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The Italiano

The Italiano

By Uncategorized

The Maggiore Group, led by Chef Joey Maggiore, opened the doors to its sixth concept restaurant, The Italiano, in September 2024. The eatery is also the second restaurant that Cuhaci Peterson has worked on, the first being the Rosticceria located on North Tatum Boulevard in Phoenix, AZ.

The restaurant is a single-story building located within the 89,506-square-foot existing Mercado del Rancho retail center in North Scottsdale (located just past 90th Street and Shea Boulevard) and serves Italian-themed culinary delights from all regions of Italy.

The building is just over 7,500 square feet and seats around 260. One very cool feature of the establishment is their Marra Forni gold-tiled rotating gas fired pizza oven, something Chef Joey, the restaurant owner, is extremely excited about. Folks entering the establishment will notice the beautiful and airy interior, including ceilings with refreshing clouds and blue sky that also change colors.

Guests will see a large bar and lounge with crystal chandeliers hanging above, located right behind the entrance, a beautiful white piano on the dinner floor and murals that bring a sense of the Renaissance on the back walls. And of course, they’ll enjoy some great food!

For over 40 years, the Maggiore family has been, and continues to be, one of Arizona’s most iconic and celebrated families serving classic Italian cuisine with authentic Italian hospitality. CP was extremely happy to help The Maggiore Group make this dream a reality and look forward to many more collaborations in the future. Salut!

Project Key Facts
Expertise

Restaurant

Client

The Maggiore Group

Leadership

Eric S Harris

Update: Cuhaci Peterson took home the hardware by teaming up to win the Arizona Commercial Real Estate (AZRE) annual real estate and development RED Award for “Restaurant Project of the Year” for providing the architectural services for Chef Joey’s Rosticceria. Learn more here.

Project Highlights

Assisted with change order review saving time and money quickly during construction.

01

Scheduled development in a timely manner with regular updates to the client as the project progressed.

02

Design interpretation and integration from client provided project details.

03

Maximized project efficiency by providing regular updates on changes throughout the course of construction.

04

Planning due diligence, negotiation and permitting.

05

The Rosticceria

The Rosticceria

By Uncategorized

Founded by Tomaso Maggiore, who hailed from Sicily, The Maggiore Group opened its first restaurant in the Valley 40 years ago, known as Tomasos. Sadly, Tomaso passed away a couple of years ago, and now The Maggiore Group is led by his son, Joey Maggiore, affectionately known as Chef Joey.

Chef Joey is a vibrant character, but he is also a genuinely kind gentleman behind the scenes. He has a deep passion for food and restaurants, much like his father. Joey loves engaging with guests, sharing his love for food and creating a lively atmosphere in his restaurants.

Cuhaci Peterson’s connection with the Maggiore Group began through a partnership with 41 North Construction from Chicago, who were starting to work on restaurants in the Valley. Although our initial proposals didn’t win, we remained in touch, and when the projects faced challenges, the client reached out to us. We jumped in to help move the projects forward, particularly one that was stuck due to issues with a previous remote architecture team unfamiliar with the local jurisdiction.

First up was The Rosticceria, a family-friendly restaurant located on N Tatum Blvd, in Phoenix, Arizona.

The grand opening was a spectacular event, capturing Chef Joey’s passion and commitment, almost resembling a red-carpet affair. Joey greeted everyone personally, making it a truly memorable experience. The food was fantastic, and we are thrilled to continue our collaboration with them.

The 5,372 square-foot restaurant seats 226 guests and was inspired by Chef Joey’s travels to Italy’s Rome and Abruzzo regions. The space is complete with a DJ booth, build-your-own gelato bar, graffiti and playful nods to Roman antiquity. The restaurant features an expo that showcases the primary dining highlight of the space—the wood fired meats.

Project Key Facts
Expertise

Restaurant

Client

The Maggiore Group

Leadership

Eric S Harris

“The team at 41 North, did an excellent job and we love working with the client, The Maggiore Group. Chef Joey’s vision on this project came through and delivered. Cheers to the Maggiore team for their vision and commitment to the project,”.

Eric S Harris, Principal

Our second project, Italiano, is currently underway. It’s a fine dining Italian restaurant reminiscent of Tomasos, located in North Scottsdale. We anticipate its opening very soon and look forward to bringing you more on this exciting new venture.

Update: Cuhaci Peterson took home the hardware by teaming up to win the Arizona Commercial Real Estate (AZRE) annual real estate and development RED Award for “Restaurant Project of the Year” for providing the architectural services for Chef Joey’s Rosticceria. Learn more here.

Project Highlights

Assisted with change order review saving time and money quickly during construction.

01

Scheduled development in a timely manner with regular updates to the client as the project progressed.

02

Design interpretation and integration from client provided project details.

03

Maximized project efficiency by providing regular updates on changes throughout the course of construction.

04

Planning due diligence, negotiation and permitting.

05

Seasons 52

Seasons 52

By Uncategorized

Since we began working with Darden Restaurants in 2003, we have continued our partnership, developing their prototype and providing services in more than 20 additional locations.

Our process stems from immersing ourselves in their brand, overcoming challenges together and delivering the best product possible, no matter the challenge of locations, jurisdictions and more. As we pushed forward on Season 52 protypes, we found great value in having a Cuhaci Peterson employee based on site at Darden Headquarters in Orlando, Florida every day for eight months. This project lead worked directly with the development team at Seasons 52 and allowed them to get questions answered immediately while providing flexibility on the allocation of time to other projects being built in tandem. This helped us get to know their prototype inside and out, which benefited Cuhaci Peterson greatly by providing access to the designer of the original prototype. This allowed us to design a clean, contemporary style with dramatic architectural features and natural finishes throughout their restaurant locations.

Through this, we were able to immerse ourselves in their brand and deliver projects in Alabama, California, Florida, Houston, Illinois, New Jersey, Tennessee and more.

Project Key Facts
Expertise

Restaurant

Client

Darden Restaurants, Inc.

Hard Rock Cafe

Hard Rock Cafe

By Uncategorized

Cuhaci Peterson had the pleasure of working with Hard Rock Cafe, refreshing venues for multiple establishments.

These projects led us to work on concept plans for the world’s largest Hard Rock Cafe, located in Orlando, Florida. We looked at how we could refresh the site by adding more seats inside. We restructured the second floor bar, expanding it to wrap around the floor, while highlighting Elvis’ iconic pink Cadillac, which hovers above the bar. Moving outside, Hard Rock Cafe wanted to capitalize on their footprint without increasing their seating.

Cuhaci Peterson looked at maximizing the outside patio areas, making it year-round so they can host special events. They installed a kitchen on the second floor, keeping the food fresh and easily dispensable. Lastly, we worked with Hard Rock Cafe so we could reconfigure the semicircular-shaped bar to wrap the entire room to allow for a pass-through window so the same bar could accommodate inside and outside needs.

Project Key Facts
Expertise

Restaurant

Client

Hard Rock Cafe International, Inc.

One of our contacts from Darden and Ruby Tuesday began working for Hard Rock Cafe, recommended Cuhaci Peterson due to our previous sucesses with her projects.

In Atlanta, the business wanted to make the venue more open and appealing to walk-in crowds. We were able to complete a design charette with the client on location, framing design drawings to reflect that. As with any refresh, you’ll run into some bumps in the road, but constant communication was key and CP was able to deliver this project successfully. Next, we headed west to the Hard Rock Cafe located on the San Antonio River.

The client wanted to refresh the functionality of its three-story building, with a good portion of that work being on the exterior. We created a stage area and reinforced the structure with a slab, taking it all the way down to the grade, showing the client how removing unused atrium space could provide immediate cost savings. When remodeling the kitchen and back of house we refreshed their service lines so they could change their food service lineup and have more space to run efficiently. As we collaborated with our client to continue building the relationship, we maximized the use of the outside porch by bringing the wall back, which allowed more people to sit along the river.

White Castle

White Castle

By Uncategorized

Known for being the first fast-food chain in the world, White Castle has teamed up with Cuhaci Peterson to bring ‘the crave’ to a whole new audience.

The world’s largest White Castle location came to us with a compelling challenge- they were so busy with in-person orders that they couldn’t keep up with online or mobile ordering. The Cuhaci Peterson team helped create the first ever Crave and Go, an innovative and tech-forward off-site solution! The result was an outstanding success and we are proud to continue partnering with White Castle as they expand throughout the United States, including the newest location in Tempe, Arizona! Whether it is flipping dirt at a groundbreaking ceremony, or flipping burgers on National Slider Day, the team at Cuhaci Peterson loves getting hands-on with our client-partners.

Project Key Facts
Expertise

Restaurant

Client

White Castle System, Inc.

Leadership

Eric S Harris

“White Castle’s expansion into Arizona and Florida led our paths to cross and we are beyond excited to see such a great brand expanding to share their values across the country.”

Eric S Harris, Principal

“Like White Castle, CP uses all five senses in order to ensure our client’s needs are met. First, we listen, then we taste the challenge, after we see a creative direction, we smell the victory and then we touch hundreds of lives with a grand opening. We are not only a company that has passion, but we are a family who cares. Just like White Castle.”

Miriah Miller, Architectural Designer II

The Challenge

Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, White Castle and its real-estate team has been looking to add stores in high-traffic areas with population growth, expanding its footprint down south in Florida and out West in Arizona. They had already opened their first store in Orlando, Florida by Disney World, which has the distinction of being the world’s largest and busiest White Castle location, when they approached our team for assistance with a challenge, that was a good problem to have.

When it first opened its doors for business in 2021 the world’s largest White Castle blew up social media with videos of the massive line of cars for their drive-thru, which stretched as far as the eye could see. It was so popular, in fact, that they were unable to do online and mobile ordering from that location and needed a solution to satisfy the crave.

The Solution

Cuhaci Peterson began working with White Castle on their first ever Crave and Go, for mobile and online ordering only. The ghost kitchen, located just across the parking lot from their restaurant, features innovations like Flippy the Robot, a robotic arm that can operate the fryer! Based on the success of the initial project collaboration, White Castle was able to leverage CP’s Phoenix office to help with their Arizona expansion efforts.

Cuhaci Peterson has a strong track-record of working with brands who have a loyal fan base in their home market who want to expand into other areas. Take, for example, Wawa and our experience helping them make the leap into the Sunshine State. Today, our Phoenix team carries on this proud tradition, helping our friends at White Castle stay true to their brand identity while adapting to unique design challenges in the state of Arizona.

In November of 2023, the Tempe White Castle opened its doors, making it the second location in Arizona and providing more than 70 jobs to the community. The store’s unique design combines elements from their destination prototype and their standard prototype. As the first ground-up build our team has done with White Castle, we were eager to continue delivering on our promise of providing exceptional results. Between the feedback from the White Castle team and the incredible community response on opening day, we are proud to say that we delivered!

Following up on the Tempe castle, CP worked with White Castle and a new general contractor, Desert Build, to launch our second project, this time in the city of Goodyear, AZ in June of 2024. The build turned out great as you can see in the video above.

HopCat

HopCat

By Uncategorized

HopCat and Cuhaci Peterson have worked on multiple locations in the United States since the company first opened in 2008.

What attracted HopCat to CP was our restaurant experience and creativity in working with difficult buildings. A client we previously worked with recommended our services and began our long-term relationship with HopCat. The goal of this restaurant and bar chain is to bring the largest selection of craft beer on tap, while offering good, fresh food. HopCat features an eclectic atmosphere with reclaimed wood and extensive sustainable practices. Each location is designed to fit the culture of the city, incorporating local beers and artwork to reflect the community. They also like to use older, historical buildings for their establishments and pride themselves on location.

Project Key Facts
Expertise

Restaurant

Client

BarFly Ventures, LLC

Cuhaci Peterson was brought in to help this client understand each of the buildings and the many distinct factors HopCat would need to work through to make each venue a unique experience for its patrons.

Many of the remodels posed challenges due to restrictions from historical preservation societies, local jurisdictions, code restrictions and more. Cuhaci Peterson performed due diligence reports, site investigation surveys and all necessary pre- work to determine the best course of action. The work was often extensive as significant up-front research was needed to build a framework of what the client requested and to convey that into a set of plans.

That while getting everything planned, approved and staying in scope. Cuhaci Peterson navigated these challenges and was able to determine the best course of action to transform the buildings, satisfying our client while preserving the structures and history of the spaces.

Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers

Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers

By Uncategorized

Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers prides itself on having a unique theme and experience for each of its restaurants. You will never find another Mellow Mushroom that looks like the one you visited elsewhere.

The spaces are flexible and are customizable from ground-up construction or existing buildings. Cuhaci Peterson worked with Mellow Mushroom corporation and its local franchisees to adapt the images and attributes of the brand into multiple new locations. These projects included the use of sketches, concept design and 3D modeling technology to help the franchisee to envision the space, with proposed fixtures, finishes and artwork included. Our team had to be flexible while designing each store, adhering to design standards while bringing the franchisee’s vision to life. It’s Cuhaci Peterson’s job to provide concept elevations and schematics, while incorporating all of it into our designs.

Project Key Facts
Expertise

Restaurant

Client

Home-Grown Industries of Georgia, Inc.

Miller’s Ale House

Miller’s Ale House

By Uncategorized

With more than 100 locations in 10 states, it’s hard to believe that Miller’s Ale House was once a small, family owned business in Jupiter Florida. Now, this nationwide brand has a larger presence, with a smaller footprint, thanks to Cuhaci Peterson.

We have worked with Miller’s Ale House since they were a small, family-owned business to a growing brand with more than 100 locations. Early on, our team helped coordinate signage when Miller’s Ale House rebranded their restaurants from location-specific names to one common name, and in our pursuit for consistency, we have never looked back. The guest experience in the Florida Room of a Miller’s Ale House is one that the Cuhaci Peterson team takes much pride in. From the cool, refreshing mist, to the precisely devised climate control is the perfect pairing with whatever your palate desires!

Project Key Facts
Expertise

Restaurant

Client

Miller’s Ale House, Inc.

Leadership

Eric S Harris

Miller’s Ale House
Miller’s Ale House
Miller’s Ale House

The outdoor seating area, called the Florida Room, is one of the unique features of Miller’s Ale House.

To achieve the desired results, our team coordinates a site investigation report for Miller’s real-estate team to ensure that it is possible for the building to be oriented in the correct way so that the Florida Room does not face directly into the sunlight. In addition to affecting site selection, the Florida Room presents some interesting engineering challenges.

The CP team expertly designs and engineers every detail of the space to create a relaxed and comfortable outdoor environment. From misting fans and the surrounding ambient temperature, to the precise location of doors, the climate control system must be carefully devised to deliver a consistent dining experience that keeps Miller’s customers coming back for more. Over time, Miller’s Ale House has developed specific criteria for their unique indoor-outdoor layout and, as a result, exclusively executes ground-up construction for new site builds. CP’s architectural team has assisted Miller’s Ale House in standardizing the process and reducing waste, streamlining the restaurant footprint from approximately 10,000 square-feet down to a more manageable and efficient 7,000 square-feet. The ability to do more with less is a hallmark of our organization and has enabled Miller’s to simultaneously grow in more markets and better maintain its brand standards.

Miller’s Ale House learned a lot of valuable lessons operating its restaurants during the pandemic, especially the importance of curbside takeout and delivery options. Consequently, our team has been assisting in the exciting rollout of to-go ordering options! Just another example of how we strive to exceed expectations and deliver value to our client-partners.

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