Joey Maggiore serves up another audacious people-pleaser in North Phoenix.
By Nikki Buchanan | Photography by Adam Kindred
Italian food may be his focus, but serial restaurateur Joey Maggiore – the chef and concept guy behind The Sicilian Butcher, Hash Kitchen, The Sicilian Baker and The Mexicano – also specializes in fun. Many of his restaurants have a party vibe, delivered via whimsical décor, cocktails, thumping music, Instagram-worthy dishes and a build-your-own food or drink component of one sort or another. His latest venture, The Rosticceria in the Paradise Valley-North Phoenix nexus, is no exception. Consider graffiti-scrawled murals of classical Italian figures, a glittering DJ booth and a build-your-own gelato milkshake bar offering 40 frivolous fixings. Wood-fired meats and regional specialties from Abruzzo are ostensibly the kitchen’s focus, but the menu has a lot going on, and some of the best dishes are not strictly Italian.
From the starters menu, crispy chicken wings piccata – smoothed in a lemony, caper-studded sauce – serve as a delicious riff on veal piccata that could make you forget Buffalo. Wood-grilled, herb-flecked baby artichokes, served with lemon aioli, are silky soft and meant to be eaten whole with a fork. Different, but tasty.
The Sicilian salad – an Italian Niçoise combining escarole, poached potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, red onions, briny Sicilian olives and shaved fennel – needs a bigger splash of white balsamic-citrus vinaigrette, but it’s lovely just the same.
Charred, ultra-crispy Neapolitan fried pizza, inventively served with scissors for DIY cutting at the table, comes loaded with house-made sausage, red onions, olives, roasted peppers, ricotta and mozzarella. This is delicious. However, I’m less enamored of 10-layer short rib lasagna, the pasta so thin it melts into the béchamel and cheeses.
Panini, served on Noble Bread sesame-semolina rolls, are the menu’s go-to selections, in my opinion. Whether it’s a juicy, half-pound brisket burger, topped with provolone and crispy onion rings; or an Italian-style birria sandwich crammed with unctuous braised beef and pickled red onion; or slow-cooked porchetta with melted stracciatella, arugula and caper-herb aioli, you’ll be delighted.
All the cool toppings at the milkshake station seem wasted on a milkshake, sipped through a fat straw. Wouldn’t a gelato sundae make more sense?
Although I’m mostly unfazed by the little extras for which Maggiore is famous, I can be plied with chicken wings, fried pizza and panini any old day.
The Rosticceria
Cuisine: Italian
Contact: 12811 N. Tatum Blvd., Phoenix, 480-916-0116, therosticceria.com
Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily
Highlights: Chicken wings piccata ($16); baby artichokes ($17); porchetta panini ($19); Italian birria sandwich ($19); sausage pizza fritta ($20)
