When it comes to restaurant openings, I’m like a hungry kid who wants another helping of mac ‘n’ cheese.
Another new place? Yes, please!
The latest place I’m looking forward to checking out is called dish: a food experience, a new market and bistro that’s set to open this Friday, August 10, at The Shops at Gainey Village.
Talk about being all things to all people. This place promises a little bit of everything, food-wise, from grab-and-go goodies to sit-down service in the evening. The folks behind dish are really leaving us no excuse not to eat there.
On the market side of things, there will be a full-service deli promising over a hundred items – lasagna, smoked tenderloin, and sweet & sour shrimp cakes, to name a few – as well as a hot grill line serving up plenty of breakfast-y stuff (New Orleans-style stuffed pancakes with dulce de leche filling sound good . . .) and carved-to-order barbecued meats for lunch and dinner. There will be sandwiches, salads, pastries, homemade breads, gelato, and more, which you can eat in or take out, as well as a selection of gourmet specialty foods and wines to stock up on.
At dinnertime, the casual, full-service bistro/wine bar side of dish will dole out homey sides like mashed potatoes and ham hock greens, sandwiches, pasta bowls, and starters such as crispy sea salt calamari, steamed chicken dumplings, and a sopressata caesar salad. Stick-to-your ribs entrees include catfish and chips, shrimp pot pie, and rotisserie leg of lamb. A handful of wood-fired pizzas rounds out the menu. Pizza Balboa, with shaved flat iron steak, sweet peppers, charred onion, and provolone, and Cavolfiore Selvaggio, topped with asapargus, curried cauliflower, arugula, and pinon, are just a couple of intriguing creations.
As if all of that doesn’t already grab your attention, there’s chef de cuisine Martin LaMarche’s noteworthy resume. Prior to joining the dish operations team, he worked at Binkley's, ran two notable restaurants in Fredericksburg, VA (Jake & Mike’s, and Soup and Taco), and was employed by two James Beard award-winning chefs (Patrick O’Connell, owner of The Inn at Little Washington in Washington, VA, and Hiro Sone, at Terra in St. Helena, CA).
dish: a food experience will be open daily; the market will run from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., while the bistro will operate from 4 to 10 p.m., Sunday – Thursday, and 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The Shops at Gainey Village is at 8977 N. Scottsdale Rd., at the southeast corner of Scottsdale Road and Doubletree Ranch Rd. Call 480-584-6190 for details, or visit the website (as of this post, the site is just a homepage without functional links).
