You can’t eat out in Scottsdale for a week without ending up in a Sam Fox restaurant, usually without meaning to. His company, Fox Restaurant Concepts, has opened more than a dozen brands from its base in Arcadia, tested most of them on Scottsdale and Phoenix diners first, and sent the winners national. This is the full Valley list as of October 2026, checked against the company’s own location pages, with what to order at each and what changed when The Cheesecake Factory bought it.
Who owns what, in one paragraph
Fox Restaurant Concepts (FRC) is the Phoenix company Sam Fox founded after opening his first restaurant, Wildflower, in Tucson in 1998. It is headquartered at 4455 E Camelback Rd in Arcadia, and since 2019 it has been owned by The Cheesecake Factory. So the answer to “who owns Blanco Cocina + Cantina,” or Culinary Dropout, or Olive & Ivy, is Fox Restaurant Concepts, which is to say The Cheesecake Factory. Two brands Fox created, North Italia and Flower Child, are now run and reported by The Cheesecake Factory as brands of their own. A third, True Food Kitchen, which Fox co-founded with Dr. Andrew Weil, is no longer part of the group at all. Our lexicon entry explains what locals mean when they call somewhere “a Fox place.”
What the 2019 sale changed
The Cheesecake Factory announced the deal on July 31, 2019: $308 million in cash at closing, plus $45 million more over the following four years, for Fox Restaurant Concepts and the brands it had built, North Italia among them.
Three things changed for Valley diners. First, the brands with national legs got national money: by 2025 North Italia had 47 restaurants, and the original at Kierland is now the first of a chain that runs from Miami to Santa Monica. Second, the split between the “chain” Fox brands and the boutique ones got sharper. North Italia and Flower Child grew under the parent, while the one-off rooms, The Greene House, Olive & Ivy, The Arrogant Butcher, stayed single locations. Third, the laboratory kept running. The group still opens new ideas at home first, and in the last few years that has meant Fly Bye, a to-go pizza-and-chicken counter, and Society Swan, a brasserie at Fashion Square that was marking its first anniversary this fall. Pushing Daisies, an underground tequila bar from the same group, is in Nashville rather than here.
What didn’t change: the house style. Long patios, designer rooms, a menu everyone at the table can agree on, and a Friday wait.
In Scottsdale
North Italia, the original. 15024 N Scottsdale Rd, Kierland Commons. Opened as North in 2002 and still rolling pasta daily. Order the squash ravioli and the margherita, both on the menu since the beginning.
The Greene House. 15024 N Scottsdale Rd, Suite 100, Kierland Commons, two doors from North. The Fox room that never became a chain: Craftsman interior, open kitchen, seasonal American cooking. Order whatever the seasonal vegetable plate is that month, and consider lunch, the same kitchen at gentler prices.
Culinary Dropout at the Waterfront. 7135 E Camelback Rd, Suite 125, Scottsdale Waterfront. The loud one, since 2009. Soft pretzels with provolone fondue for the table before anyone opens a menu, then the 36-hour pork ribs.
Culinary Dropout at Scottsdale Quarter. 15125 N Scottsdale Rd, Scottsdale Quarter. The north-end version of the same pretzels-and-yard-games formula, closer if you’re staying at Kierland.
Olive & Ivy. 7135 E Camelback Rd, Suite 195, on the canal at the Waterfront, since 2007. Mezze for the table, a canal-edge patio seat at golden hour, and a pastry from the attached marketplace on the way out.
Blanco Cocina + Cantina at The Borgata. 6166 N Scottsdale Rd, Suite 601, The Borgata. Fox’s polished cantina, a brand born in Tucson as Blanco Tacos + Tequila. Short rib tacos, guacamole and a margarita, on the patio at dusk.
Flower Child. 10460 N 90th St, off Shea Boulevard. Counter service, bowls and wraps, every diet at once. The Mother Earth bowl is the order; go before 11:45 to beat the office lunch line.
Zinburger. 15257 N Scottsdale Rd, on the Scottsdale Quarter block. Fox’s burger joint, and the cheapest table on this list. Order the double smashburger and a shake.
Society Swan. 7014 E Camelback Rd, Suite 559, inside Scottsdale Fashion Square. Fox’s newest Scottsdale room, an all-day American brasserie with a raw bar and a lounge upstairs. Order a dirty martini, a half-dozen oysters and the lobster carbonara or the wagyu skirt steak frites. Weekday happy hour runs 3 to 6.
In Phoenix and the rest of the Valley
Phoenix is where Fox lives, and several of the best-loved brands are only on that side of the line. Arcadia, the closest cluster, is about fifteen minutes west of Old Town.
- The Henry, 4455 E Camelback Rd, Arcadia, on the ground floor of Fox’s headquarters. Coffee bar in the morning, the burger at lunch, the easiest big-group dinner reservation in the neighborhood. A second Henry is at 2 E Camelback Rd in Uptown Phoenix, and the one Fox calls “North Scottsdale” is at 7000 E Mayo Blvd, which is a Phoenix address just west of Scottsdale Road.
- Doughbird, 4385 E Indian School Rd, Arcadia, and 5600 N 7th St in north-central Phoenix. Pizza and rotisserie chicken; order one of each for the table and share.
- Fly Bye, listed at Fox’s Arcadia headquarters address on Camelback Road. To-go Detroit-style square pizza and crispy chicken, built for game day.
- The Arrogant Butcher, 2 E Jefferson St, Suite 150, CityScape, downtown Phoenix. A downtown room handy for a game or a show. House-made pretzels with provolone fondue, then the Butcher’s Box platter for the table.
- Culinary Dropout also at 5632 N 7th St in Phoenix, at The Yard in Tempe (149 S Farmer Ave) and at 383 N Gilbert Rd in Gilbert.
- Blanco Cocina + Cantina also at Biltmore Fashion Park (2502 E Camelback Rd, Suite 122), downtown Phoenix (123 E Washington St), 12750 N Tatum Blvd in north Phoenix (Fox labels it Paradise Valley), Tempe (717 S Novus Pl) and Peoria (8191 W Paradise Ln).
- Zinburger also at Biltmore Fashion Park (2502 E Camelback Rd, Suite 127) and in Gilbert.
- North Italia also in Arcadia (4925 N 40th St), Tempe (697 S Novus Pl), Gilbert (1950 E Williams Field Rd), Peoria (8163 W Paradise Ln), and Chandler (7221 W Ray Rd), which was listed as opening November 11.
- Flower Child also at 12640 N Tatum Blvd, 5013 N 44th St in Arcadia, 100 E Camelback Rd in Uptown, Desert Ridge (21001 N Tatum Blvd), Tempe (737 S Novus Pl), Gilbert, Chandler, Goodyear and Peoria, with Surprise listed as coming soon.
Tucson has its own set, including Wildflower, the 1998 original where the whole company began.
The ones that left the family
- True Food Kitchen at Scottsdale Quarter, 15191 N Scottsdale Rd, and the Biltmore original, opened in 2008. Fox co-founded it with Dr. Andrew Weil; it no longer appears in Fox’s lineup. Still a good lunch: the ancient grains bowl.
- Sauce Pizza & Wine at the Waterfront. Fox launched it in 2003 and sold it in 2015, and it’s still open under its new owners.
- Bloom at the Shops at Gainey Village, Fox’s first Valley restaurant, 2001 to 2011.
- Modern Steak, the pink-leather Fashion Square steakhouse, 2009 to 2012.
How to use the list
- Mixed group, nobody agrees: Culinary Dropout. The menu has something for everyone and the noise covers the arguments.
- Parents in town: Olive & Ivy on the canal, or The Greene House.
- Date night: Society Swan for the cocktails, North Italia at Kierland for the pasta.
- Weekday lunch, healthy-ish: Flower Child.
- Margaritas on a patio: Blanco at The Borgata.
- Kids, cheap, fast: Zinburger or Fly Bye.
Every full-service Fox restaurant books online, and the Waterfront and Kierland rooms fill on high-season weekends; reserve, or go at 5. Fox runs an eBites email club that sends a $10-off offer when you join. For the rest of the city’s food, start with our Scottsdale food guide, and for the other family that owns half the steak dinners in town, read who owns Mastro’s, Dominick’s and Ocean 44.