Phoenix City Grille owner Sheldon Knapp has his feet firmly planted on the two pillars of restaurant ownership: a passion for food and a strong grounding in business.

Sheldon Knapp, the owner of Phoenix City Grille, has a passion for developing new dishes such as the crispy short ribs with Korean barbecue sauce, on the right, while keeping customer favorites like Rose Lane chicken, on the left (photo by Marjorie Rice).

He said restaurateurs need to be able to balance both if they hope to survive – especially given today’s COVID-19 pandemic challenges.

“Eight people out of 10, because they know how to cook and pour a drink, think they know how to run a restaurant,” said Knapp, a graduate of Thunderbird Graduate School of International Management at Arizona State University. “It doesn’t matter if your food is good. If you don’t understand the numbers, you’re better off inviting people to your house and feeding them there.”

When restaurants were closed down in March, Knapp said his business was in financial shape to ride it out because of very low debt and no investors to appease. The restaurant is solely owned by Knapp, his wife, Nina, and partner and executive chef Micah Wysclic.

A key goal was keeping as much of the staff as possible.

“We’ve been open 23 years and most of the staff in the kitchen has been with me at least 10 years,” Knapp said. “To let people go because we needed to save some money was not that tough of a decision. I didn’t want to take years again to build up another crew.”

Keeping the serving staff has been more challenging, he added.

“Our core of our best servers is still with us and we’re making sure they can make the money they need,” Knapp said.

In addition to his business acumen, Knapp has deep experience in the culinary industry, including managing the now-closed McKenna’s, and working in restaurant development for the Bennigan’s restaurant chain.

His early interest focused on the bar business, an interest that is reflected in the Grille’s extensive bourbon selections.

“As I got more into it, I really fell in love with kitchen operations and the creativity in putting together a dish – researching the history of the food and the heritage that has come down through generations,” Knapp said.

His first business was a small neighborhood bar/sandwich spot at Seventh Street and Rose Lane.

“I fell in love with Central Phoenix,” Knapp said. “It’s one of the most ‘real’ areas in the Valley. At my first little place I found three and four generations of families living in the same small area. It gave me a sense of stability.”

Knapp eventually bought a spaghetti restaurant near the intersection of 16th Street and Bethany Home Road. He remodeled it extensively and opened it as Phoenix City Grille in May of 1997.

“We remodel constantly,” Knapp says, including taking over space from a barbershop next door a couple of years after Phoenix City Grille opened. “We’ve changed the sidewalk patio a couple of times, and we’re going to make some more changes.”

Changes are in store for the menu as well. Knapp and his team are itching to discover new possibilities. “We go on culinary tasting trips all over the country,” he said. “As soon as we get out of this COVID thing, Micah, myself and a couple of my sous chefs will go on a tasting tour and try to look for new ideas and new dishes.”

Some items have earned permanent status. Rose Lane chicken – seared chicken breast served with tarragon jus, grilled broccolini and Yukon Gold smashed potatoes – has been on the menu since day one. So has cedar-planked salmon crusted with citrus horseradish and served with fingerling potatoes, roasted carrots and lemon aioli.

Crispy short ribs, added to the menu in November, reflect Knapp’s penchant for creating new dishes by pulling tastes and ingredients from different traditions. It starts with braised short ribs. Meat from the cooked ribs is cut into small pieces, tossed in cornstarch or potato starch, then fried until crispy and tossed in Korean barbecue sauce. It’s served on a bed of creamy tepary bean puree, garnished with pickled ginger, pickled jalapenos, baby cilantro and a drizzle of lime chimichurri. The beans come from Ramona Farms on the Gila River Indian Community near Sacaton.

Phoenix City Grille had just completed special menus for Christmas and New Year’s Eve, as of press time. Entrees include braised lamb shank, sea bass and surf and turf combinations including beef tenderloin and guajillo marinated wild Mexican jumbo prawns.

Christmas Eve has been a big day for the restaurant from its first year.

“A lot of the same families come in every year,” Knapp said. “I think we’ve established a strong tradition of quality and we want that to continue.”

Phoenix City Grille, located at 5816 N. 16th St., is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. To learn more, call 602-266-3001 or visit phoenixcitygrille.com.

 

Author

  • Marjorie Rice

    Marjorie Rice is an award-winning journalist, newspaper food editor, travel editor and cookbook editor with more than three decades' experience writing about the culinary industry.

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