Stephen Jones is the new Culinary Innovation Chef at Upward Projects, the restaurant group behind Postino and its sibling spots.
For Valley diners, Jones is already a familiar name. He’s known for Southern cooking, and now he’s stepping into a role that puts him at the center of one of Phoenix’s better-known restaurant families. That kind of move always says something about where a group wants to go next: not just keeping the lights on, but pushing the kitchens forward.
Upward Projects has been on a long run of its own. Postino, the Phoenix-born concept, recently marked 25 years of serving wine and bruschetta, and the brand now has more than 30 locations across the country. That’s a lot of momentum to carry, and it helps explain why the group would bring in a chef with a strong local reputation.
The company has also been making other big moves. In July, it announced a partnership with chefs Roberto Centeno, Nadia Holguin and Armando Hernandez, the team behind restaurants including Espiritu and Main Burgers, to open a modern Mexican restaurant. That kind of expansion tells you Upward Projects is still thinking big, and Jones’ arrival fits right into that picture.
For now, the headline is simple: Stephen Jones is in, and he’s leading the kitchens at Postino and the group’s other eateries. For anyone who follows Phoenix food, it’s the sort of hire that gets attention because it connects a known local chef with a restaurant group that already has serious reach. Around here, that usually means the next chapter is worth watching.
