Resort dining rooms get designed by committee. Lon’s was built by hand in the 1930s by cowboy artist Lon Megargee as his home and studio, and the Hermosa Inn has kept the thick adobe, heavy beams and hidden courtyards intact. It sits on a residential Paradise Valley street, so dinner feels less like going out than being let in.
Chef Brian Peterson cooks wood-fired, Arizona-rooted food that treats the Southwest as a pantry rather than a theme. Ask what’s coming off the grill and let the sommelier steer.
When to go: the patio in the hour before sunset, October through May, booked well ahead. Weeknights are the calmer way into a room built for lingering.