It’s been nearly a year since MXSW broke the news Crust Pizza & Ristorante would open its latest Valley location, along with a speakeasy-style basement lounge, in the San Marcos Resort in downtown Chandler.
The construction has gone slowly, but the opening is getting close and details have emerged:
• For Crust (pictured above), owner Michael Merendino has combined the former Starbucks space and a neighboring space – across the street from SanTan Brewing – in the oldest portion of the historic hotel, which opened in 1913.
• Merendino and his partners have worked with the resort’s staff to research the basement, rumored to have been an illegal speakeasy during Prohibition (1920-33), although there’s no direct evidence.
• Another rumor is Dr. A.J. Chandler, city founder and owner of the San Marcos until 1937, stored ostrich feathers in the basement. The veterinarian raised ostriches, and the feathers were popular on women’s hats in the early 1900s.
• The basement had been sealed off with concrete for decades until the recent construction.
• Merendino originally named the lounge The Prohibition. It has since been changed to The Ostrich.
• Former Citizen Public House beverage director Brandon Casey (pictured) has been hired in a similar position by Crust and will be in charge of The Ostrich
• In another nod to local history, The Ostrich will have one of the old bars and several booths from Monti’s La Casa Vieja, Tempe’s oldest restaurant when it closed last November.
• The ground-level pizzeria portion of the project is scheduled to open by the end of this month. The Ostrich is expected to open in October.
