Kyu Utsunomiya and Troy Watkins said they always dreamed of opening their own restaurant since they met at the Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale while working as towel boys.
After roughly four decades combined in the restaurant business, both men said they are ready to embark on an original venture as restaurateurs by opening the Dressing Room in a 500 square-foot area in downtown.
“It’s allowed us to really take a little bit of what we’ve learned from the leaders of the industry both on a local scope and a national scope,” Utsunomiya said. “Take that knowledge we’ve gotten over these 40 combined years and apply that to really building a successful company.”
The Dressing Room, a space on Roosevelt Street near Third Street that used to be a dressing room for a drag bar next door at the 307 Lounge, will be transformed into a new restaurant in mid-April.
Watkins and Utsunomiya used the crowdfunding website Kickstarter to launch funds for their restaurant venture earlier this year. They reached their goal of $35,000 in late February. Since they finished fundraising, they have been actively working on renovating the space and planning their concepts.
They said the restaurant will serve “elevated shack food,” which is food that people can find in shack restaurants, such as burgers, fish tacos and salads. The food will be created with fresh, local ingredients.
Watkins said the Dressing Room will also serve breakfast burritos and sandwiches, as well as coffee in the mornings and they will have a liquor license allowing them to sell wine and beer .
Utsunomiya said the food will range between $6 to $9, and the drinks can be from $4 to $7 for a beer or a glass of wine, making the prices affordable for anyone from a college student to a local worker in the downtown Phoenix area.
“We want to make it very value-driven, very affordable and very approachable,” Watkins said.
Both Watkins and Utsunomiya said it was fate when they met Wayne Rainey, owner of MonOrchid and director for Rainey Studios, at the downtown bar and restaurant Hanny’s one night.
“It was kind of cool when … stars align and outside of a strong business decision, there was some cool factor to it that was kind of fate,” Utsunomiya said.
Rainey agreed that it was fate when he met both of them that night because he was looking for operators to occupy the Dressing Room’s building space that is attached to MonOrchid. It went on the market, and he said he knew GreenHaus was going to be torn down at the time, so he didn’t want the building to go back into rotation for eventual destruction.
“Phoenix is starving for that authentic urban experience,” he said. “Historical preservation is an absolute necessity for creating a vibrant city.”
He said the guys “fit like a glove” into the rest of MonOrchid’s businesses even though the restaurant hasn’t opened yet. Rainey said businesses in the building need to understand the importance of working with each other, and Watkins and Utsunomiya have already succeeded in doing so.
Lauren Bailey, co-founder of Upward Projects, an organization that started various local restaurants, including Postino and Churn, said she worked with Watkins at North Italia in Scottsdale about 15 years ago, managing the restaurant as he was the bartender. She advertised their Kickstarter on Upward Project’s social media as well.
She said she thinks creating a culture in downtown Phoenix is probably one of the most important things with its urban sprawl and size, and big retail chains cannot create that personal connection with people as well as smaller, local places can.
“It’s almost like filling in the cracks with this unique offering that really connects for a sense of place with people,” she said.
Mark Ryan, principal of architecture firm Mark Ryan Studio, drew the first sketch of The Dressing Room with Watkins and Utsunomiya on a napkin. Since then, Ryan worked with the restaurateurs to plan the old building’s architecture by giving it new life and energy.
“We’re not taking things back to their old ways,” he said. “It’s not historical preservation, per say. It’s about looking at the older structures and respecting them for what they are … We’re giving these old friends a little bit of new life.”
He said in the future, the Dressing Room may have an elevated view of downtown Phoenix by placing seating areas on the building’s roof. Also, the restaurant will have a look that’s not too pristine because the co-owners are aiming for a comfortable, lived-in feel.
The Dressing Room will be located on 220 E. Roosevelt St. The restaurant will occupy Songbird Coffee and Tea House’s former location as well as the building next door.
Related: Songbird Coffee and Tea House to relocate to Third Street following landlord issues
Contact the reporter at sincorva@asu.edu.
