Persepshen Is the Best Version of Gourmet Home Cooking
Persepshen
I don’t know how to say this without it sounding like a backhanded compliment—I promise it’s not. Persepshen feels like what happens when your friend who has good taste and is an amazing cook decides to open a restaurant (the husband-and-wife team behind it both have high-level pro experience, but nothing could train you for this). Normally you think of home cooks opening diners, but this is straight find dining. Well, let’s call it casual fine dining. There’s really nothing like it in the Valley.
So the deal you get from the staff is that the chef believes in local foods, sustainability, and making literally everything from scratch (including every condiment). Meat isn’t bought by the cut; it’s bought as a whole animal and then is broken down by the chef. And as they go through different parts, the menu changes to best show off the part. And the veggies and fruits are all seasonal. When I went, they were at the end of peach season, and my understanding is that they bought some monster portion of the total crop from Schnepf Farms in Queen Creek, and peach was all over the menu. What you’re getting here is the bounty of Arizona in all its different forms.
The food itself is on the wackier side. Not wacky as in bad, but wacky in that there’s really nothing tying any of it together. When we went, we (as a table) ordered a super funky 90-day dry-aged ribeye (the tomahawk was a 180-day dry-age, which honestly scared me a bit), a scallop paella, Korean fried chicken made of necks and backs, beef barrio ravioli, a wild melon salad, and a plate of various pickled veggies. It all ranged from incredible (the melon salad) to extremely interesting (extended dry-aging might not be for me, but it sure was an experience), but there was no rhyme or reason to any of it. Some things are Korean, some are Mexican, some are Italian, and some are just American meat-and-potatoes. It truly was the food expression of America as a salad bowl, as opposed to a melting pot. I loved it, but I don’t know if we’ll see many restaurants like it pop up because honestly, I don’t think most chefs would have the guts to pull it off.
Uptown - 4700 N Central Ave
Awards + Accolades
Reviews
Old-school has rarely felt this fresh.
- Dominic Armato, AZ Central
The Dwights represent what a power couple should be – talented, dedicated and too busy to be obnoxious about it.
- Nikki Buchanan, Phoenix Magazine
Persepshen is an important restaurant, and not just because the food tastes good. The Dwights cleaver-cut through trends to the source of our food system, running the kind of restaurant that we’re going to need as sustainability concerns deepen in the coming warmer years. Here, you feel close to the past, close to your food and natural cycles of life and death, immersed in the food system in a primal way. It makes not only for a great meal, but a vital style of cooking and eating.
- Chris Malloy, Phoenix New Times
What to Get
60-Day Dry-Aged Burger
That’s a laughable thought, given my infatuation with the 60-day dry-aged burger, charred and set atop a gorgeous buttermilk bun slathered with lemon aioli. Amplified with the funk of Danish blue cheese and the sweetness of strawberry-vanilla bean jam, it’s can’t-miss.
- Nikki Buchanan, Phoenix Magazine
Bacon-Wrapped Dates
To start: Go for bacon-wrapped dates. Yeah, I know. This is a somnolent combination. But at Persepshen, the dates are stuffed with an intense house-made chorizo, its creamy dissolve just about melding into the meaty glide of the dates. All that sweet, heat, and umami gets a soft fiery kiss from harissa.
- Chris Malloy, Phoenix New Times
Chocolate Cream Pie
One mouthful of the whole combination – perhaps with a small scoop swiped from the mound of sweet cream – is joyous. It is rich but balanced. The dark chocolate custard is the ideal texture, creamy with enough body to stand on the spoon, and plays beautifully off the sweet yet salted caramel. The satisfying crunch of the crust brings the whole thing together; it is a perfect bite of dessert. But it is a struggle to only take one bite.
With staffing struggles, the entire kitchen pitches in to craft this small sweet treat and all of the other desserts on the menu. The chocolate cream pie is delectable, no matter who worked on it that day.
- Asonta Benetti, Phoenix New Times
Crispy Chicken Spinach Dip
Do you think chicken and spinach dip sounds like a yawn? Try this version from chef-owner Jason Dwight, and get back to us. Dwight combines local chicken with caramelized onions, garlic, spinach, Parm and Dubliner cheese, tops the mixture with breadcrumbs and fires it in a wood-burning oven until it’s crunchy-topped and bubbling. Served with superlative house-made lavosh, it’s a sophisticated, stone-cold crowd-pleaser.
- Phoenix Magazine
Polenta Street Fries
Chef-owner Jason Dwight fashions his classy version of fries (nothing “street” about ’em) from chilled, sliced polenta dipped in tempura batter and fried to puffed, crispy cylinders of earthy goodness. Sprinkled with salty cotija, cilantro and stellar lime-pickled onions, the plate smeared with zippy chipotle crema, these crispy sticks of cornmeal will make you forget all about spuds.
- Phoenix New Times
Steak
Repeat after us: The best steaks in Phoenix aren't in the steakhouses. If you want a competently prepared piece of cryovac beef that looks pretty and tastes predictably acceptable, go to one of the city's many Mastro's clones. If you want to see what somebody who actually knows his way around the animal can do with a steer, go to Persepshen.
- Phoenix New Times
