddess salad is interesting. Tomatoes and fruit surrounded by avocado and green goddess dressing whipped into a 'dip'. (We used the dip with our bones from the pizza). The pizzas here are red or white. We had a marinara and a summer squash. They serve the very thin crust here. Both were flavorful, but we felt they could have had a little more spice or punch to them. The white pizza with summer squash had an interesting texture and taste. This looks like it will be a neighborhood bar as parking here is very tight, only 4 spots. The County parking lot ($6) is the closest to the building. Overall, it was a nice experience and we would try it again bit choose an outdoor table. I would suggest making a reservation. Worth going back to try their other...

This is the kind of spot we needed in the marina! Great wine selection + full bar with cocktail menu.

Food was amazing. We built our own board and the portions were huge - sometimes with cheese and charcuterie you pay so much for so little - not the case here!

Meatballs were also full of flavor and a good sized portion. The hamachi crudo was nice, but felt heavy for crudo with all of the sauce. Although the sauce was good because I wanted more bread for it!

We got there right at 5:00, and there was a line waiting to be sat, by 6:00 the place was full. I think reservations right now are just call-in, but they said they’ll be on Resy next week so be sure to make a reservation!

Atmosphere wise: nice patio in the sunshine. Inside there is bar seating, a little library-esq couch book and regular tables. Inside also has a market where you can purchase cheese and wine. So cute.

Service was a little slow - at no fault of the servers/bartenderss though. They were completely slammed right at 5 and maybe could have used a few extra...

I’m so excited that Stoa is finally open—we’ve been waiting for so long and live just upstairs! My husband and I sat at the bar on Wednesday night, and the service was wonderful. The meatballs and spicy vodka pizza were absolutely delicious—definite standouts!

The only downside to our experience was the way one of the managers (a shorter woman with short wavy brunette hair, though I didn’t catch her name) spoke to the staff. From our seats, we could overhear several interactions behind the curtain and on the floor, and the tone came across as demeaning and unnecessarily harsh. It was uncomfortable to witness, especially since the rest of the team was so warm and attentive.

I truly hope management works on fostering a more respectful environment for the staff, because they’re doing such a great job and deserve to be treated with kindness. Whether we return may depend on seeing improvement there, as we’d love to support the restaurant without that negative energy overshadowing an otherwise...