This Food Network star is opening a new restaurant in Scottsdale. Here's what to expect
BeauMac is coming to Old Town Scottsdale. He has manned the kitchen at Elements at Sanctuary Camelback Mountain for more than 20 years. And now celebrity chef Beau MacMillan is branching out with a second Valley restaurant concept.
The chef's restaurant Cala is coming soon to the new Senna House boutique hotel at 7501 E. Camelback Road. Expect coastal Mediterranean food from Greece, Italy, Spain and Morocco, with a menu that's "adult driven for the Old Town vibe," MacMillan said in an exclusive interview with The Arizona Republic.
Located on the ground floor of the hotel, the restaurant is a spacious 5,000 square feet, with a large patio featuring a 40-foot bar complete with cabanas. He hopes to open the restaurant by Jan. 21.
"A lot of people come down here, find a place to eat and move to the clubs," he said. "Let's give them a place to eat where they won’t want to move on."
What to expect on the menu at Cala in Scottsdale
Cala is MacMillan's second project with the restaurant group Clive Collective, which he partnered with to open Money, Baby! inside the Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas in summer 2021. Money, Baby! is a sprawling interactive gaming restaurant and bar that Eater Las Vegas described as an "adult playground with a mid-century modern style."
The menu at Cala — which means cove in Spanish and Italian — will be smaller, focusing on fresh and light dishes with a "nice little pasta program" and pizza toppings that draw from the different regions of the world. It's the kind of spot where you can spend $15 on an appetizer or splurge on a $150 tomahawk steak, MacMillan said.
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Seafood will also be a large emphasis, with raw crudos and Peruvian scallop ceviche, as well as Mediterranean seabass alongside meatier entrees like braised beef cheeks. Other dishes he's tinkering with include a Moroccan braised lamb with ras el hanout spice mixture, a Spanish octopus dish and a mezze platter with a smoked eggplant and a whipped ricotta with honey. MacMillan hopes to have the menu ready for staff tastings soon.
Down the road, he also wants to host sangria brunches with fondues on the weekends.
"I'd rather do 15 things well than do 25 things not so well," he said.
Peter McQuaid is executive chef. Clint Spotleson developed the cocktails
To bring the menu to life, he's enlisting Sanctuary Camelback alum Peter McQuaid as executive chef. MacMillan described him as a "prodigy" who was the restaurant's youngest ever sous chef when he hired him at 21 years old. McQuaid was instrumental in opening Money, Baby!, and MacMillan thinks Cala will be a good place to help him shine.
On the drinks side, Cala will have a sizable cocktail menu developed by bartender Clint Spotleson, who spent years at Sanctuary before working at celebrated Las Vegas cocktail bar Herbs & Rye. MacMillan said the cocktail menu will have a "female friendly vibe with fresh, colorful cocktails that are Instagrammable." That translates to lighter drinks that aren't heavy in spirits, but with interesting flavors like cardamom and cinnamon, or a a red pepper syrup and basil.
Who is Beau MacMillan?
A longtime fixture of metro Phoenix dining, MacMillan has cooked at one of the Valley's finest resorts, Sanctuary Camelback Mountain since 1998, opening its signature restaurant Elements in 2001. During that time, he also developed a robust television career with the Food Network and co-hosted the show "Worst Cooks in America" in 2012.
He's best known for defeating Bobby Flay by cooking Kobe beef during an episode of "Iron Chef America" in 2006. He also hosts a premier Scottsdale food festival Nirvana Food and Wine, which he hopes to bring back in November 2022.
MacMillan said in the future, he'll gear up to start working with his onscreen buddy Guy Fieri again. MacMillan previously served as a judge on "Guy's Grocery Games" and appeared on Fieri's hit show "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives."
Cala in Old Town Scottsdale
Details: 7501 E. Camelback Road, calascottsdale.com.
Reach reporter Andi Berlin at a[email protected] or 602-444-8533. Follow her on Facebook @andiberlin, Instagram @andiberlin or Twitter @andiberlin.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Food Network's Beau MacMillan to open Old Town Scottsdale restaurant