I’m into this. Honestly, I think Matt Carter opening a new Scottsdale restaurant after 10 years is overdue in the best way. When a chef with this kind of track record finally decides to build something new, I pay attention. And Dash sounds less like a vanity project and more like Carter and Brian Raab taking a real swing at the kind of place they actually want to eat in.

A decade later, they’re changing the game

The big thing here is the timing. Carter and Raab have been behind Zinc Bistro, The Mission and Fat Ox for more than 20 years, and they went the last 10 years without adding a new concept. So when they say Dash is coming this fall, with November as the opening window, that feels like a legit moment for Scottsdale food people. Not just another launch. A reset.

What I like most is that Dash is being built as an all-day restaurant in McCormick Ranch, near Hayden and Mountain View roads. That neighborhood detail matters. Carter says the spot is near where he lives, and you can feel that in the idea itself. This isn’t some random concept dropped into a strip center because it looked good on paper. It sounds personal. A little selfish, even, in the way the best chef projects sometimes are.

The menu sounds like a chef having fun

Carter calls the menu a mixed bag of morning, noon and night, and that’s exactly why it sounds promising. Coffee and croissants. Breakfast bowls. Sandwiches. Roman-style pizzas. Portuguese-style chargrilled chicken. Soft serve. That’s a lot, sure. But it also reads like a place trying to be useful all day instead of just photogenic at one meal.

Lisa Graf, Fat Ox’s pastry chef, is in on the morning service, which is a good sign. The house syrups use local, seasonal ingredients like fig leaves or dates, and that kind of detail usually tells you the kitchen is paying attention. Lunch is where Carter really seems to light up, too. He’s even got the “Captain Sandwich” title on his Dash business card, which is exactly the kind of goofy confidence I want from a chef who knows his lane.

The BLT he’s built sounds stacked in the right way, with Nueske’s bacon, salt-cured tomato, iceberg and a zhuzhed-up mayo. There are also chopped sandwiches, a folded chicken Caesar flatbread, salads and rice bowls. Then dinner shifts into Portuguese-style charcoal-roasted chicken and the chefs’ signature twisted frozen treat with a dried Hokkaido milk base. That’s a lot of range, but it doesn’t sound random. It sounds like a chef trying to make the whole day taste better.

So yeah, I’m bullish. Dash sounds like the kind of opening that could give Scottsdale something fresh without pretending to be something it’s not. That’s a pretty good place to start.

— Fat Jimmy