Cowboy Ciao’s Kantak headed for Phoenix
Downtown Scottsdale’s loss is downtown Phoenix’s gain.
Chef Bernie Kantak, the man who put Cowboy Ciao on the foodie map 11 years ago, has given notice. He’s headed to downtown Phoenix, where he hopes to open his new restaurant in the fall.
What kind of menu can we expect? If you’ve eaten at Cowboy Ciao, you know it’s all over the map, with dishes ranging from curried pork belly to buffalo carpaccio. Right now, all Kantak will say about the menu is, “It will be me.” That means, he adds, “creative and comforting.”
Kantak is the third key player in the Peter Kasperski restaurant stable (Cowboy Ciao, Kazimierz World Wine Bar, Digestif, Sea Saw) to head off in a new direction in the past few months. Maitre d’ Pavle Milic left Digestif for Prado. Executive pastry chef Tracy Dempsey will be opening her own dessert shop. (Dempsey will also continue to oversee the Kasperski group’s desserts.)
Spokeswoman Mari Markogianis says Kasperski will be looking in and out of town for Kantak’s replacement. And Kantak will be staying on for two or three months to help with the transition.
Markogianis also acknowledges that James Beard Award winner Nobuo Fukuda, Kasperski’s Sea Saw partner, has had offers to move to Phoenix. But however that may unfold, she says, Fukuda and Sea Saw are staying put in 2009.
And Mexican Standoff, Kasperski’s south-of-the-border concept that was to be one of the jewels in the SouthBridge restaurant collection, is still on hold.