By Jonathan McNamara
What’s better than room service? What if you could get it in your own home? What if your kitchen was manned by celebrity chef Michael DeMaria? That may not be so far-fetched when Centerpoint Condominums opens its two towers and retail space on Fifth Street in Tempe.
New Times got the chance to see how Centerpoint Condominiums is focusing its urban living concept around DeMaria's culinary guidance during a tour of the unfinished towers on Wednesday.
More than just a collection of condos, Centerpoint Condominiums will feature two DeMaria-lead projects.
Chef Michael DeMaria expounds upon the designs for his restaurant Trattoria M and Aroma Market during a tour of Centerpoint Condominiums on Wednesday
DeMaria calls Trattoria M an “urban Italian restaurant,” which means you’ll find rustic Italian dishes made from organic ingredients. This includes tartar meatballs with celery and pesto, the only dish DeMaria mentioned during the tour.
An artist's rendering of Trattoria M
The restaurant’s menu will be available in a month on the Trattoria M Web site. DeMaria said that after the menu goes live, it will be updated periodically to give salivating foodies a reason to click back and see what’s new.
Right now, Trattoria M looks like a hollow shell of steel girders and concrete, but where you see studs and empty fixture housings, chef DeMaria sees an antipasto kitchen. That’s right, there’s a separate kitchen for preparing antipasto.
Trattoria’s other amenities will include a chef’s table that seats six to eight people for a four-course meal, a large collection of wines available by the glass, and a farmer’s market right outside during the weekends.
A typical table at Trattoria M
Trattoria M’s next door neighbor, a market café called Aroma, will make prepared foods and specialty grocery items available to Centerpoint residents and Mill Avenue denizens alike. Included in the space will be a deli counter, a gelateria, a coffee bar, a flower ,and a recipe concierge with recommendations based on the season and what’s available in the market.
Aroma will also feature its own winery called Pur Vine, which will use Napa Valley grapes. Pur Vine vino will be available in the market, and by the glass and bottle in Trattoria M.
Want more reasons to plunk down the substantial chunk of change necessary to snatch up one of these condos? How about a pool-side beach on the seventh floor with service from Trattoria M’s kitchen? If you don’t want to chill in the sand, you can always have chef DeMaria prepare something and send it up to your swanky abode.
We can’t afford one of these urban living spaces, but that’s probably for the best. If they turn out half as cool as Wednesday’s tour made them out to be, we’d never leave.
