By Chris Schirm, Guest Blogger, Foodies Like Us

Frank & Albert’s, located at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel and Spa, opened its doors a short eight months ago.  Drawn from the inspiration of the famed architects Frank Lloyd Wright and Albert Chase McArthur, Chefs Connor Favre and Todd Sicolo with Sous Chef Eric Schlict, have developed a menu with an organic philosophy that incorporates local seasonal produce and gives the dishes we all grew up on a modern twist.  The décor uses right angles, lush colors, and gives the diner a comfortable yet subtle feeling of elegance without pompousness.

I had the pleasure of being joined by my mother for my tour through Frank and Albert’s culinary avenues.  We were promptly issued to our table, ordered glasses of wine and had the pleasure of meeting Chef Connor Favre.  Unlike the wishy-washy quarterback that shares his last name, Chef Connor has created the menu of Frank & Alberts with a clear and single inspiration. “We want every person who comes in to eat, to enjoy a culinary experience that offers the most fresh, local produce and gives them a modern take on American Classics,” he said before our first dish arrived.

Our meal began with a Roasted Butternut Squash Ravioli topped with fresh baby carrots, a single king prawn shrimp, Parmesan-Reggiano, spinach, sage brown butter sauce and a red wine reduction.  The blend of the cream sauce, fresh veggies, shrimp and a sweetness of the reduction was as complex and delightful as an Arizona Sunset viewed from the top of Camelback Mountain.  In the coming weeks, the kitchen will replace this ravioli for one that includes basil and goat cheese. If the new one is anything like the ravioli we had, I highly recommend it.  The first dish down, it was time for us to take our first step onto memory lane.

Back in the 1960’s an ad was aired that would soon became a mainstay of every childhood.  The ad is one in which a boy goes around asking various animals how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2xMGI-QpZw.  Personally, I will pass on the Tootsie Roll Pops, but thankfully I have found the foodie version of this delight. When you take your first taste of the Charred Chicken Lollipops, you are met with a sweetness and a just a hint of heat as an aftertaste.  These chicken wings are frenched then glazed with a jerk seasoning, a local made chili sauce, and a mango dip sauce. They make you wish you had the patience to lick your way to the bone rather than take them in just one bite.

The salads delivered the best surprises of the evening. When I think of Waldorf salads, images of ornately gold painted rotundas, bell hops with white gloves, three piece suits and mayonnaise come to mind.  Yes that’s right elegance and mayonnaise; that opulent combination that makes you wonder; how on earth has this salad has endured over 100 years? Thankfully, Chef Favre has given this classic salad a much needed CPR (Culinary Progressive Revolution).  The Gala Apple Salad Waldorf Style brings together fresh baby spinach from Maya Farms, bleu cheese, locally grown pecans, fried bacon cut from a fresh slab, crisp Gala Apples and a spicy orange vinaigrette. The collection of ingredients is so light and fresh you can almost taste the open air, crisp dew on the fruit, and question how anyone ever thought mayonnaise was a good idea for this salad.

Time after time I have been disappointed with Caesar salads. Their half crisp romaine lettuce with an over peppered sauce remind me of a taste as antique as the Shakespearean drama of the same name. Thankfully, the revitalization of this salad would make a Caesar exclaim with compassion, “Et tu Brute…..Grazi!” The Organic Celery Caesar is the most unique and creative salad that I have I had the pleasure of dining on in quite a while.  Chef Connor has taken the entire piece celery and crafted a masterpiece of engaging eating.  Celery leaves replace Romaine lettuce, stalks are diced vertically, then topped with fresh crunchy croutons, Parmesan-Reggiano, and Toasted Garlic Dressing.  The result is a perfectly balanced taste coupled with an engaging texture that will transform your fork into a delivery vessel of pure culinary delight. With our taste buds now properly warmed up, we dived into the entrees.

The Queen Creek Olive Oil Poached Rocky Point Grouper was the first main course to grace our table.  It is served with a thin bean orange salad, candied pecans, fresh cherry tomatoes and an orange reduction.  If you are looking for a clean, light dish with plenty of buttery, citrus flavor and perfectly cooked fish than this is the dish for you.  Personally, I was a bit underwhelmed. While the grouper was fresh and perfectly cooked it was far from making my taste buds excited enough to make me scream in jubilation and flash a camera for some beads like so many Spring Breakers at Rocky Point.

Grouper.

The next entrée took us far from the beautiful beaches of Mexico to revelry of Midwestern meals gone by. Meatloaf, a staple of American meals since before the turn of the 20^th century, is one of those dishes that may bring about memories of nights around the family dinner table and mom delivering a meal that left you happy and full.  For those not so lucky, it invokes childhood nightmares of a meat as dry as a stone lathered in ketchup that required glass after glass of milk and water in order to be choked down. Thankfully, Frank and Albert’s, The Meatloaf , will make mothers and Charles Darwin alike proud.  This is the evolution of meatloaf. It combines Arizona free range turkey with shitake mushrooms, cooked with a bacon wrap that infuses the meat with taste that is rich, moist, and delicious.  It is glazed with a Chipotle tomato sauce and nestled on top of a spring vegetable medley of lima beans, potatoes, and parsnips.

Turkey Meatloaf ready for its close up.

After taking our first bites my mom said, “This is better than anything that I ever made.”   I am glad that she said it first, so I wouldn’t have to.

Prime Rib is a staple of countless fine dining establishments and usually require you to trim fat and dunk the meat away in au jus.  However, in the case of Frank & Albert’s there were five words that came to mind with this dish were: beautiful meat and amazing veggies.   The Herb Roasted Rubbed Rib of Beef was a perfect cut of meat, with very little fat, and cooked to a hypnotizing juicy medium rare.  While the taste and cut of the meat were delightful, the biggest surprise of the dish is the vegetables.  The baked potato was so good it had us wondering what modern form of apothecary had enabled the staff to transform the potato into the luscious, buttery delight that greeted us on the plate.  In addition, the buttered broccoli, topped with julienned carrots, had us putting the knives down and enjoying the splendor with our forks.

Prime Rib in all its glory.

The final entrée of the evening was the Cheese, Mac and Chicken.  Served on a bed of sweet corn puree and collared greens, the country fried chicken would have made any Midwestern grandmother blush with envy.  The chicken itself was breaded lightly enough to not hide the succulent meat, but enough to give you the delightful crunch you crave from fried chicken.   The macaroni and cheese, served with the cheese lightly poured over the macaroni, served as a great sidekick for this contemporary take on the Midwestern staple.

Chicken Fried Chicken

To finish off this modern trip down food nostalgia avenue, Chef Connor brought out a tasting sampler that was delicious, light, yet not belt busting filling.  The desert sampler is the perfect desert for people like me that have a hard time deciding on just one dessert.  The four modern takes on the ice cream sundae were served with individual spoons on a pine board and included:  Cherries Jubilee with Cherry Garcia ice cream, a Crepe Suset with vanilla bean ice cream and an orange caramel sauce, a Bananas Foster with Chunky Monkey Ice Cream and fresh bananas, and a Strawberry Romanov with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.

Cute and delicious!

In times where we hear more news about restaurant closings, it was refreshing to see that Frank & Albert’s was packed on a Monday evening.

As we headed toward the exit, I realized the most amazing thing about the menu is neither its foundation of wonderfully fresh organic ingredients nor its modern revitalization of all the classic meals, but the food and staff’s ability to invoke a sense of nostalgia and imagination all the while understanding the complexities of the modern palate.

I cannot wait to come back to Frank & Albert’s for their happy hour boards of food (your choice of four appetizers) for $5 and ½ on all drinks.