The most anticipated new Phoenix restaurants opening this summer

Historically, new Valley restaurants rush to get open during the busy winter and spring months, shying away from a hard launch in the slow summer season. Over the last few years, more restaurants are bucking that trend and opening their doors into the dry Arizona heat.

This summer will see the arrival of a new, over-the-top Italian restaurant in Tempe, a luxe Latin American-inspired eatery in Goodyear and a casual neighborhood pizza joint in downtown Phoenix. Out-of-towners are joining the mix, too, including a Texas travel center with a cult-like following and an American grill founded in the Midwest.

Here are the seven most exciting new eateries opening around the Valley this summer.

Buc-ee’s

Opened June 22
1001 N. Bullard Ave., Goodyear
Hold onto your Beaver Nuggets, Buc-ee’s is here. The 120-pump gas station and 74,000-square-foot megastore is more than a place to make a pitstop, though it’s also renowned for its fanatically clean bathrooms. The Texas-born Buc-ee’s is a destination for all manner of bric-a-brac and clothing branded with its gregarious beaver mascot, travel snacks and the Texas Round Up, a circular counter where staff chop, sauce and serve brisket sandwiches. Approximately 40,000 cars are expected to travel to the West Valley travel center on the opening week, so make your plans to visit accordingly. Though Buc-ee’s serves plenty of food, there are no seats inside, so your car dash may have to be your table.

Nadu

Opens in June
21001 N. Tatum Blvd.
Last year, several elevated Indian restaurants opened around the Valley. Soon, the team that pioneered this trend with Feringhee in Chandler will open Nadu at Desert Ridge Marketplace. Michelin-starred chef Sujar Sarkar and Zest Hospitality, who debuted Feringhee in 2022, have partnered to open a second location of Nadu, a Michelin-recommended restaurant Sarkar opened in Chicago last year. Nadu’s menu will showcase classic dishes from across India in a vibrant, upscale setting. The Phoenix menu will feature kebabs cooked on a charcoal grill and craft cocktails inspired by well-known Indian ingredients, such as chai.

Grandioso

Opens July 15
1229 Grand Ave.
Pizzaiolo Justin Piazza will make a grand return to downtown Phoenix this summer with a new pizzeria. The former co-owner of the acclaimed but now-shuttered Glendale restaurant, La Piazza Al Forno, and its sibling pie shops in downtown Phoenix and Avondale, is anticipated to open Grandioso on July 15. The restaurant will feature New York, Roman, Detroit and tavern-style pizzas, as well as smoked and baked wings and sandwiches. Grandioso will have a neighborhood dive bar feel, with a pool table, jukebox and murals inside and out. Piazza told New Times the Grand Avenue restaurant will be his “life’s work.”

Roman God of Fire

Opens in late July
80 S. Rio Salado Pkwy., Tempe
The collaboration to bring Roman God of Fire to Hayden Ferry Lakeside in Tempe is one of epic proportions. Celebrity chef Scott Conant partnered with Pretty Decent Concepts, the team behind an ever-growing roster of buzzy hotspots that includes the downtown steakhouse Cleaverman, Yucatan-inspired restaurant Filthy Animal and the retro jet cocktail lounge Carry On. True to its name, Roman God of Fire will feature live-fire cooking across a menu that flexes Conant’s command of Italian cuisine. Like Pretty Decent Concepts’ other restaurants and bars, Roman God of Fire and its hidden cocktail bar Forgive Me Father will be unabashedly “over the top” and “theatrical,” one of its founders shared with Phoenix New Times last year. 

Better Days and Otra Pizzeria

Opens in July
421 S. Third St.
A historic Warehouse District building will soon welcome a bar from the team behind The Churchill and the first brick-and-mortar location of a popular pizza pop-up. Cesar Velasco’s Otra Pizzeria will take the main floor of the Gerardo Building. Seated in the modern, retro-inspired space, diners will see Velasco’s team stretch dough and slide Neapolitan-style pies into a wood-fired oven. He’ll grow Otra’s menu of pizzas and salads, adding appetizers and pasta. Better Days, meanwhile, will serve beer, wine and cocktails upstairs in a vintage dive setting.

Harry & Izzy’s

Opens in August
12770 N. Tatum Blvd.
The quickly expanding roster of restaurants at PV includes a taste of the Midwest. Harry & Izzy’s, an American grill from the team behind the historic St. Elmo Steak House in Indianapolis, will open later this summer at the revamped shopping, dining and office hub that was formerly the site of the Paradise Valley Mall. Harry & Izzy’s menu features some of its sibling restaurant’s classics, including shrimp cocktail and steaks, along with salads, sandwiches and seafood. An expansive bar and patio are notable highlights of the new 8,300-square-foot restaurant, which will face a park that hosts live music and events.

Magdaleña

Opens late this summer
1900 North Civic Square, Goodyear
The restaurant group behind Pa’La Wood-Fired Kitchen will bring its brand of live-fire cooking to the West Valley at the downtown Goodyear destination, GSQ. While Pa’La leans into Mediterranean and Japanese cuisine, Magdaleña takes inspiration from Latin America. Executive chef Jason Alford, chef Marcelino Ramos and hospitality veteran Gilles Kolakowski developed a menu featuring meat and seafood cooked over a parrilla and a bar that exclusively pours Latin American wines and spirits. Magdaleña is anticipated to open in late summer.