INSPIRED ELIXIRS
Bartenders mix it up with creativity and boldness.
Fortune favors the bold, they say, and TJ Culp is certainly that.
This is a tenuous time for the Valley’s restaurant scene, when a truckload of economic pressures and an ever-growing mountain of competition conspire to squash independent restaurants even when they do everything right. Young line cooks with dreams of going rogue have to contend not only with the brutal realities of an unforgiving market, but the question of whether they can find an audience in a town that only seems to have so much room for creative fare.
Killjoy dining critics don’t help either. But I digress.
Into the fray leaps Culp, the embodiment of our hopes and dreams for a vibrant restaurant scene. He’s a young gun brimming with passion and can-do who throws caution to the wind and does his food on his terms at a hip, cozy joint that he literally built with his own two hands.
The 26-year-old came up in the Sam Fox system, working the line at The Green House and joining Culinary Dropout’s charge into Las Vegas before returning to work at Central Bistro while taking time to stage in New York and host pop-up dinners back home in Phoenix.
But a combination of zeal and impatience led him to a quirky spot, a 32-seat sliver of a space in the Melrose Pharmacy building, off Seventh Avenue north of Indian School Road. Since opening in early February, Culp has conjured up a restaurant/watering hole that’s already a hit with this central Phoenix neighborhood and looks the part in every possible way.
Here’s a jaunty little joint with rakish charm, a dimly lit den for the denizens of Melrose that feels both timeless and edgy and pointedly at odds with the polished veneer of its big-budget contemporaries. A lively crowd is dressed in resale chic, the bartender slings amari of every stripe and gorgeously plated creative dishes fly out of a tiny open kitchen that’s practically on top of its patrons.
Corporate entities spend millions try-
ing to unlock the secret that Restaurant Progress has casually tucked away in its back pocket. Culp and his affable staff have connected with their audience, and in turn, their audience has packed Restaurant Progress to the rafters and sung its praises to the digital world, making it the Valley’s sleeper hit of 2017. Who can’t get excited about that?
I’m trying. But the kitchen’s making it extremely difficult.
Menu is not the issue
Culp put together an admirably restrained short list of starters, mid courses and mains that play a little edgier than they are at heart. The issue is that the kitchen at Restaurant Progress is dismayingly error-prone; precise in its plating but showing a lack of care in seasoning and execution that torpedoes dishes with potential.
Whether ordered a la carte or as part of the $75 chef’s tasting, starters are bright on the plate and too often painfully so on the palate.
A snapper crudo ($15) with grapefruit supremes and perfect cubes of soycured watermelon ($8) topped with shaved cucumber and a sprinkle of togarashi are beautiful to behold and difficult to eat, seasoned to an uncomfortable level of salinity and paired with an avocado puree so acid-forward it’s downright electric. Clamp a pair of alligator clips to your earlobes, take a bite and you could light the Edison bulb hanging over your head.
Tenderloin carpaccio ($14) is similarly afflicted: Cool slivers of beef lost under a classic mix of mustard, capers and grated pecorino applied with such a heavy hand you might think the beef is the accent and not the other way around.
Salads provide a more balanced respite.
Butter lettuce ($12) gets a simple treatment of beets — both tender and raw — along with goat cheese and lemon. And a combination of fresh and fried heirloom tomatoes ($13) with basil and
Roquefort provide a nice contrast of cool and crisp, though finishing salt, unevenly applied, turn the dish into a game of Russian roulette.
Crab salad with avocado ($16) is a puzzlement — neither cool nor hot but served at a lukewarm temperature that only accentuates its watery texture, while tiny dollops of sauce hit a note of shrieking sourness. Tender pork belly ($19) atop white beans with a shaved fennel crown is a better selection, though it plays a touch flat when the accompanying chorizo and Fresno chiles don’t fully assert themselves. A plate of oyster and shiitake mushrooms ($14), so tough they were difficult to cut, much less eat on one visit, were an intoxicating, umami-laden high water mark on the next, roasted to a deep, nutty brown and set atop a properly pungent sauce of pureed chicken livers.
Inconsistency carries over into mains
Beef cheeks stewed in Burgundy ($30) are a rich and comforting delight, except when the roasted root vegetables aren’t carefully trimmed and riddled with inedible, woody bits.
A piece of charred John Dory ($31) missed twice for different reasons — badly overcooked on one visit and lacking the char and accompanying clams on another. And though I am a fan of rare duck and a champion of raw meat, on one occasion the seared duck breast ($29) would have been more accurately billed as sashimi, ice cold through most of its core.
Desserts like a luxurious chocolate mousse ($8) with salty peanuts and a crisp raspberry napoleon ($9) can close the evening on a pleasantly sweet note, but it’s dishes like the duck that I find so frustrating.
I tried every item on the menu — most of them twice — and the very last one I sampled was a second pass at the duck. The skin was still underdone, but this time the meat within was on point. A silky carrot puree joined roasted mushrooms, sweet cherries and a deep, delicious jus. The plate’s appearance was simple and unremarkable, in contrast to the Instagramworthy visual bravura of the first. But it was a far superior dish — well-balanced, well-seasoned, well-executed and one of just a few that were a genuine pleasure to eat, leading me to wonder why this was the exception rather than the norm.
Keep focus on basics
As our local food culture continues to develop, there’s little we want more than for young talent and independent restaurants to succeed, and at least by one measure, it would be easy to deem Restaurant Progress a success. On the tail end of its first summer, this plucky upstart is already a popular spot, attracting a crowd that countless other restaurants would envy.
But if he wants to keep that crowd when the next popular spot comes along, Culp would do well to never believe the hype and stay focused on the basics. This is a refreshingly genuine joint and the menu has potential, but a kitchen that takes its eye off the ball can only survive on atmosphere and goodwill for so long.
At Restaurant Progress, the passion is palpable but the care and consistency need to catch up with the crowd. When they do — provided they’ll still have me — I’ll be there to help pop the cork.
Reach Armato at domi nic.armato@arizonarepu blic.com or 602-444-8533.