🍴The Thursday Bite

Good morning, Scottsdale!

Another week, another round of restaurant news.

Then we’re taking a First Look at Vecina McCormick Ranch, going behind two hidden doors for The Peacock vs. Tell Your Friends, and showing you how to eat at some of Scottsdale’s fanciest restaurants without paying full splurge prices.

And this weekend?

Tacos. Lots of tacos.

Let’s get into it.

Remember when General Admission was sitting on our Coming Soon list?

Move it over.

The new elevated sports lounge officially began its soft opening Oct. 8 and is now welcoming guests while the team works through the final details.

General Admission took over the former RnR Gastropub space at:

📍 3737 N. Scottsdale Road

Expect a polished sports-bar experience with elevated food, handcrafted cocktails, plenty of screens, and more Old Town energy than your neighborhood wing joint.

For now, remember the important words:

That means the restaurant itself is telling guests it is still fine-tuning operations, so give the team a little room while everything gets up to full speed.

This story changed quickly.

Just months after Salad and Go shut down all of its restaurants during bankruptcy, an Arizona group led by Hospitality First Concepts co-founders Mike Myers and Tom Misitano, along with original Salad and Go co-founder and corporate chef Daniel Patiño, has acquired the brand’s intellectual property and says it plans to bring Salad and Go back to Arizona. https://www.azfamily.com

But before we start celebrating a Scottsdale comeback, there is an important detail.

Three former Scottsdale Salad and Go locations - 13838 N. Scottsdale Road, 2323 N. Scottsdale Road and 15305 N. 87th Street - were already approved for acquisition by 7 Brew, which plans to convert former Salad and Go sites into coffee stands. https://www.azfamily.com

So yes:

But no new Scottsdale location has been announced yet.

We’ll be watching this one carefully.

This won't be a quiet eggs-and-coffee brunch.

Starting Sunday, Oct. 25, KAUBOI at The REMI launches a high-energy Sunday brunch built around Japanese steakhouse flavors, sushi, cocktails, and a live DJ on the terrace.

The prix-fixe brunch is currently $75 per person and includes shareable starters followed by an entrée choice such as Filet Mignon Benedict, KAUBOI Fried Chicken, chilaquiles, or Big Sky fluffy pancakes.

There will also be sushi, Wagyu fried rice, Mimosa Boats, and tableside bottle service.

📍 4415 N. Buckboard Trail
⏰ Sundays | 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
🎧 DJ | 10:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
💰 $75 per guest OpenTable

Old Town apparently decided brunch needed a little more fire.

We are getting very close.

French Crêperie Scottsdale celebrates its Old Town grand opening:

📅 Saturday, Oct. 24
⏰ 10 a.m.
📍 4225 N. Marshall Way, Suite 2

The French-owned concept is bringing sweet and savory crêpes, café favorites, and crêpe-making classes to the former Arizona Stronghold tasting-room space.

This one has officially moved from “coming eventually” to:

Chef Matt Carter, Brian Raab, and pastry chef Lisa Graf continue moving toward a November opening for DASH in McCormick Ranch.

📍 9619 N. Hayden Road

DASH is being designed as an all-day neighborhood market, bakery, and café with coffee, pastries, sandwiches, Roman-style pizza, charcoal chicken, prepared foods, and soft serve. Recent coverage continues to point to a fall opening.

We’re in talks with Chef Matt Carter regularly for more info

We’re now inside the opening window; owner/operator Ariel Sheely previously gave Forking Scottsdale for Turquoise Wine Bar North Scottsdale.

📍 10405 E. McDowell Mountain Ranch Road, Suite 100

The target has been late October to early November.

Expect wines by the glass, tasting flights, bottles, shareable food, live music, and community events.

No official opening date yet, so we’re not inventing one.

ALMA’s North Scottsdale is now less than three weeks away.

The restaurant is reopening in the former Preston’s Steakhouse at:

📍 8700 E. Pinnacle Peak Road, Suite 115
📞 480-284-6736

Chef Sheila Bryson is repositioning ALMA as a Southwest steakhouse, and OpenTable still lists Nov. 2 as opening day and will be the October 29th First Look Article.

👉 Reserve ALMA on OpenTable

Two major openings we’ve been tracking are still officially listed as Fall 2026.

BOA Steakhouse is headed to Scottsdale Waterfront, while Drake’s Hollywood is transforming the former Buca di Beppo space in Old Town.

Experience Scottsdale’s newly released Winter 2026 update still lists both among Scottsdale’s upcoming restaurant debuts, but neither has published an opening day yet.

So they stay on the watch list.

And that is actually good news.

We dug through the latest restaurant news and city activity and didn't find a new Scottsdale restaurant closing this week that we're confident we can publish.

Instead of filling this section with an old closure or turning a rumor into a headline, we’re leaving it here.

If that changes, we’ll let you know.

Vecina has officially expanded from Arcadia to McCormick Ranch, taking over the former Z’Tejas space at 8300 N. Hayden Road.

And this isn’t simply a copy-and-paste second location.

Chef James Fox now has a much larger kitchen, expanded dining areas, and a lakeside patio, while keeping the mesquite-fired, Latin-inspired cooking that earned the original Vecina national attention.

Think karaage with aji amarillo.

Faroe Island salmon tacos.

Mesquite-grilled carne asada ribeye.

Ceviche.

Cocktails.

And a lot more room to play.

Two hidden Scottsdale cocktail lounges.

Two completely different nights.

The Peacock at DC Ranch is smaller, quieter and built for cocktails and conversation.

Tell Your Friends, hidden beneath The Americano, goes in the opposite direction with velvet, live music, theatrical cocktails and late-night energy.

So which one should you choose?

This week we compared:

🍸 Cocktails
🍽️ Food
🎶 Entertainment
✨ Atmosphere
🔐 Hidden-factor
💰 Price

And one gets the fork.

Scottsdale does expensive very well.

But sometimes you just need to know when to show up.

This week we found eight upscale Scottsdale restaurants where you can get the atmosphere without paying the full splurge.

We’re talking:

🥩 A $49 three-course Steak Night at STK

🦪 $3 oysters at Maple & Ash

🍸 $10 cocktails at Eddie V’s

🌮 $5 tacos and $8 margaritas at Toca Madera

🍣 A $25 Uchi lunch prix fixe

🍤 $3 seafood selections at The Americano

Plus Fat Ox and a resort happy hour worth knowing about.

Same Scottsdale experience.

Much friendlier bill.

If tacos are your love language, we've got your weekend covered.

Arizona Taco Fest takes over Salt River Fields this Saturday and Sunday with top Arizona taco makers, tequila and mezcal, margaritas, live music, cooking demonstrations, and celebrity chefs including Aarón Sánchez, Maria Mazon, and Beau MacMillan.

📅 Oct. 17-18
⏰ 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
📍 Salt River Fields, 7555 N. Pima Road
💰 General admission starts at $15
🚗 Parking is free
👧 Kids 12 and under are free.

Come hungry.

Roka Akor Scottsdale celebrates a major milestone this Sunday: 18 years in Scottsdale.

To mark the occasion, the restaurant is offering 18% off the entire bill before tax for guests dining on Sunday, October 18.

From its signature robata grill to nearly two decades of memorable dinners, Roka Akor celebrates the food, tradition, and Scottsdale community that have shaped the restaurant since opening.

📅 Sunday, October 18
🎉 18th Anniversary Celebration
💰 18% off your entire bill before tax
📍 7299 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, AZ 85253

Reservations are highly recommended and are available through OpenTable.

Eighteen years in Scottsdale is no small thing, so this feels like a pretty good excuse to celebrate with robata, sushi, and maybe one more cocktail than planned.

Lisa Vanderpump will be at WOLF by Vanderpump next Tuesday to celebrate her new book, Home at Villa Rosa: Cooking and Living the Vanderpump Way.

Guests will receive a four-course dinner inspired by the book, a copy of it, and the chance to meet Lisa in person.

📅 Tuesday, Oct. 20
💰 $225 per person, prepaid
🕠 5:30 p.m. or 8:15 p.m.
📍 WOLF by Vanderpump, Caesars Republic Scottsdale

Tax, fees, and gratuity are included. OpenTable

Availability is limited.

One more for the calendar.

Marcellino Ristorante celebrates its 24th anniversary Oct. 20 with a special wine dinner in Old Town. The restaurant is currently promoting the anniversary celebration on its official event calendar.

Click to see the menu

That’s this week’s Thursday Bite.

General Admission is now soft open.

Salad and Go is plotting an Arizona comeback, although Scottsdale’s former locations have a complicated future.

KAUBOI is turning Sunday brunch into a party.

ALMA is less than three weeks away.

And this weekend, Salt River Fields has enough tacos to derail almost any diet.

As always, if you see a Coming Soon sign, construction behind papered windows, a liquor-license notice or a restaurant quietly disappearing, send it our way.

Some of our best leads come from you.

Until next Thursday...

Mychael & Connie Parker
Forking Scottsdale

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