"It really is kind of a mixed bag of what you would expect from a morning, noon and night type space, but it's also all these things that I either wanted to cook for myself or I wanted to eat in my neighborhood," chef Matt Carter told Phoenix New Times about Dash, the restaurant he and Brian Raab are bringing to McCormick Ranch near Hayden and Mountain View roads. The neighborhood is his own. Carter said the location sits near where he lives, and the paper reported that he and Raab, the partners behind Zinc Bistro, The Mission and Fat Ox, had gone the previous 10 years without opening a new concept.
Dash is one of four changes this fall along the stretch of Hayden Road that runs through McCormick Ranch. None of the four needed a new building. A Latin American kitchen took over a lakeside room that already existed. A wine bar turned into an event space. An ice cream shop closed so the tap room next door could grow. Dash is headed for a storefront suite. Every change happened inside a space that was already there, so the corridor has a different set of options for dinner, coffee or a holiday party while it looks almost the same from the street.
Four rooms, four new uses
Here is the stretch from Royal Palm north toward Mountain View as of this fall.
| Address on N. Hayden Road | What it was | What it is now |
|---|---|---|
| 8120 N. Hayden Road | Sweet Provisions ice cream shop | Closed in October to make room for Grassroots Kitchen & Tap's expansion |
| Hayden & Royal Palm center | Saint Urban restaurant and wine bar | Saint Urban Private Dining Room, an event venue since Sept. 28 |
| 8300 N. Hayden Road, D-101 | Z'Tejas | Vecina McCormick Ranch, opened Sept. 18 |
| 9619 N. Hayden Road, Suite 101 | Storefront suite near Mountain View | Planned home of Dash, an all-day café, restaurant and market from Carter and Raab |
The two southern rows belong to one operator. The two northern rows belong to chefs whose first restaurants are elsewhere in the Valley. Each group is reshaping Hayden Road in its own way.
Common Ground Culinary is turning three doors into two
Chef and restaurateur Christopher Collins opened Saint Urban at Hayden and Royal Palm roads in November 2024. Phoenix New Times noted that it sat in a shopping center where his team already ran three of Common Ground Culinary's restaurants. It had 30 rotating wines and a shareable menu that ran from raw bar bites and charcuterie to a 45-day-aged New York strip.
Restaurant service ended after almost two years. A statement from the restaurant group said, "As of September 28th, Saint Urban has transitioned to Saint Urban Private Dining Room, available for holiday parties, memorable events and life's most important moments." According to the same report, diners who held reservations were rebooked at other Common Ground restaurants. The statement also said event dates were "already booking through the end of 2026 and into 2027."
Then a second change came in October. PHOENIX magazine reported that Common Ground closed its ice cream shop, Sweet Provisions, "to expand neighboring Grassroots Kitchen & Tap." Sweet Provisions was at 8120 N. Hayden Road, right next to Grassroots.
Taken together, the group now has two uses at this corner instead of three restaurant storefronts. Grassroots gets the extra space, and the former wine bar is now a room people book for an occasion. The group is still growing elsewhere. Collins opened the One Sixth dining hub in a Phoenix office building in June and is bringing Cowboy Seafood to midtown Phoenix. At McCormick Ranch, it is putting its effort into fewer, larger spaces.
For anyone planning December, the useful point is that a 2024 restaurant room now takes holiday party bookings, and the group says those bookings already reach into next year.
Vecina brought a mesquite grill to the lakeside room
The second change comes from a restaurant that started across town. Vecina opened in 2019 at 3433 N. 56th St. in Phoenix. On Friday, Sept. 18, it opened Vecina McCormick Ranch in the former Z'Tejas space at 8300 Hayden Road, D-101, Phoenix New Times reported.
The new location is a chef-driven, Latin American-inspired restaurant with shareable dishes, a mesquite grill, cocktails, a lakeside patio and a private dining space. Vecina did not have to build any of that waterfront setting. It came with the room. A restaurant that made its name on 56th Street got a patio on the water just by signing a lease on Hayden.
Vecina's reservation listing shows these hours:
- Dinner from 4 to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday
- Dinner from 4 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday
- Happy hour every day from 4 to 6 p.m.
At its September opening, Phoenix New Times reported that lunch and brunch were planned in addition to dinner and happy hour. For now, dinner is how to try it, and the 4 p.m. happy hour is the easiest way in on a weeknight.
The private dining space also matters to the holiday math from the section above. Within about a block of Hayden Road, the corridor now has two places built to host a group, the Saint Urban Private Dining Room and Vecina's private room, and only one of them is also a regular restaurant.
Dash adds a morning to a strip built around dinner
Up to this point, every change on the corridor has been about evenings. Grassroots is a tap room, Saint Urban was a wine bar, and Vecina opens at 4 p.m. Dash is planned around the rest of the day.
Dash is Broken Plate Hospitality's all-day café, restaurant and neighborhood market, planned for 9619 N. Hayden Road, Suite 101. Here is how Phoenix New Times described the menu as it moves through the day:
- Morning brings coffee, pastries and breakfast bites.
- Midday brings sandwiches, salads and Roman-style pizza.
- Evening brings Portuguese-style charcoal-grilled chicken and potatoes.
- Soft serve runs throughout, with a fava-bean vegan option.
Two other features set it apart from anything else on this stretch. Dash will have a grab-and-go market stocked with food from Carter and Raab's other restaurants, and it plans house-made sodas, including a mushroom cola. It will also offer curbside pickup. For McCormick Ranch, that means a takeout version of Zinc Bistro or Fat Ox cooking could be a few minutes' drive from home, without a trip to Kierland or Old Town.
It also fits the pattern on this road. Like Vecina, Dash chose an existing storefront, and its owners chose the location because it sits in their own part of town.
A short drive south, Pubblico closed
The changes around Hayden Road all repurposed a room. A mile or so southwest, a room went dark instead. Pubblico Italian Eatery served its last dinner after six years at 7001 N. Scottsdale Road, Suite 184, near Indian Bend Road, WhatNow reported on Sept. 1. For anyone in central Scottsdale who counted it as a regular stop, the nearest new sit-down options this fall are Vecina's grill on the lake and the Grassroots space as it grows.
Booking the season on Hayden Road
The holiday weeks show most clearly how the corridor has changed. If you are booking a December gathering, Hayden Road now has the Saint Urban Private Dining Room at Royal Palm, which is taking event dates through the end of 2026, and Vecina's private dining space at 8300 N. Hayden. For a weeknight drink after work, Vecina's happy hour runs from 4 to 6 p.m. every day. For a morning coffee or a pickup dinner of charcoal chicken, the plan for that slot is Dash at 9619 N. Hayden Road, near Mountain View.
These changes all happened inside rooms that were already on the corridor, and they are the kind of local detail we follow street by street. If you own in McCormick Ranch and want to understand how this corner of Scottsdale is changing before you plan your next move, Chad & Cara Dankberg would be glad to sit down with you. Request a Selling Consultation, and we will bring the same block-by-block attention to your home.
