Arcadia Farms, Phoenix Art Museum

January 24, 2012 Update: The on-site restaurant at the Phoenix Art Museum is now Palette instead of the Arcadia Farms cafe described below. Look for a review of the new restaurant in early 2012.

The Arcadia Farms cafe at the Phoenix Art Museum (PAM) joins similar operations at the Heard Museum and the Arizona Science Center in a trio of on-site restaurants at cultural institutions in Central Phoenix. The cafe succeeds a previous restaurant at PAM run by long-time Phoenix restaurateur Eddie Matney, who is now cooking at his new restaurant Eddie’s House. While Matney makes his mark in Scottsdale, the museum restaurant continues without a local celebrity at the helm, emphasizing instead a typical Arcadia Farms approach and menu. The cafe has two entrances – one from inside the museum and one from the courtyard near the Phoenix Theater, which occupies the same complex as PAM. Both entries converge on a single host station, and museum admission is not required to dine at the restaurant. The museum is just across the street from the McDowell / Central Avenue station.

Matching the broad, all-purpose focus of PAM, the Arcadia Farms operation at the museum doesn’t specialize in any particular cuisine. The menu is a broad spectrum of crowd-pleasers sprinkled with just enough innovation to keep them interesting without crossing over into intimidating gastronomic territory. The starters alone feel like a miniature world tour. There’s Middle Eastern in the form of hummus and pita chips, French in the form of brie and apples with mini-baguette toasts, and Thai in the form of chicken satay skewers. The one standout among the appetizers is a smoked salmon cheesecake. This dish blurs the boundaries between tastes and cultures in a way that would make it at home in PAM’s recently expanded contemporary galleries.

The entrees are also all over the map, but with generally good results. The grilled salmon (center photo below) is mild Atlantic salmon, but it benefits from fresh vegetables and herbs like tarragon. A vegetarian option is a tart of wild mushrooms, spinach, and goat cheese (right photo below). Between the goat cheese and the pastry crust, the dish is meatless but still indulgent. There are also several sandwiches completing the menu.

While PAM is visually impressive, the restaurant space is not terribly distinctive. The look is a sort of generic beige reminiscent of a hotel restaurant. The view of the sculpture garden through the windows redeems the aesthetics a little, but the net effect is not as interesting as at the Arcadia Farms restaurants at the Heard or the Science Center. Nothing lacks in quality at the PAM version of Arcadia Farms, but the surprisingly sterile decor, combined with the broad menu, makes this restaurant seem less focused than its peers.

The refreshment options at PAM should become more interesting if a promised espresso and wine bar next to the gift shop eventually opens. Until then, the Arcadia Farms cafe is a perfectly nice break during a museum visit, although maybe not as close to being a destination in its own right as the other Arcadia Farms operations. The cafe is open every day except Monday from 10 AM until 5 PM. The kitchen closes at 3 PM, however, so the late afternoon options are limited to beverages, pastries, and the like. The cafe has high chairs and a kid’s menu, making it a viable place to eat in conjunction with a visit to the recently renovated PhxArtsKids gallery.

1625 N. Central Ave.,Phoenix, AZ 85004
(602) 257-2191
http://www.arcadiafarmscafe.com/pam/index.html

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