A Garfield neighborhood staple, the Welcome Diner, will be having a change in management due to owner Michael Babcock and general manager Wayne Coats leaving and forming a hospitality group to start two new Asian-inspired restaurants in downtown Phoenix.
Babcock and Coats were part of the Angry Crab Shack and Gallo Blanco teams with Robert Cissel. Now, Babcock, Coats and Paul Waxman, formerly of Cobra Arcade, are partnering with local developer Chuckie Duff to start Instrumental Hospitality Group.
Babcock and Coats posted their decision to step down from their roles via Instagram early May.
“Welcome Diner changed my life and the community around me forever, and I will be forever grateful to those years and the people involved … but there is more I want to say and do in Phoenix, and I am beyond stoked to begin that process with my friends at Instrumental Hospitality,” Babcock said in a press release.
“We were sitting together and looked around and realized that this is a badass group of dudes and we’ve got a lot of firepower,” he said, “We’ve got a big chance to do something really successful.”
Babcock is the new group’s culinary director, Coats is the director of hospitality, Cissell is the director of operations and Waxman is the beverage director.
They intend to open two new Asian inspired restaurants, a bar and a formal dining restaurant, in downtown Phoenix within the next 12-15 months, according to Babcock.
Duff said the group hopes to make Phoenix a destination for food culture.
“Being in Phoenix was important to the group because of their culinary success in the area and the meaningful community,” Babcock said. “Phoenix has been really good to us. It’s a really good community … it feels really right to be here.”
Babcock grew up with heavy Asian culinary influence with his Japanese grandmother and hopes to bring that to the Phoenix area.
“It is a big part of my culinary heritage and something I’ve wanted to do for a really long time,” he said.
There’s an Asian food revolution barely starting in Phoenix, Babcock said, and the group hopes to gather the momentum they’ve already created and extend it to develop the food culture in the area.
“People are already becoming more globally conscious of deeply ethnic food,” Babcock explained, and with more people moving in from different countries and part of the United States that have more ethnic food, there is a need that isn’t being fully met.
The group will be embarking on a culinary inspiration trip to Vietnam from June 29 to July 6. Babcock said it’s a time for them to “gather inspiration, and ideas, and heritage as we go to these new places together.”
Contact the reporter at sgarg32@asu.edu.
