Sauce Pizza & Wine is coming to Gilbert – but (surprise!) not downtown – this summer

For years, I wondered why Sam Fox hadn’t opened a restaurant in Gilbert. The town’s demographics seemed perfect for several of his numerous concepts, particularly Sauce Pizza & Wine and Zinburger Wine & Burger Bar.

Now, Gilbert finally is about to have one of each of those restaurants.

Zinburger, of course, opened in October 2014 in fast-growing downtown Gilbert. And, this summer, Sauce will open nearly five miles straight south of Zinburger on the northeast corner of Gilbert Road and the SanTan Freeway.

Sauce is no longer owned by Fox. Early last year, the Scottsdale-based restaurateur sold the fast-casual pizza concept to a local group headed by Scott Kilpatrick, one of the founders of RA Sushi.

Over the past year, Kilpatrick and his team have increased the number of Sauce locations in Arizona from nine to 13, which includes the Gilbert one and another opening in Tucson this year.

The Gilbert location, in a new development anchored by an L.A. Fitness, joins two other Sauces in the East Valley, one at Dana Park in Mesa and another at the Downtown Ocotillo development in Chandler.

The only other Fox concept in the East Valley is a Culinary Dropout at The Yard near downtown Tempe.