This North Phoenix fast-casual restaurant features an urban, industrial vibe and inviting color palette.
By Madison Rutherford | Photography by Angelina Aragon
Research for Joe Ford’s North Phoenix fast-casual restaurant, Hot Chicken Alley, began in an actual alley in the Roosevelt Row Arts District. It’s where Ford discovered local artist Robert Gentile, whom he hired to paint a custom mural for the opening of his restaurant in 2023.
He also tapped his sister-in-law, Scottsdale interior designer Raegan Ford, to add “unique touches and unexpected design elements” throughout the space. “When Joe had the idea for the restaurant, he definitely had a concept for what he wanted to do, so we wanted to support that vision, help him make things come to life and give it a little bit of a design punch,” Raegan says.
The result, she says, is an “urban, edgy and industrial” eatery with a color palette that allows it to “feel comfortable, warm and [like] a place you want to hang out.”
Robert Gentile Mural
The Downtown Phoenix artist completed this custom mural in five days. “He just took everything we gave him and went for it,” Raegan says, adding the texture and colors evoke the feeling of “being in a back alley.”
Graffiti Tables
Gentile painted this trio of high-top tables black and white so they wouldn’t compete with the vibrant hues of the adjacent rooster and chicken mural.
Wall Art
Raegan chose these black-and-white, faux nostalgic images to underscore the restaurant’s “edgy, playful” side.
Variegated Steel Lighting Fixtures
These custom lights remind Raegan of a barn in Nashville, emphasizing the space’s “rustic charm” and “raw, industrial” feel.
Pops of Color
From rust-colored stools to vintage mustard tins, subtle red and yellow elements add warmth to the restaurant’s concrete walls and flooring. It’s the visual grace note of the design.
