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Visualize strolling into a stylish Airbnb in the Italian countryside and getting a Michelin-starred chef hanging out in the kitchen area. That’s the emotion I got when I sat down at Campo, a new community bistro owned by the award-successful Valley chef Alex Stratta.
The space seems to have taken a 180 from its previous thought, Stratta Kitchen, a limited-lived lunch cafe with vibrant, minimalist art gallery vibes. Now it really is a evening meal haunt with serious day-night possible. Antique landscape paintings in golden frames hang next to funky potted ferns, offering the cafe a classic Mediterranean glance that operates most effective in the dim, candlelit lighting of the night.
Alessandro “Alex” Stratta has tested out a assortment of concepts considering the fact that going back again to the Valley in 2016 after a ten years in Vegas where by he attained his places to eat two Michelin stars. The former Iron Chef and James Beard Award winner fronted kitchens at the Omni Scottsdale Vacation resort & Spa at Montelucia and the Arizona Biltmore. He also consulted with the Discovered:RE hotel before opening his second namesake restaurant Stratta in 2020 with Jeremy Pacheco of The Vig.
Judging from the wholesome weeknight group and the straightforward, approachable food I tasted during my initial visit, this new thought would seem like it could be a winning one particular.
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What’s on the menu at Campo?
Previously in his career, Stratta designed a name for himself cooking French cuisine for renowned restaurateurs Alain Ducasse and Daniel Boulud. So it tends to make perception that his Mediterranean-style cooking draws from both equally French and Italian cuisines. Having said that, Campo’s menu falls firmly in the Italian camp with an eclectic mix of antipastos and pasta dishes that use contemporary durum wheat noodles from the community Sonoran Pasta Co.
Campo’s pizza is a drive to be reckoned with. The team labored with Noble Bread to establish a one of a kind mix of rye and wheat flours together with type 85 pizza flour for the dough, which is then baked on a Hearthstone oven until the sauce is molten. The pies are a tacky compromise involving rustic Italian and decadent New York designs. The crust bubbles and erupts into a chewy puff of bread that retains up to the tomato sauce and generous scatters of mozzarella, which is greasy in the very best way.
We ordered the Marco, which came topped with wide slices of Calabrese salami interspersed with crumbles of Schreiner’s sausage and flecks of fresh basil. It was like a vintage pepperoni with a hint of refinement.
On the pasta menu, the Mafaldini Pescatore, with its bounty of seafood delights in a light-weight tomato broth, stood out among gems like a lasagna Bolognese and a bucatini with pancetta and cherry tomato confit.
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The ribbonlike mafaldini noodles, some of them tinged black with squid ink, had been loaded with gorgeous grilled shrimp and a hefty serving of mussels and clams. The pasta may have desired a very little bit a lot more salt or some other kind of zing, but the seafood alone was incredibly superior high quality and plump.
Wild-caught Mexican shrimp also made an look on the antipasto menu in which it was paired with a solid iron skillet of melted polenta. Blessed with the char from the grill, the gorgeous shrimp have been buried in a garden of contemporary herbs and slices of bitter radish. The polenta could have been creamier and a very little less chunky, but the shrimp was on place.
You really don’t typically uncover Michelin-starred chefs generating approachable foodstuff like this each and every working day of the 7 days. Campo is a solid community decision in Scottsdale’s sea of fantastic pizza and pasta areas.
Campo
The place: 8260 N. Hayden Road, Scottsdale.
Hours: Tuesday via Thursday 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Closed Monday. The cafe plans to grow its several hours in February and also open Monday from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Price tag: Antipasto $12 to $24 pasta $19 to $32 pizza $16 to $19 mains $26 to $48.
Facts: 480-597-9195, campoitalian.com.
Arrive at reporter Andi Berlin at [email protected]. Adhere to her on Fb @andiberlin, Instagram @andiberlin or Twitter @andiberlin.
