Binkley’s Restaurant, the 11-year-old Cave Creek restaurant considered by many to be the best in Arizona, will close its doors for good sometime this summer.
Chef/owner Kevin Binkley also will close his three-year-old Bink’s Midtown in Phoenix, and reopen it this fall with a new, smaller flagship concept.
‘‘It’ll still be Binkley’s food, because I think that’s the the truest form of what I love to cook,’’ Binkley tells AZCentral.com restaurant critic Dominic Armato. ‘‘But the refinement is going to go through the roof. It’ll be higher than you’ve ever experienced from me.’’
Binkley hasn’t decided what to do with his other two restaurants – Cafe Bink, which opened in Carefree in 2003, and Bink’s Scottsdale, which opened in Scottsdale in 2014 — although he may just let their current leases run out.
All four of his restaurants are profitable, according to the chef. He’s just tired of overseeing so many.
‘‘I didn’t get into this business because I love business,” says Binkley, who’s been a finalist for the prestigious James Beard Best Chef Southwest award for four straight years. “I want to cook food, and the more locations we have, the less I get to do that, and that’s not OK.’’
Binkley plans to remove the wall – metaphorically and physically – between the dining room and kitchen at the Midtown, which took over a house built in 1928.
Binkley expects to host 20-40 guests per night at the new concept, selling reservations for an evening that will be priced between $130-150 for a menu that could change daily.
No word yet on what the new concept will be called.
