Popular Scottsdale restaurant celebrates 15 years of ‘full bellies, big smiles’

When chef Bernie Kantak and Andrew Fritz were readying to open the doors to Citizen Public House 15 years ago, they had to scramble and scrap about a third of the menu on the fly.

The building the business partners took over in Old Town Scottsdale sat vacant for several years after a stint as a nightclub, and prior to that, an outpost of the Polynesian-inspired Trader Vic’s. During the hiatus, a fan in the gas meter had malfunctioned, Kantak recalls.

While the pair was staring down their first service on Jan. 11, 2011, there was no gas to fuel most of their stoves. 

“We could only use like a quarter or a third of the stoves back there,” Kantak says while sitting with Fritz at a table in Citizen’s airy dining room.

During that initial friends-and-family service, instead of letting guests peruse the menu and order, the team brought dishes to tables.

“We ended up deciding for guests what they were going to get,” Fritz says.

Luckily, that approach landed. Fritz recalls some diners cooing over the restaurant’s lamb burger, something they wouldn’t have chosen otherwise. 

“It forced people to get out of their comfort zone,” he says.

The praise continued after the gas started flowing. Then Phoenix New Times restaurant critic Laura Hahnefeld proclaimed Citizen Public House “your new favorite restaurant” in a 2011 review. She admired Kantak for “taking standard American favorites and giving them a delicious kick in the ass.”

From Cowboy to Citizen

Kantak, Fritz and their In Good Spirits Hospitality team haven’t let off the gas ever since. In 2020, Kantak was named a Best Chef: Southwest semifinalist by the James Beard Foundation for his work at Citizen Public House. 

The group continued growing, too. The Gladly arrived in Phoenix’s Biltmore neighborhood in 2013. Then came Beginner’s Luck, which opened in Old Town just a half-mile from Citizen in 2024. Most recently, the team opened the sushi and matcha bar Minnow in Phoenix’s Arcadia neighborhood in 2025.

It’s quite the portfolio for a chef who says he never wanted to own his own place.

“I didn’t want all the responsibility of being an owner. It just seemed like a headache,” Kantak says. Case in point, on the day we met, the chef-owner was wheeling in a new cooler with several members of the kitchen crew, amid a downpour. 

Kantak got his start at Cowboy Ciao, an Old Town Scottsdale fixture. There, he climbed the culinary ladder, debuted the chopped salad that would gain a cult following and met his future business partner. The experience changed his mind on ownership.

“We were doing all the stuff that owners do anyway, so we were like, we should do this ourselves,” Kantak says.

The chef also noted how the restaurant’s founding partners, Marianne Belardi and Peter Kasperski, went out of their way to make diners feel special.

“Peter and Marianne definitely instilled a lot of the philosophies that I hold,” Kantak says. “(Peter) gave me a platform to do my thing before anybody else, so I’m super grateful to him.”

When Kantak decided to launch a restaurant, he called Fritz, who agreed immediately.

The process of getting Citizen Public House open was a blur, Kantak and Fritz agree. They did their own demo, built the tables and sourced vintage photos from family and friends. Those still hang in antique frames, arranged in clusters around the dining room. Kantak wanted to give the historic space, with its vaulted ceilings and exposed beams, a timeless, lived-in feel.

“I feel like the room, Citizen kind of hugs you when you walk in,” Fritz says.

A celebratory throwback menu

Longtime fans can reminisce about their early visits to the restaurant this month, as the kitchen and bar will recreate some of their classics to toast the restaurant’s 15th anniversary. Pork belly pastrami, pan-seared scallops and the Bijou and Im-Port cocktails are all back on Citizen’s menu through Jan. 31.

The pork belly starter, a favorite of both Kantak and New Times, is a deconstructed version of the classic deli sandwich. Smoky hunks of pork are served with rye spaetzle, a tangy Brussels sprout sauerkraut and mustard jus. 

The scallops are served with sweet corn grits and topped with sautéed greens, bacon lardons and cola gastrique. The dish was their best-selling entree for 13 years, Kantak told New Times last summer, but he axed it because of higher prices for the mollusks. For this limited-time return of the scallops, Kantak is sourcing from local purveyor Chula Seafood.

In addition to memorable dishes, Kantak says the bar team likewise pushed the envelope. When Citizen opened, craft cocktail culture hadn’t yet taken hold in the Valley. From the stainless steel-topped bar at Citizen, its mixologists have showcased barrel-aged cocktails and come up with playful tipples, like the Im-Port, an Irish whiskey-based sipper with a beer stout foam.

Over their 15 years in business, Citizen’s team has never lost its focus on food and hospitality, Kantak says. But he notes that staying flexible has helped them through the peaks and valleys of the restaurant business. He received a second James Beard nod for Beginner’s Luck in 2025. Though Kantak laughs that he doesn’t have as much energy as he did 15 years ago, the chef says the team hasn’t wavered on their mission.

“Staying true to our vision but still evolving and really concentrating on making people happy, that’s my goal,” Kantak says. “Full bellies, big smiles, a hug on the way out the door.”

Citizen Public House

7111 E. Fifth Ave., Scottsdale