Goodbye, DC Ranch.
That's pretty much the sentiment coming from chef Aaron May, who closed his casual Italian restaurant Autostrada on Wednesday, and now tells me he will be closing his other DC Ranch eatery, Sol y Sombra, this weekend. Sunday brunch will be the last service.
"It's a tough place to have one restaurant, let alone two," says May, who adds that he's been trying to renegotiate his lease with DC Ranch's DMB Realty for the last few months, but couldn't come to an agreement.
Summer's been difficult, and there hasn't been any traffic, he says. "Since we opened Sol y Sombra four years ago, 27 stores have closed up here."
In the meantime, May's other two restaurants, The Lodge (a pub in Old Town Scottsdale) and Overeasy (an Arcadia breakfast joint) are "very busy." May is also working on opening restaurants at the upcoming CityScape development in downtown Phoenix.
While he closed Autostrada due to slow business, May says Sol y Sombra was holding its own, and that he wants to move the restaurant to another location in Scottsdale or Phoenix, hopefully reopening this fall.
"I'm sad we're closing," he says, "but do we really want to be on an island up here?"
