The Farm at South Mountain
Who knew that sandwiches were to thank for inspiring one of Arizona’s most prominent foodie families? “While I was born and raised in New York, where my Italian father was a plumber, our family relocated to Phoenix in the early 1970s when I was 17,” said Pat Christofolo. One of six children, she said. “Once settled, my father connected with what was, back then, the few other Italian families in the area.”
According to Pat, there was one thing that her father and all of his new friends agreed upon: there was a lack of any authentic Italian delicatessens in the area. They wanted to change that. “While he put pen to paper on a plan, I moved to Berkley, California for a spell, living out my hippy fantasy,” said Pat. “However, by 1974 when he opened Capistrano’s Delicatessen in Phoenix, I was back in town. I walked into the deli on opening day, and joke that I do not think I left [the place], save to sleep for the next eight years.”
During her time working with her father, Pat became a parent herself, welcoming Dustin Christofolo to the world in 1981. “I was a single parent, but by this time had undergone some culinary training in addition to working at Capistrano’s, so I spread my wings when Dustin was just four months old, opening Out to Lunch sandwich shop, and then Lunch in the Sack, and finally Sandwich Indulgence over the next decade,” said Pat.
By the 1990s, with Dustin fully immersed in all things skateboarding, wakeboarding, hockey, baseball, and snowboarding, Pat would fly even higher by moving into the catering world. “I opened Santa Barbara Catering—today called Artisan by Santa Barbara Catering—in 1994, thanks in great part to my sister, who was an attorney at the time and ever-ready to give my number to partners planning events,” said Pat. She noted her father continued to expand as well, adding a bakery operation to his concept while helping grow the entire deli industry across Arizona.
In 1997, as the catering business boomed, Pat had the opportunity to lease the small restaurant at The Farm at South Mountain. “This was 27 years ago when Wayne Smith—a landscape architect by trade—owned the land. We always joked he would have preferred we lock the gates and just ask folks to throw money over the fence than to have crowds on the property,” said Pat. Yet her persistence and determination led to the opening of multiple restaurants at The Farm.
As Pat began to reimagine The Farm into the nationally lauded, farm-to-table mecca that it is today, Dustin would graduate McClintock High School in 1999, initially aiming to take his talent in sports to the next level. “As it became clear that my professional sports career was likely not going to happen, I decided to embrace my exposure to all things food and drink during my childhood by taking a job at the catering company, but not in the kitchen,” said Dustin. “I essentially worked as admin before moving to a managerial role at Quiessence when it opened in 2003.”
Dustin would fall in love with wine before food while working in the front of the house, so much so that in 2005 he temporarily relocated to Napa to take part in an immersive wine program. “When I returned, I transitioned into more of a maître de role, really ramping up our wine game with my newfound passion and confidence when it came to the art and science of pairings,” said Dustin.
Soon enough, Dustin’s interest shifted to the kitchen, especially its use of hyperlocal ingredients, which was still an anomaly in the Valley in the mid-2000s. “I whet my teeth at our daypart concepts, making—of course—sandwiches to start, and then really falling in love with flavor combinations when I started making soup,” said Dustin. Around that time he was accepted into a prestigious New York-based culinary program in 2008, which included eight months of hands-on education in his grandparents’ native Italy.
Once back in the Valley in 2009, Dustin was a dedicated chef, spending countless hours developing recipes as a chef at The Farm. He then contributed to the opening and leading the kitchen at the family’s one-time eatery at the Secret Garden. “In 2012, our lives changed forever when Wayne approached me with an offer to buy the entirety of The Farm at South Mountain’s operations,” said Pat. “It was taking the chance of a lifetime, so we went for it.”
Dustin would come back to The Farm full-time, taking over Quiessence as executive chef in 2013. In the 11 years since, the mother-son duo has taken the culinary world by storm. They kept their focus on slow food, good food, and the freshest ingredients above all else. “Today, we have three restaurants on property in Morning Glory, Farm Kitchen, and our fine dining Quiessence, as well as our organic Soil & Seed Garden, which Dustin oversees with our talented grower, and boutique retail market Botanica,” said Pat. “Our aim is to constantly push ourselves to make this little slice of edible, sustainable heaven even better.”
In recent years, the Christofolo family built a free-standing 1,500-square-foot, state-of-the-art kitchen for Quiessence featuring top-of-the-line Hestan products from wall to wall. They also invested heavily in beautifying the ultra-rustic outdoor spaces for dining and special events like weddings, including enhancing its seating in the mesmerizing pecan grove. Recently, they purchased an Argentinian-style wood-burning grill from Grillworks as well as a 25-foot specialty smoker from Scott Holmes of Little Miss BBQ fame.
“We are changing—and we hope, elevating—the food game in the Southwest, one dish at a time,” said Dustin. He noted that they expect to host 200 events and welcome more than 100,000 guests this year alone. “In addition to our morning bakery staples, farm-fresh lunch service, and prix fixe dining for the ages option at Quiessence, we are really getting into smoked meats and elevated grilled local vegetables in ways that will blow guests’ minds.”
Case in point, Dustin recently launched a brisket sandwich at The Farm. Sounds basic enough right? Wrong. This sandwich is a mash-up of a French dip and Banh Mi with pickled veggies and a pile of Dustin’s smoked meats. There is also a Japanese sweet potato at Morning Glory that stands at about five inches tall with smoked meats, cheese, caramelized onions, honey-slathered crumbled bacon, cilantro, Chimayo aioli, and two sunny side up eggs.
So, what is next for the first family of The Farm? “We are considering a pop-up concept featuring smoked meats to complement all of our new culinary tools and techniques, and you can always expect all of our menus to change based on what we raise, grow, and harvest right here on property,” said Dustin.
written by: alison bailin batz | photographed by: marci symington