cottonwood

Burgers are in Guff’s blood. He grew up in Flagstaff, cooking at his mom’s restaurant, Mrs. Brown’s Burger Bar — for decades a popular stop for those headed to the Grand Canyon on U.S. Route 180. That was also where he met Jennifer, who has a degree in hotel and restaurant management from Northern Arizona University. In 1999, the couple opened Quartzsite’s Palo Verde Café; they ran it until 2014, but the idea of a burger restaurant never went away. “I was always thinking about different burgers and different ways of doing things,” Guff says.

Originally from Sicily, executive chef Salvatore Moscato learned the ins and outs of the restaurant business at New Jersey’s famed Casa Dante — a favorite restaurant of New York Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto, and a place The New York Times described as “like a boisterous Italian embrace.” From there, Moscato built a career at Hilton resorts.

Sous chef Jenny Robbins owned a small California café and spent 10 years at the Four Seasons on the Big Island of Hawaii before moving to Arizona. She met Moscato while they both worked at the Hilton in Sedona.

The Eden family built the Iron Horse Inn as a motor court in the 1930s. But by the 1970s, cars had outgrown the street-level garages, so the owners converted them into guest rooms. The building’s stone-and-concrete construction made expansion difficult, so the rooms remained small, and the central patio became the inn’s natural gathering spot. And an inviting one it is: a tree-shaded oasis, decorated with a cascading fountain, vines and potted succulents.

Several years later, Grapes has become another successful endeavor for the Jurisins, who also own Jerome’s Haunted Hamburger and other area destinations. For Michelle, the success comes down to a simple but winning formula: spectacular food that’s expertly matched with local and regional wines.

“We really liked Postino and some of the other places in Phoenix that were doing a wonderful job with tasting menus and bruschetta,” she says. The target audience, she adds, is “people who are just trying to get to know wine.”

“We want people to move here,” he says. And after a night at the Tavern, you might find yourself giving the idea serious consideration.

The building dates to the early 20th century, when it was an auction house for cattle. In later incarnations, it was a grocery store, then a health club. Back then, Jurisin and his family were living in the penthouse above his Tavern Grille next door, and when extended family and friends came to visit, they had trouble finding a place to stay nearby.

That’s because chef-owner Michelle Jurisin is certified in the art of pizza-making by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, the official overseer of Neapolitan-style pizza. The designation is significant, in that it means Jurisin’s pies live up to the standards of dough-slingers in Naples, Italy, the birthplace of what I like to call “the food of the gods (and goddesses).” 

And while the property once was powered by, in Rennie’s words, “a couple of solar panels and car batteries,” it now features two large solar systems that power the Radoccias’ home and Mescal Canyon Retreat, a B&B the couple created from their now-adult children’s two bedrooms. Guests often take advantage of hiking and birding opportunities in the Prescott National Forest, which borders the property, or relax with a massage or a soak on the secluded hot-tub terrace.