WINE SPECTATOR

WINE SPECTATOR

PHOENIX RISING

Fine dining heats up in Arizona's largest city, with Tarbell's leading the way

By John Mariani

Like the one about the chicken and the egg, the question of whether a boomtown attracts great restaurants or great restaurants make a town boom has no simple answer. Certainly the success of Las Vegas has never had anything to do with fine dining, whereas a resort like Aspen, Colo., only really became an international destination after a number of world, class restaurants opened in the last five years. Phoenix and its posh suburb of Scottsdale, dale straddle the question, for the Valley of the Sun's soaring popularity as a resort and second-home community has gone hand in hand with a surge in fine new restaurants, from the deluxe Christopher's and the innovative Vincent Guerithault on Camelback to the highly eclectic RoxSand and the extravagantly grand Mary Elaine's at the Phoenician Resort. One of the very best of the new restaurants that lend a distinct cachet to the region is Tarbell's, which for me sums up a good deal of the area's vibrancy, both in its casually chic atmosphere and its smack, on-target food and wine service.

Tarbell's is named after owner and chef Mark Tarbell, who spent seven years as food and beverage director at the beautiful Boulders Resort in Carefree, Ariz., where he oversaw four restaurants and a wine cellar that carries a Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence. Tarbell has put in nearly two decades in the hospitality business, earning a Diploma d'Etudes Gastronomiques from La Varenne, the Parisian cooking school, and studying at the Academie du Vin. Afterward he worked at Taillevent, Michel Pasquet and Willi's Wine Bar in Paris, then returned to the United States to take a variety of jobs ranging from sous chef and pastry chef to wine buyer for the renowned Cafe Mariposa in Deer Valley, Utah. He also led training seminars for the Italian Trade Commission certifying Italian sommeliers, is a founding member of the Arizona chapter of the American Institute of Wine and Food, a member of the Culinary Historians of Boston and a frequent wine judge. All of this makes him sound like the grand old man of Arizona gastronomy, yet Mark Tarbell is only 33 and brings enormous energy and personality to his restaurant, which is why it is the hottest in the city.

Where many of the resort area's restaurants draw an older crowd out for golf, retirement and early-bird dinners, Tarbell's has managed to attract another group entirely, including several professional athletes from the Phoenix Suns and Arizona Cardihats. The beautiful bird's-eye maple bar that fronts the open kitchen is usually jammed three-deep with some of the city's most attractive, well-dressed young professionals.

Tarbell's is a strikingly handsome restaurant without a whit of chichi. Bare wood floors, cozy alcoves, warm lighting and dramatic art give the place a postmodern cool, but the greeting at the door is Southwest-friendly and Tarbell is both chef, with chef de cuisine Mark Bloom, and schmoozer on any given night.

This is one of those rare restaurants where the food and wine are a perfect match, thanks to Mark Tarbell's canny knowledge of both areas. With no dish on the menu more than $25, and most around $17, the wine list reflects the same moderation. There are more than 120 bottlings ranging from $18 through $165, with the biggest selection in the $24 to $40 range. (There is a "cellar selections" list for higher-priced beauties like Chateau Louisville Barton 1982 at $165 and Henri jayer Echzeaux 1983 at $185.)

"I'm an avid eater in restaurants and I know what wine costs," he says, explaining his policies. "I'm passionate about delivering quality wines at a fair price and I'm happiest when people leave the restaurant excited about that. I know that some of my competitors in Phoenix charge twice as much as I do for the same bottle of wine, but I try to keep my markup about 100 percent above wholesale. The best wine store in Phoenix [Sportsman's] is right next door to me, and I charge on average about $5 to $10 more than he does for retail."

If you ask his advice on a wine, Tarbell is likely to point you toward one of his recent discoveries he finds to be a great buy as well as a great wine. "Probably about 70 percent of the wines on my list have recognizable names to the knowledgeable wine drinker. The rest rotate on the list, which we print about three times a week. I'm wild about South African wines old World roots and New World flavors are very exciting to me. The Buitenverwachting Sauvignon Blanc '95 [$181 is absolutely in full maturity, with intense flavors and balance. From France I'm in love with wines from. the Burgundy producer Verger, whose St. Veran '94 [$281 is just stunning and immaculately made."

There are delightful rarities like Georis 1989 Merlot at $52, Rombauer 1993 Merlot at $35 and Truchard 1994 Syrah at $38 all printed in bold letters on the list to indicate special selections. There's not a cliché available you get the immediate sense that every wine is there for two reasons.- First, because it's the kind of wine that goes so well with the hearty food and, second, because it represents very good value. This is the kind of list that is a paragon of what American restaurants should aim for in the years to come: It shows off not only broad knowledge, value and suitability, but also the collectors own personality.

Tarbell's food is of a kind you could easily, eat several times a week-not a bad marketing concept. Everything is conceived around big flavors: roasted mushrooms, creamy potatoes, smoked meats and plenty of garlic. I can forgive cutesy touches like listing "Mr. Fish of the Moment" on the menu when it arrives as impeccably grilled as the mahi mahi I was served. The food is bistro like with a lot of Southwest swagger and the wood fired oven serves as a crucible for some smoky, robust dishes surrounded by side orders of "addictive little biscuits," au gratin potatoes, creamed spinach and grilled polenta.

Appetizers include a steamed artichoke with grilled corn bread and a lemon mustard vinaigrette; smoked rock shrimp with a plum tomato relish and focaccia;steamed mussels in white wine that would be exemplary in any Paris bistro; crisply fried, tender calamari with three dipping sauces; and an array of entree-size salads flush with Laurel Chenel goat cheese, aged balsamic vinegar and organically grown Arizona field lettuces.

Three pastas are offered nightly, and I loved the robust flavors of fettuccine with shiitake, cremini and portobello mushrooms in a verdant pesto sauce. A Southwestern snap of roasted green chile is added to grilled radicchio and smoked sirloin to gussy up penne pasta. The pizzas are good too, with a thin but crispy, nicely charred crust and a variety of toppings that include classic tomato, fresh mozzarella, garlic and basil, as well as an Arizona influenced barbecued chicken with green onions and toasted cumin.

This is the West, so grilled meats and seafood are the preferred choices, from a 28-ounce dry-aged strip sirloin with pommes frites to a "humanely raised" and marvelously flavorful veal chop with tomato polenta and wild mushroom ragout. Fat, succulent, sweet sea scallops come in a "charred" tomato broth with cous-cous, and salmon is glazed with the sweet-sour tastes of molasses and lime.

That fiery wood oven turns out perfectly crisp, succulent roast chicken, but even more impressive are the roasted portobellos with grilled polenta and curly endive. Meaty and finely textured, they are like eating a sirloin without the fat. Kudos to Tarbell for not adding any garnish or ingredient on any plate that doesn't need to be there or make culinary sense. It's food of the moment, yet it has the makings of being classic American fare for the next century.

For dessert there's a first-rate crème brulee in a town inundated with pretty good crème brulees, but even better is a sumptuous chocolate mousse made with Hawaiian "vintage" chocolate, which is not just a gimmick. It's darn good deep, rich chocolate. Just the thing to go with the half-bottle of Bukkuram Moscato Passitodi Pantelleria 1990 ($45) or the extraordinary, Royal Tokaji Wine Co. Tokaji Aszu 5 Puttonyos Nyulaszo 1990 ($45). Then end off with a snifter of lovely Leopold Gourmel Fins Bois Age des Fruits Cognac ($25) and go watch the moon rise over the desert peaks.

Tarbell's is exemplary not for 'its innovations but for its consistent vision of the way food should be cooked and wines should be served in the '90s. That it also attracts a young crowd who really, really want to be there shows the personalized touch that makes this place a long-distance front-runner in Phoenix.

~ September, 1996 ~

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