Christian Houda
Audio By Carbonatix
After a year filled with both acclaim and tumult, a buzzy Old Town Scottsdale restaurant has a new name, look and an evolved menu.
Liquor Pig, the gastropub with creative cocktails and an eclectic, internationally inspired food menu, closed on May 30. It debuted in March 2025 on Fourth Avenue, just east of Scottsdale Road, and was led by industry veterans Steven “Chops” Smith and Scott Casey. Smith left the kitchen in July. Casey exited the business in January.
The internal turmoil boiled over into a lawsuit. In April, Casey filed a lawsuit in Maricopa County Superior Court against co-owner Christina Foster, her business MJR Investment and her husband, Christopher Foster. The suit claims Foster owes him back pay and is using his “tangible and intellectual property” at the restaurant, among other allegations.
The case is ongoing, and Foster reiterated her previous comment to New Times, saying “the lawsuit has no merit.”
While the drama was bubbling under the surface, Liquor Pig managed to keep its offerings on point. The restaurant received critical acclaim, including as one of Phoenix New Times’ Best New Restaurants of 2025 and our Top 50 Restaurants.
On Friday, one week after closing, the restaurant’s ornate wooden door will once again swing open. Christina Foster will rechristen the space as Wayward.
With this reopening comes an evolved menu, a refreshed moody Western aesthetic and a new face leading the bar and the restaurant’s operations. Kyla Hein, formerly part of the hospitality team behind the underground lounge Rough Rider, Cuban-inspired cocktail bar Coabana and sultry speakeasy Pigtails, has joined the team as Wayward’s operating owner.
“We are so excited about this change. It’s been quite the journey to get here,” Foster says. “It’s ups and downs, but it’s been a really good journey to get to this point. I have a team that I’m really excited about.”
The name and new direction take inspiration from international spaghetti Westerns, Hein says. The food and drink menu infuses global flavors.
“We have a desert noir Western international theme going,” she says.
What’s on the menu at Wayward?
Executive Chef CJ Kahley, who joined Liquor Pig last July, will continue to lead the kitchen. The chef formerly worked at The Mission, The Americano, Toro and Geordie’s, and since taking the helm, has tinkered with and sized up the menu.
Wayward will feature some of Kahley’s popular staples from Liquor Pig, such as Korean pork belly tacos, lomo saltado with koji-marinated flat iron steak and a large, shareable taco board featuring bone-in beef short rib, housemade tortillas, borracho beans, salsas and other accouterments.
New and seasonal dishes include a mapo tofu-inspired mafaldine and a summer tartine featuring Castelvetrano olives and stracciatella on Noble Bread.
“We’re using America as a melting pot. We’re celebrating our differences and our similarities through this menu,” Kahley says. “That really hits home, obviously, with a lot of things that are going on in the world right now.”
At the bar, Hein will echo the eclectic, international point of view to complement Kahley’s creations.
The team has created a signature dirty martini made with vodka and a house brine of olives, pickles and kimchi. The tipple is clarified and served ice-cold from the freezer. Hein collaborated with the kitchen on the rum-based Tears of the Black Tiger. The drink, named for a Thai film that’s an homage to Westerns, starts with a red curry cordial made by Kahley’s crew. That cordial is mixed with rum and coconut milk, then served in a coconut milk can with Thai basil.
Though craft cocktails are a focus, Wayward will operate more as a restaurant and lounge than a late-night drinking spot, Hein says. Wayward will close at 10 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on weekends.
The tavern-like space, replete with wood and iron details, will get darker and moodier, with Western details, including some old movie posters, Hein says.
The team is “trying to create that really cohesive experience,” she says, “and also remind everybody that yes, we are still in Old Town Scottsdale.”
Wayward
Opens Friday
7217 E. Fourth Ave., Scottsdale
