The Copper Pig

Since opening in early August in Bisbee’s Warren neighborhood, the nine-table brainchild of Chris Dangerfield and Heather Reddon has been packed. And while Old Bisbee institutions such as Screaming Banshee Pizza and Café Roka focus on weekend traffic, this neighborhood gem is open for dinner Sunday through Wednesday.

“If you live here in Bisbee, there is a food desert Sunday through Wednesday,” Reddon says. “We wanted to appeal to locals as well as tourists, because locals are our bread and butter — they’re going to be here when the tourists aren’t. And we’re in this little neighborhood that’s so quaint, and we wanted to be a place where the neighbors can walk to dinner.”

Good food is practically in the couple’s DNA. Dangerfield, the chef, owned a restaurant in upstate New York and also trained in California and Florida, while Reddon has been doing bartending and front-of-house work her entire career. They were working at a country club restaurant in the Phoenix area before they decided to buy a house, and after not finding the right fit in the Valley, they ended up in Bisbee three years ago.

Initially, Dangerfield and Reddon planned to put a restaurant on the ground floor of their home just down the street. But they fell in love with a building that previously was a burger joint and had sat vacant since 2014. After a six-month renovation, The Copper Pig — its name a nod to Bisbee’s copper mining roots — was ready to showcase Dangerfield’s takes on fine dining, which are as visually stunning as they are delicious.

Savory staples such as fried chicken and dumplings have proved popular early on, but so have unexpected choices such as jambalaya (with shrimp, chicken and house-made andouille sausage) and jägerschnitzel (a pork loin cutlet breaded with house-made bread crumbs, then finished with a mushroom cabernet sauce). The regular menu is augmented by seasonally influenced blackboard specials — October, for example, featured sauerbraten, potato pancakes and other German delicacies. There are dessert specials, too, in addition to menu options such as lemon bread pudding and gluten-free chocolate cake.

So far, the counterintuitive approach is working: Reservations are essential, and the restaurant is doing enough business to support a staff of 10. Eventually, Reddon hopes to expand onto the patio to seat more diners, but for now, nine tables and a limited schedule suit the couple just fine. “We’re really happy with things,” Reddon says. “Right now, we just really want to get this perfect.”

The Copper Pig’s patrons might tell you the place is already there.