The tasting menu’s dessert course included house-made gelato (nice), a limoncello bar (slightly stale) and a mini piece of pecan pie, studded with pine nuts (irresistible). The only dud out of the four courses was an appetizer of pesco fritto misto, greasy fried fish and calamari presented with an utterly tasteless green sauce. Dreadful. On the upside, we loved seeing three wine-pairing suggestions for our main courses (chef’s pick, manager’s pick, owner’s pick), and per our server’s suggestion, we ordered tastes of two of them for the sake of comparison, which was fun but a little pricey.
Of the five starters on the regular dinner menu, I’ve tried four and liked one – the mac and cheese prepared three ways (with truffle oil, with blue cheese, and carbonara-style with bacon and oven-dried tomatoes, $9). I fully expected to love Fine’s Cellar BLT (braised pork belly with micro greens and tomato gelee) just as much, being a bacon-lover from way back. But this version was strangely leathery, hardly the crispy-meaty-fatty experience that makes pork belly so popular ($8). Tuna Tartare, a tower of raw ahi, lump crab meat, tomato mousse, avocado and caviar, served with crispy challah, looked and sounded yummy but tasted a little bland ($12), while the much ballyhooed Penn Cove mussels, steamed in roasted beet broth, were OK but hardly mind-blowing ($9). For my money, I’d take the grilled radicchio salad (strewn with Gorgonzola and dressed with caramelized onion vinaigrette, $7) over most of the starters any old day.
All of the entrées are reasonably priced, especially for Scottsdale; I just wish I’d felt genuinely excited about them. Roasted butternut squash gnocchi with brown butter and fried sage leaves had lovely flavor. Its only flaw was too much butter, which gathered in pools around the edges of the dumplings ($14). Seared leg of duck from Maple Leaf Farms, finished with Syrah reduction, suffered from similar greasiness. Served with wild mushroom fricassee and potato purée, it was pretty good, just not as good as a dozen crispier versions in town ($17). Braised beef short rib, sparked with Nebbiolo reduction, was tender and tasty, but accompanying planks of deep-fried polenta, drizzled with bacon vinaigrette, reminded me of the greasy oddities vendors dream up at the fair ($19). One of the best dishes was brown sugar-cured chicken breast served with sweet peas and carrot essence over saffron risotto ($16). It was clean-tasting and lovely.
Like just about everything else, the desserts were decent. My least favorite thing was the caramel Granny Smith apple pie with gelato ($8), but I’m not an apple pie lover, so my assessment isn’t fair. I much preferred the elegant poached pear with pistachio gelato ($7) and the chocolate bread pudding drowned in Mokarabia espresso ($9). Believe it or not, the best dessert may have been the Cookies n’ Cremes (your choice of chewy house-baked chocolate chip, oatmeal-raisin or snickerdoodle cookies served with vanilla gelato, $5). So simple and good.
The lunch menu features a few selections from dinner (i.e., mac and cheese, radicchio salad, mussels) as well as sweet potato fries, a handful of entrée salads and eight sandwiches, served with kettle chips. Although the truffled grilled cheese sandwich (assembled with aged Gouda and Gruyere on challah) needs fewer tomatoes and more cheese, it’s still pretty good ($7). Ditto for the Monte Cristo, a panini containing Black Forest ham, turkey, Gruyere and strawberry-basil jam ($10). And I’d certainly order the Duck a l’Orange salad again, composed of shredded duck, roasted hazelnuts and mandarin oranges, dressed in Grand Marnier vinaigrette.
Cullen Campbell has some serious kinks to work out (who wouldn’t, having implemented five menus?), and I hope he gets there. Fine’s concept and location are too good to waste.
Breakfast, 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sunday; lunch, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., every day; dinner, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday; bar menu available all day every day.