Upscale American cuisine with a Southwestern spin is the house specialty at CORE Kitchen & Wine Bar, which opens today at Tucson's new Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain.
Chef Joel Harrington, formerly of Fearing's Restaurant in Dallas, incorporates plenty of regional ingredients in his dishes, such as barbecued quail and pulled rabbit with tepary bean ragout, mustard creme fraiche, and Tabasco gastrique, and a salad of Sunizona field greens with Black Mesa Ranch goat cheese, roasted candy-stripe beets, almond puree, and shallot vinaigrette.
Desserts sound scrumptious, too, like "coffee and doughnuts" with coffee creme brulee and cinnamon-sugar doughnuts.