Best Place to Take a Foodie
Noca
What happens when a food-obsessed restaurant fanatic teams up with an equally passionate young chef with an impressive résumé? You end up with Noca, one of the most highly anticipated restaurants of 2008. Without a doubt, Eliot Wexler is the city's most tireless gourmet, who not only became a regular at the best dining spots in town but worked a yearlong stint, unpaid, for acclaimed local chef Kevin Binkley — all to quench his thirst for culinary expertise. Wexler's plan to open a restaurant picked up speed when he recruited talented chef Chris Curtiss, who'd worked at some of San Francisco's top-rated restaurants with French Laundry alum Ron Siegel before coming to Phoenix and turning heads at downtown's now-defunct Circa 1900.
Together, Wexler and Curtiss have assembled a staff of seasoned professionals to give their fledgling operation the kind of polish that most newbie restaurateurs would kill for, and they've sourced the best ingredients available, from Bob McClendon's organic produce to fresh seafood from the same supplier that Sea Saw's Nobuo Fukuda uses.
That said, Noca's atmosphere is refreshingly unpretentious, and the ingredient-driven cuisine is far from fussy. In fact, it's playful at times, from the "caviar" of organic eggplant, served out of a caviar tin with warm blinis, to the "milk and cookies" dessert, featuring fresh chocolate chip cookies and a frothy malted vanilla shake. Ultra-fresh crudo dishes and luscious handmade pastas are not to be missed, while the juicy pork chop, paired with crispy, melt-in-your-mouth pork belly, will make you smile from the first bite to the last. Even the Simple Supper, a wallet-friendly three-course tasting menu, is craveworthy. But really, it's no wonder Noca appeals to foodies — it's run by the biggest one of them all.
