This buzzy Arcadia gem could redefine neighborhood restaurants in metro Phoenix

Neighborhood restaurants are nothing new, but maybe it’s time to upgrade our expectations for what they can be.

Setting aside those purely functional spots where we fill our gullets on the fly or grab a sack of grub to wing back to the nest, the restaurants we visit tend to fall into two categories.

There are the fancypants destinations that lure travel-phobic Phoenicians across town once or twice a year for killer bites they can’t get close to home. And there are the neighborhood restaurants, comfortable and “good enough,” where you can relax on a weeknight, nurse a drink and — if you’re lucky — find a few items on the menu that might be worth ordering again.

When did it enter our heads that we have to choose?

Food-obsessed lifers around these parts tell tale of a narrow band of restaurants, long-neglected and sparsely populated, that once hovered between the two: small local hangouts that were as sharp and creative as they were cozy and charming.

Enter, Vecina.

Spanish for “neighbor,” it’s right there in the name. Co-owners and chefs James Fox and Eric Stone have slyly disguised their casual, Latin-influenced gem of a destination restaurant as a chill neighborhood joint.

Or maybe it’s the other way around. I’m honestly not sure.

A couple dishes in, it doesn’t really matter.

A Latin starlet with laid-back charm

The hiramasa is ready for its closeup.

Slices of lightly cured yellowtail amberjack, bone white and gently woven together, are framed by a brilliant green wash of coconut leche de tigre. If “tiger’s milk” sounds intimidating, that’s not an accident. The traditional version has been known to bite, but on its journey from Lima to Arcadia, the Peruvian marinade has mellowed considerably.

Here it’s more creamy and herbal than the usual chile-laced ceviche byproduct, and the balance is gorgeous. Supporting the buttery fish with a little sweetness, a gentle pucker of lime and the crunch of toasted dried corn, it tastes as good as it looks — and it looks like a starlet who, dressed to kill, stopped in for a nightcap and let her hair down a little.

You’d be more relaxed in this room, too.

Raenee, Fox’s wife and the restaurant’s GM, is cultivating a vibe. The crowd will taper down to some lingering couples and a chummy bunch of barflies in a couple of hours. But at 6:30 on a Friday night, there’s a comfortable buzz about the room. It bears the trappings of a nifty neo-Latin hotspot — angular chairs, Spanish soundtrack, vibrant murals — but it softens that with laid-back charm.

The chap who brings the next dish is the antidote to everything that’s wrong with restaurant service in Phoenix. He’s there when you need him, gone when you don’t, happy to help and he speaks with a warm, genuine ease that no script could capture.

When he sets a steak on the table, he’s lucky to walk away with all of his digits intact.

Half of the city’s most venerated steakhouses are just five minutes away, and not one of them has served me a ribeye this good. It’s all sizzle and jus, lush with melting fat and brightened by a light, carne asada-style marinade. I’m tempted to exclaim that it doesn’t need a damn thing more, and it truly doesn’t, but I’m worried if I say that they’ll take away my tangle of charred scallions, silky habanero-spiked pommes puree and perky, crisp escabeche.

Fox and Stone are a gift to the neighborhood

Seeing butternut squash soup on a menu gets my inner cynic fired up. The overplayed anthem has become so predictable that menus should just print an eyeroll emoji next to it. It screams “seasonal,” it sucks up pumpkin spice like a Hoover and, same as bacon, you have to work really, really hard to make it unappealing.

Ten minutes later, I’m drowning in a bowl of it and I’d just as soon not be rescued.

Vecina’s is intense, it is smoother than Barry White on Quaaludes and it is graced with the verdant pop of a fresh arugula pesto. But I’m saving my best moves for the little pile of shrimp nestled in the middle of the bowl. Not because the soup isn’t exceptional — it absolutely is — but because these shrimp are flawlessly cooked and seasoned, an unexpected treat in a dish where they play a minor role.

I shouldn’t be surprised. Vecina may be the first restaurant that Fox and Stone (along with co-owner Jamie Catlett) can call their own, but this duo knows how to pay attention to detail. Stone, who trained in Chicago and Europe, hooked up with Fox in Phoenix, where Fox has been a key figure at a list of notable kitchens that includes the Mission, Southern Rail and Buck & Rider. Though they never worked together, the pair met through mutual friends and grew tight before Stone split for the left coast and Fox moved on to a private chef gig in San Miguel de Allende.

But they stayed in touch, as friends do. And years later, when Fox decided to return to Phoenix and got a deal on the old Kitchen 56 space, Stone jumped at the chance to join him.

Good fortune for them. Better fortune for the neighborhood.

From cocktails to tacos, the bar is sharp

The southeast corner of Indian School Road and 56th Street was long a local hangout, but the folks in the neighborhood deserved better. The place where I once ordered a cheese crisp and got a Kraft single microwaved on top of a packaged tortilla seemed to draw a crowd primarily for the booze. But even the bar has undergone a massive upgrade since the Kitchen 56 days. Stone and Catlett have assembled a nice list of local and Latin wines and brews, and the cocktails are sharp.

The Querida is a violet-scented gem, a crystal clear booze bomb built on gin and ginger with a floral lift and enough of a kick to get you soused in a hurry. The Diabólica, meanwhile, is dry and a little smoky, humming with the heat of ancho, chiltepin and green chile.

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Solid guac and a trio of strong salsas play well with anything alcoholic, but drinks call for tacos.

The requisite umami bomb doesn’t disappoint, a slab of sweet and succulent pork belly cradled in a delicate flour tortilla, plied with punchy toasted peanuts and sharp pickled chile. I’m a little floored, however, by the salmon tacos, barely cooked (as they should be), still light and tender, dabbed with spicy yuzu aioli and paired with segments of fresh Arcadia citrus, bursting with sweetness and sunshine.

Vegetables and dessert balance sweet with savory

Personally, though, I’d be happy eating green stuff all night.

Crisp Romaine stacked like a cord of wood and bathed in ice cold buttermilk is covered with cheese and crisp breadcrumbs, and it boasts a spicy kick. A haystack of shaved Brussels sprouts tossed with a sweet, bacon-laced vinaigrette and studded with dates is dusted with chiles and cotija. And charred gai lan — a type of Chinese broccoli that’s long on the trunks and short on the foliage — sits in a pool of smoky salsa macha, a robust, earthy blend of peanuts and sesame, blended with toasted chile de arbol and sweetened with honey.

Sweet, savory … it’s a fine line.

The camote, a candied sweet potato, could work at the start or end of a meal if the kitchen dialed up or dialed down the sweetness. There’s no questioning where this one falls, however. Simmered in an orange- and anise-flavored piloncillo syrup, scented with cinnamon and cardamom, there’s a reason it’s offered as a dessert.

The concha, however, will be a crowd favorite, I wager. Strawberry buttermilk ice cream sandwiched within sweet, crystallized Mexican bread and rolled in brown butter and cinnamon corn flakes might be a little puckish for a fine dining establishment, but it’s right at home here, served monster burger style with a steak knife driven through its icy cold heart.

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Hurry up, more please

The temperature of your dessert notwithstanding, it’s impossible not to feel warmly about this place. Not every dish on the menu shines as brightly as these, but there isn’t a miss among them.

When Hush Public House opened last year, sporting a similar blend of neighborhood charm and pro-level execution, I called it a model and asked for more. Now here’s Vecina, featuring two more industry veterans who took their time honing their craft in mainstream restaurant groups before striking out to set up a tiny restaurant with a unique voice and big aspirations.

Once is happenstance and twice is coincidence, they say, but three times is a trend.

Somebody hurry up and open another. This is exactly the trend we need.

Where: 3433 N. 56th St., Phoenix.

Price: Starters and share plates $7-$22; tacos and tostadas $12-$15; mains $28-$42; desserts $8-$12.

Hours: 4 p.m.-10 p.m Tuesdays through Saturdays.

Sound: Buzzy but conversation friendly even when it’s busy. The crowd clears out and it gets quiet after the peak dinner rush… for now.

Vegetarian/vegan options: Vegetables abound, and those who go meatless won’t require modifications to find plenty of options.

Recommended dishes: Chula hiramasa ceviche; butternut squash soup; charred gai lan broccoli; Faroe Island salmon tacos; mesquite grilled prime carne asada ribeye; concha.

Details: 602-675-2000, vecinaphx.com.

Stars: 4 (out of 5)

5 — Drop everything

3 — When you get a chance

2 — Maybe, if it’s close

1 — You can do better

0 — Not worth your time

Tried something delicious lately? Reach the reporter at dominic.armato@arizonarepublic.com or at 602-444-8533. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @skilletdoux, and on Facebook at facebook.com/darmato.