New restaurant Carcara highlights the heritage and history of the local Phoenix community.
Located inside the Sheraton Hotel in Downtown Phoenix, the Sonoran-inspired restaurant opened in early March.
Jon Erickson is the director of sales and marketing for the Sheraton. He said that the owners were very thoughtful and intentional during the design process.
“Grounded with a strong sense of place, we wanted to celebrate local indigenous and seasonal ingredients. We wanted everyone to relish in Arizona’s beauty and create new cherished memories,” Erickson said.
Carcara focuses on the five C’s of Arizona which are the driving force behind Arizona’s economy. They are copper, cattle, cotton, citrus, and climate.
These five things are brought to life through decor or on the dishes themselves.
One of the ways that they represented the five C’s is by having a 14-foot tall oak trea that changes color constantly and slowly throughout the day to represent the changing climate of Arizona.
“We’ve created an environment that’s really inviting, and reflective of Arizona. It plays to many of the textures and colors that you’ll see as you travel throughout our state,” Erickson said.
The Chef de Cuisine, Angy Dykstra, focuses on reinventing simple, fresh ingredients into vibrant, modern dishes.
With more than 25 years in the culinary industry, she has always focused on crafting farm-to-table cuisine.
Menu highlights include candied prickly pears served with jalapeño slaw; prosciutto-wrapped seared scallops’ beef ribeye with roasted fingerling potatoes; and baja shrimp ceviche with cucumber, orange, serrano peppers, tomato and cilantro.
“We have great cattle on the menu. Many of our dishes feature citrus, along with our cocktails. You’ll see this through lemon, lime and orange,” Erickson said.
Carcara’s cocktail program was developed by Director of Restaurants Lenny Skorcz. Many of the names of the cocktails are inspired by Arizona hiking trails.
They also offer a variety of local beers.
Even the name of the restaurant has significance towards the five C’s of Arizona as it is named after the Cara Cara orange.
“I really enjoyed eating there,” said Marti Faltz, who dined at Carcara last week. “They had really good service. I have a few dietary restrictions but the staff was able to answer all of my questions and the menu had lots of options for me,” Faltz said.
The restaurant is currently only open for dinner but they plan to eventually be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“When people think about a hotel restaurant, oftentimes they crinkle their nose a little bit and head the other direction. In this case, the owners were really thoughtful and intentional in what they wanted that space to be,” Erickson said.
Contact the reporter gbmack@asu.edu.
