Delight in all things frybread at this groundbreaking Indigenous restaurant in Old Town.
by Nikki Buchanan | Photography by James Patrick
Tucked among the turquoise jewelry stores and T-shirt shops of Old Town stands Scottsdale’s first-ever Indigenous gastropub, The Frybread Lounge. Part cozy café, part dimly lit bar, it’s the brainchild of businesswoman Heather Tracy, who also owns the Native Art Market next door.
Frybread in hoity-toity Scottsdale? I’m so down.
Chef Darryl Montana of the Tohono O’odham tribe heads the kitchen, recreating and reimagining the dishes of his ancestors. Before his return to Arizona, Montana worked at Owamni, the acclaimed Indigenous restaurant in Minneapolis that won a 2022 James Beard Award with a “decolonized” menu (i.e. none of the wheat flour, dairy, sugar and lard introduced by Europeans). That’s not the case in Scottsdale, where Montana embraces frybread, a flour- and lard-based staple that’s been an integral part of the Indigenous Southwestern diet for the past 160 years.
Some customers seem content to linger at the bar over beer, local wine and craft cocktails, but missing Montana’s frybread and weekly specials (e.g. elk pozole or duck tinga tacos) would be a mistake. The Rez charcuterie board is a standout, featuring house-made salumi made with elk, venison, duck and bison. Garlicky duck salami, glistening with fat, is my favorite, but they’re all wonderful with griddled flatbread, white bean purée and sweet prickly pear sauce.
Three Sisters salad makes use of corn, beans and squash – three crops tribes traditionally plant together – in a textural mix of greens, quinoa, jicama, herby pesto and prickly pear vinaigrette. Meanwhile, bison asada tacos, nested in blue corn tortillas with onion, tomato and cilantro, are a pleasant riff on carne asada tacos, served with house-made red chile and tomatillo salsas.
Naturally, the star of the show is frybread – crisp, golden, impossibly airy dough that crackles when you tug at it, prepared in various permutations. You can eat it as a sweet mini frybread flight, or as a hefty half-pound bison Rez burger amped up with sriracha mayo, or as a classic frybread taco, piled with meat, cheese, tepary beans, lettuce, tomato and onion. There’s also an outrageous frybread sandwich special, stuffed with thick, juicy strips of ribeye; and dessert frybread, jazzed up with raspberry jam, whipped cream, berries and pepitas.
The Frybread Lounge encourages you to “indigenize your palate,” and so do I.
The Frybread Lounge
Cuisine: Native American
Contact: 7211 E. Main St., Scottsdale, 480-881-8245, thefrybreadlounge.com
Hours: Wed-Mon 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
Highlights: Rez charcuterie board ($20); frybread taco ($15-$20); ribeye frybread sandwich ($23)
