Scottsdale Italian restaurant to become a vibey steakhouse

When Raj Kumar launched The Guest House in Austin in 2024, he was testing a theory. Post-pandemic, he believed people want to dine out multiple times a week. He also felt like “the whole nightlife element is dying down.”

Kumar’s steakhouse takes that vibey late-night energy and infuses it into an elegant steakhouse setting.

“We became an overnight success in Austin,” he says. “We filled a big void in the marketplace.”

Now, Kumar and RDM Hospitality aim to do the same in Scottsdale. The team will launch The Guest House on Friday, Jan. 9. It will be the third location of the steakhouse, which also has an outpost in Las Vegas. The Guest House will replace Etta, an Italian restaurant the group acquired in 2024, at Scottsdale Quarter. 

“We saw what Catch did and Elephante is doing and Din Tai Fung coming, and we thought it was the right time to make the switch,” Kumar says.

From Etta to The Guest House

Etta served its last diners on Saturday, Jan. 3. Etta’s staff have been retained and will continue on at The Guest House, Kumar says.

The Italian restaurant opened in Scottsdale in 2022. It was founded by a Chicago-based hospitality group that was also behind the swanky steakhouse Maple & Ash. That group, What If Syndicate, was dissolved in January 2023, with the owners splitting the restaurants following a legal dispute.

Despite the divorce, Etta, along with Maple & Ash, became entangled in a local investigation by the Arizona Attorney General’s office. The sibling restaurants were fined $20,000 in May 2023 for failing to disclose a 3.5% “employee benefits” charge that was added to diners’ bills in 2022.

A new group, Etta Collective, was formed in 2023 around Etta Scottsdale and four other locations spanning three states. By 2024, the collective filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in multiple states, including Arizona. 

Enter RDM, which took over the Scottsdale location in April 2024. The group led a renovation of the space and menu over the summer. Although Etta was popular, it wasn’t without “baggage,” Kumar says. 

Now, the venue will get a fresh start with a more elevated and “experiential” dining experience that Kumar feels better suits the area. 

The Guest House joins a steakhouse renaissance happening around the Valley and the rest of the U.S. In 2025, local restaurateurs debuted Cleaverman and its hidden martini bar Filthy and the refresh of the iconic downtown steakhouse Durant’s.

Out-of-state steakhouses are moving in, too. STK reopened in a new location in Old Town Scottsdale in November and plans to open a downtown Phoenix location in summer 2026. Midwest grill and steakhouse Harry & Izzy’s is coming to PV, the revamped north Phoenix shopping and dining hub formerly home to the Paradise Valley Mall. Desert Ridge’s forthcoming dining options will include Terra Gaucha Brazilian Steakhouse. 

“People just eat out a lot more, and steakhouses give you a broad menu,” Kumar says of the resurgence of steakhouses’ popularity.

The Guest House will soon join those ranks. 

What’s on The Guest House menu?

The Guest House blends splurgy steakhouse fare with more casual eats. 

“I wanted to design and build a menu that’s comfort food, approachable, yet done in a very elegant way, where it’s fine dining,” Kumar says.

The kitchen is helmed by executive chef Todd Mark Miller. He is the founding executive chef of steakhouse chain STK and partnered with RDM on the revamp of Etta’s menu. 

Guest House service begins with complimentary brioche bread, which is laminated like a croissant. Starters include steak tartare and crab cakes as well as a little gem Caesar salad and exceptionally popular buttermilk chicken tenders. (Kumar estimates about 70% of the Austin and Las Vegas restaurants’ tables order tendies.)

The Guest House menu also boasts a sizable raw section featuring oysters, shrimp cocktail and tiny cones stuffed with tuna and caviar. The entire menu is served family-style, Kuma says, encouraging diners to share platters bearing Prime tomahawk steaks, Berkshire pork shops, Faroe Island salmon and spicy rigatoni.

It’s the kind of menu where people can have a decadent dinner or an everyday experience, Kumar says. 

“You can go and have a simple meal of pasta and chicken tenders or you can go and splurge and get a tomahawk steak,” he says. “I want a group of 25-year-olds not to be worried about going to the restaurant because it’s too expensive, because that’s what creates inclusion and diversity.”

The Scottsdale location will also feature five to seven unique menu items, such as Surf, Turf and Earth, a feast of diver scallops, A5 Wagyu and fresh truffle, or flaming burrata caprese-style with heirloom tomatoes, basil, shallots, olive oil and aged balsamic. The restaurant also has a “secret menu,” Kumar says. That will include staple Etta dishes and a big-mouth Wagyu French onion burger.

The hospitality group also has several social media-ready tableside displays planned to create a memorable evening. 

“When there’s an experience on the table, it creates conversation,” Kumar says.

The Guest House Scottsdale will debut a tableside grill for guests to cook their own Wagyu. For a theatrical group toast, diners should order Tulgey Woods. A whimsical tree bearing cotton candy leaves arrives in a low glass bowl. Little potion bottles filled with a seasonal margarita are nestled around the base of the tree.

“Everyone gets to take a shot and then chase it with cotton candy,” Kumar says. 

Tulgey Woods and the bar’s other cocktails take inspiration from “Alice in Wonderland.” There’s a Magic Mushroom tipple served in a shroom-shaped glass. This tequila-based drink is made with an ashwagandha-infused agave. The restaurant’s espresso martini, meanwhile, is “very buttery and very unique,” Kumar notes, because the bar team uses vodka that’s been steeped with the restaurant’s brioche bread. 

A ‘social dining’ atmosphere

To complement the whimsical cocktails and luxe fare, the space is undergoing renovations this week. The team is adding booths, chandeliers and a stately entrance. Other locations feature white oak tables and olive trees. 

To bring the lounge-style energy that the restaurant group describes as “social dining,” The Guest House will feature music spun by live DJs seven days a week. Kumar says the music won’t kill the chatter at your table.  

“When you’re at your table, you don’t have to yell at each other because we invest heavily in sound acoustics,” he says. “Music is in your senses, but it doesn’t overpower the conversation.” 

The music is a touch that The Guest House uses to signal to younger diners that this isn’t their grandfather’s steakhouse. Kumar wants The Guest House to be the kind of place where people will come for a late dinner reservation and linger over cocktails instead of moving on to a lounge or club after the meal. 

“As we get late in the night, we’ll make it more of a party,” Kumar says.

The Guest House

Opens Jan. 9
15301 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale