I’m going to say it straight: Belmont Kitchen’s new Chef’s Table is expensive, but it also feels exactly like the kind of over-the-top fine dining move Scottsdale keeps making room for. Not for everybody, obviously. But as a statement? It lands.

According to KTAR.com, Belmont Kitchen & Cocktails in north Scottsdale is offering the experience for one table, with a minimum party of four, on select dates for $1,000 per guest, and that’s before tips and taxes. That’s not a casual dinner. That’s a planned-out night where the price tag is part of the theater.

What makes it interesting to me is that the restaurant isn’t just charging for a seat — it’s selling access to chef Alex Stratta and his kitchen in a way that sounds deliberately personal. KTAR says the evening is billed as a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience, with multicourse tasting menus built around diners’ personal preferences, plus specially selected wine pairings and interaction with the table throughout the night. That’s the kind of thing people either roll their eyes at or lean all the way into. I’m in the second camp, at least when the execution matches the ambition.

And Stratta is not some random name slapped on a luxe menu. KTAR notes that he earned acclaim in the Valley as executive chef at Mary Elaine’s at The Phoenician in Scottsdale, where he won the 1998 James Beard Award for best chef in the American Southwest. He later earned two Michelin stars for Alex at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel. That history matters, because a price like this only makes sense if the kitchen has the chops to back it up.

Belmont Kitchen itself is still pretty new, opening in early 2025 at Pima and Pinnacle Peak roads, per KTAR. So this also reads like a restaurant trying to define its lane early: polished, pricey, and not shy about it. In a Valley where high-end dining keeps finding new ways to get more exclusive, this doesn’t feel like a surprise so much as the latest version of the same Scottsdale instinct — if you’re going to do dinner, why not make it a production?

KTAR says reservations for the first Chef’s Table are being taken through OpenTable for Nov. 7. And honestly, that’s the part that tells you everything: this isn’t meant to be a broad appeal move. It’s a flex, a niche, and a very Scottsdale kind of yes-or-no proposition.

— Sloan Rivers

Full details at [KTAR.com](https://ktar.com/arizona-restaurant-news/belmont-kitchen-1000-chefs-table)