New Arcadia restaurant invites you to ditch your phone and dig in

There’s nothing middling about Kevin Ehret’s new Arcadia restaurant, Neutral Ground Lounge, a love letter to the hyper-seasonal small plates and refined cocktails that he has been dreaming of creating for over a decade. 

For Ehret, who spent his formative years in Phoenix and traveled across the country honing his craft, the journey has come full circle.

“My whole life is like a two-mile radius. I literally grew up here, and now my son goes to school down the street. We live close by, so to find a restaurant space in this neighborhood and location that I grew up in and live in now is pretty wild,” Ehret says. 

After finishing school in 2006, Ehret cut his teeth in kitchens in Phoenix, including Canal, an early concept from chef Justin Beckett in Scottsdale, and J&G Steakhouse under chef Jacques Qualin. These two put Ehret through the paces, as he put it, and from then on, he knew he eventually wanted to open his own spot. In 2009, he moved to New Orleans and worked at John Harris’ Bouligny Tavern, where he became inspired by the atmosphere and approach that the James Beard-nominated chef brought to the small space. 

“They had this record player behind the bar, and it was no-skips. Just full albums, paired with small plates and cocktails. I thought, ‘That’s it; I’m going to do that!’ Ehret recalls. 

Eventually, Ehret’s cooking and travels took him further north to Asheville, North Carolina. There, he worked at the now-shuttered Seven Sows and Zambra Tapas and Wine Bar, where hyper-seasonal, ever-rotating menus were the norm. There, he got a thorough crash course in small plate menus and rotating fresh ingredients, cranking out seven new courses every week for three years. 

Ehret moved back home to Phoenix from Asheville, where he worked under chef Gio Osso at Virtu Honest Craft and later at the now-shuttered Josephine on Roosevelt Row. Through it all, he kept refining his dream, and when the opportunity for a turn-key establishment opened up last year near his home, he took the leap. 

“It was either this or a dive bar with a sandwich press,” Ehret jokes. “But either way, we wanted to create a space for regulars to show up and enjoy something unique and anchored in their community.”

While Neutral Ground Lounge is a decidedly more refined concept than shots and sandos, there is an unpretentiousness that grounds the whole affair. As Ehret describes it, they take their chef duties seriously, but not themselves, and strive to be a place for Arcadians first.

His other half on this project is chef Ryan Jeisy, whom he met in 2018 when they were both working at Virtu Honest Craft. The two hit it off immediately and have been close friends and collaborators ever since. When Jeisy found out that Ehret was opening his own restaurant, he was insistent that he come on as chef so that Ehret could run the day-to-day aspects of his dream business. 

“He’s a madman,” Ehret says. “His whole life is food, and he’s my best friend.”

“He saw me opening this place and was like, ‘let’s go through your menu…’, and then the next thing I know, he’s sitting me down and explaining that if I thought I was going to run a restaurant and be the chef at the same time, I was out of my fucking mind,” Ehret admits. 

Together, the two hashed out four seasonal menus inspired by using the freshest available ingredients. 

“We are very lucky to be in Phoenix, where in the winter and spring we have citrus. But our rules for ourselves are strict. Would this dish be good with avocado or corn or tomato? Yes, but that’s not seasonal,” Ehret explains. 

By emphasizing small plates, the duo experiments with elements of the familiar and slightly funky. Currently, guests can expect decadent dishes like oxtail dumplings in a Szechuan demi-glace, pork belly with kumquat and ginger, and a classic duck liver pate enlivened with blood orange and pistachio, which is becoming a fan favorite for its unapologetic richness. 

Decadent guinea hen empanadas stuffed with rosemary and quince and dipped in truffle queso are a flaky, savory, earthy bite that will have you fighting over the last morsels. 

“So he (Ehret) was thinking about an empanada and confiting the hen, and then he mentioned truffle and I thought that could work well as a cheese sauce. The fattiness of the hen holds well in that flaky crust, melded with the truffle queso,” Jeisy says.

Another example of their creative harmony is the blue crab beignets, a joyous celebration of fresh crab and winter leeks, served with yuzu creme fraîche. While this dish could easily be a glorified hush puppy, Ehret and Jeisy ground it with Arizonan winter vegetables, giving the crab a punchy aromatic zing, all encased in a salty, sweet, crispy dough. 

In addition to the decadent protein options, there are plenty of vegetable-centered dishes that don’t feel like the placeholders for vegan or meatless plus-ones, with standouts including a breaded cauliflower in tahini with capers, along with a “gold and green” potlikker with collards, fried heirloom rice and optional pancetta. 

For the cocktail program, Ehret aims to craft drinks that resonate with Arcadia locals.

The opening list is heavy on classics and fan favorites. Expect negronis, Old Fashioneds, spritzes and espresso martinis. There are some nods to the seasons as well. Sips like the frothy Blushed Orange, which blends tequila with handpicked blood orange and lime, topped with orange foam, makes for a tart, refreshing riff on the Siesta cocktail. 

According to Ehret, the goal was to thread the needle between approachable and adventurous selections.  

Each night, Ehret reads the room and finds records to set the tone for the tables. There’s not a television in sight, and the tell-tale signs of New Orleans’ Victorian Italianate resonate in the green velvet booths, dark tile, wood accents and William Morris walls. 

Ehret is adamant that guests are not to be rushed and that people can take a moment to connect, a concept he describes as “genuine hospitality” that forgoes the rush of frenetic table service and loud atmosphere.

The analog tendencies of the space add to the charm of the lounge, and are not intended to be preachy or theatrical. You don’t have to check your phone at the door, but the vinyl playlist and lack of blue lights naturally encourages guests to leave things on silent for a while and enjoy the moment.  

The name for Ehret’s Neutral Ground Lounge is a nod to the “neutral ground,” where he lived and cooked for some years in the Crescent City. The colloquial term for medians first served as a demarcation between class and race lines in the city, separating French Creole from Anglo-American. 

Like that sacred meeting ground where anyone could find some acceptance and belonging, Ehret thinks of his space as a place where everyone can come together in a place that he hopes feels like home. Or, perhaps, a home where a talented chef envisions perfect bites as you sip an ice-cold Vesper while the hiss and pop of a record player needle spins Thelonius Monk’s Monk’s Dream. Ehret hopes that the earnest attention to crafting a place that feels so present will help his guests foster some genuine connection with each other in a world that, ultimately, is suffering from a severe lack thereof. 

“The name Neutral Ground, for me, was always rooted in where I lived in New Orleans, but recently it’s taken on a lot of meaning. I know some chefs are more overtly political, and the name seems to imply something, but I just wanted a place where people could take a moment and get away,” Ehret explains. 

Creating a place to be at peace sounds, in this current moment, like a radical concept Ehret is keen to provide. 

“Aside from the food, and the drink, the thing I recall about New Orleans is how the whole city shut down on Sundays for service – except for Saints games, of course. That had a huge impact on me,” he admits.

The spiritual resonance of that city, he felt, pushed him to reconcile some of his past, to be able to enjoy this present moment and to realize his dream of opening his own restaurant in the very spot he grew up.

“I am a very emotional person, and I used to be so hot and cold. There’s so many apology notes I wish I could send,” the chef and owner says. “Now, I’m just trying to do something nice for people. I think people deserve something nice.”

Neutral Ground Lounge

4602 E. Thomas Road