100 South Mill Avenue

Monti’s is both my family business and the renowned gateway to Mill Avenue and my hometown of Tempe. I grew up in and around those walls, and have spent the last 14 years of my career there: Nobody loves that building like I do or has invested more in its preservation than I have. That’s why I would never do anything that would diminish its rightful place in the community.

Preservation is why I entered into a partnership with 3W Companies to create an impressive new development concept that they have planned for the corner of Rio Salado Parkway and Mill. The design of the new building also allows Monti’s to develop a knockout dining patio highlighting the view of Tempe Beach Park.

This partnership ensures that Monti’s will live on as a flourishing restaurant–not a dusty museum, long into the future. The tradition of hospitality first instilled by my father, Leonard, is as much a part of the Monti’s La Casa Vieja legacy as the original straw and mud structure built by Charles Trumbull Hayden as his family home 136 years ago. I know that I would not want one without the other.

The structure, character and ambience of original Casa Vieja will be preserved in the same way that the City of Phoenix preserved all the building and all the qualities of its fabulous Orpheum Theatre. The Orpheum is a jewel. Their status is not impacted at all by the fact that it happens to be attached to the City of Phoenix’s main office skyscraper.

Directly across from us, the City of Tempe has done a terrific job in its preservation efforts for the Hayden Flour Mill, which will be at the heart of a commercial/residential project. Not long ago there was talk of the Mill’s destruction. Now we are celebrating its rebirth. The same can now be said of Monti’s. This is good news because keeping this restaurant open is a challenge. It is expensive. It is uncertain. But by being a part of an exciting new project, we ensure Monti’s future.

And, like the Orpheum and the Mill, Monti’s will maintain its place on the National Register of Historic Places throughout this process and into the future.

Historians and fans of the restaurant have concerns about the adobe. All of the adobe walls and framing will be preserved. There was a previous draft plan which was never seriously considered by us that caused confusion. I can assure you, there will not be 14 structural pillars placed inside the existing Monti’s building. The plan as it stands does not call for pillars to be added inside the restaurant, but there may at most be one or two, strategically placed and unobtrusive.

Right now our end of Mill Avenue is a pedestrian dead zone. My restaurant does not have a bright long-term future without doing something distinctive and bold, something that will draw the all-important foot traffic further north along Mill Avenue. 3W and I have that plan. And it is a plan that will at last create a connection to Tempe Beach Park, uniting downtown from University Boulevard to the Town Lake.

Finally, I received a call from KTAR in reaction to yesterday’s Tribune article. They interviewed me regarding my plans for the restaurant. I thought it ironic that Phoenix’s iconic news/talk AM radio station was shocked at the changes in store for Monti’s–just months after taking the unprecedented step of moving to 92.3 FM  Apparently it is OK for them to do what they deem necessary to grow and flourish–even if it means a radical departure from tradition. Doesn’t Monti’s deserve the same consideration?