2,000 miles away...

I know I am way off topic here, but I wanted to add a short post on this fabulous restaurant in Scottsdale, AZ. Now I am not a big fan of Phoenix or Scottsdale, but I travel there for work fairly often and have had some time to check out the local restaurant scene.

And I would highly recommend if you are in the area, you make a special trip to a place in Old Town Scottsdale called Sea Saw. On the whole, the places I've eaten in Old Town are OK/good, but not great. It seems mainly a place to be seen for the young and good looking crowd, and for tourists to visit. I do not think of it as a dining destination. But Sea Saw is the exception.

It is run by Nobu - no, not that Nobu - but Nobu Fukuda. It is essentially a Japanese tapas restaurant. But not sushi - more a fusion mix of Japanese. And its small plates range from great to fabulous! Potential visitors should know it is expensive. When I stopped by this week the cheapest item on the menu was a $6 cold edamame soup (with crème fraîche and what one of the chefs told me was vegetarian caviar), but most of the dishes were in the mid to high-teens with some in the low to mid-20s. And again, these are small plates so most eaters would need 3 or 4 to fill up.

In addition to this place being quite far from SoCo, it is also does not adhere to a "buy local" ethos. When I asked if a juicy looking lamb chop on the grill was local I was informed, "No, it's from New Zealand." So these chops made nearly a 7,000 mile trip to Scottsdale. Wow, this a long way. I would have to believe that somewhere in the southwest or western US Nobu could find some high quality lamb chops. But for now he chooses NZ. And I'll admit I ordered a melange of Japanese mushrooms (to die for) and as one would expect there were Japanese and Hawaiian fish scattered throughout the menu.

On my next visit I will continue to lobby for a SoCo Sea Saw. Wouldn't it be cool if it could take over one of the garages on Mayor Lane and help transform this strip into a lively dining alleyway. But I'm not holding my breath. For the time being us locals will need to head into DC to get something close to Sea Saw.