A trifecta of dining experiences is on the horizon for Phoenix as Pretty Decent Concepts, the team behind downtown's hip spots Chico Malo and Wren & Wolf, reveals plans to transform a chunk of Arizona Center into a culinary destination. Their ambitious blueprint includes an upscale steakhouse, a vintage martini lounge, and a multicourse chef's tasting menu eatery, expected to open doors as soon as winter this year or latest by early 2025.
According to Teddy Myers, founder of Pretty Decent Concepts, the group's venture at the Arizona Center, which sprawling almost 10,000 square feet, will overhaul a space once occupied by a former Hooters restaurant, Myers' vision goes beyond bringing mere dining options to the downtown crowd, aiming to rebrand the Arizona Center as a premium hangout spot, "When you look at Arizona Center, it was a bit of a black eye to the burgeoning restaurant community that is trying to develop here," Myers stated with confidence in a statement obtained by the Business Journal.
The steakhouse, coined 'Cleaverman', is shaping up to offer walk-in availability alongside highly recommended reservations and areas for different moods including one with DJs to ensure a high-energy atmosphere, "We’ll have walked into availability at the steakhouse. So, [the] steakhouse will have two different vibes, it'll have the full-service sit-down table, or reservations [that’ll be] highly recommended", Myers revealed in an interview with ABC15. The other two concepts are a cocktail lounge, which Myers says will "bring back some old-school grandeur", focusing on vintage martinis, and the separate 12-seat chef's counter inside the steakhouse that offers an intimate, steak-focused 12-course meal.
Myers is not just banking on the concepts but also on the design, collaborating with partner and designer Peter Bowden for intricate and challenging elements to embody the group's aesthetic, "What we are designing and what we are building. These are very ambitious projects. They're very detail-oriented. We've partnered with Peter Max [...] and he's a partner in our company. And the design package that he is coming up with is very technical, hard to build, it takes a long time" Myers told ABC15, highlighting the attention to detail that drives the group.
With these concepts, combined with other ventures like Carry On and dual dining venues at a former P.F. Chang’s in Tempe in the works, Pretty Decent Concepts isn't just expanding its portfolio but also potentially reshaping Phoenix's gastronomic map.
