TOUR THROUGH SPAIN
This Friday, Chef Aaron May will begin serving test meals to friends and family at Iruña, his new production with longtime partner Quinn Goldsberry. You could say that Iruña (pronounced something like I ruin ya) provides May a chance to the get back to doing what he loves most—cooking Spanish food with French discipline in a tightly run kitchen to a mix of food-conscious and scene-conscious. Unfortunately, the town we live in runs a little heavy on the latter, but that didnt stop May from trying to open their minds with razor clams or a killer bocadillo de chorizo at his first big AZ venture—Sol Y Sombra in North Scottsdale. Although Sol went down with the economy, May found ways to open two locations of the now-popular breakfast joint, Over Easy, a diner called 18 Degrees, and downtown Scottsdale bars The Lodge and Mabels on Main.
Flippin pancakes at Over Easy cant be exciting for the chef who opened Deseo at the Westin Kierland Resort with Chef Douglas Rodriguez, but it certainly pays the bills. Mabels was never a culinary venture for May, but it certainly serves some upbeat bar snacks that showcase some of his deft touches (Oysters Rockefeller anyone?). Iruñas menu, on the other hand, will kick off with 35 small plates. May says a third of them come straight from the menu at Sol Y Sombra, another third was inspired by tapas from the Basque region of Spain, and the final third is made up of simple crowd-pleasers tailored to appease the town we live in.
Is May admitting that people dont really have the palate to assess a good razor clam? We dont think so. Like Iruña itself, May is trying to educate through osmosis. Antoni Gaudi architecture, Federico Garcia Lorca poetry, Joan Miro paintings—theyre all well-researched pieces of the Iruña equation. Watch the video interview here to see how it all comes together. Now its up to the menu. We just hope there's a sushi-topped burger pizza on that thing.