At the soft opening of their newest concept restaurant, Pomelo, Ken and Lucia Schnitzer mingled with the diners. They visited each table, greeting their guests with hugs, and it felt more like an intimate dinner party than the beginnings of the hottest new dining ticket in town.
But that is how Ken and Lucia approach everything in their lives. With warmth, caring and passion. The Orchard PHX is no exception.
This is not the first business venture for the Schnitzers. They have owned Luci’s Healthy Marketplace, an eclectic coffee bar, café and marketplace on the corner of 16th Street and Bethany Home Road, for the past seven years (see azjewishlife.com/1-story-2-lives-3-acts for the history behind Luci’s). But instead of just opening a second location or a new restaurant, they are essentially opening three new businesses.
The Orchard PHX is a new adaptive reuse property housing Pomelo, a contemporary full-service restaurant; Luci’s at The Orchard, a marketplace with sandwiches, coffee, juice bar and drive-through window; and Splurge, an old-fashioned ice cream and candy store.
The vision began more than three years ago when they were first introduced to the property. Lucia remembers it well, “I remember walking onto the property. I was holding my three-month-old baby at the time and I remember stepping foot on the property. It was the most magical moment for me, personally. It was as if the ground opened up and its roots came up and it grounded me and said ‘You have to commit to this’ – it was that clear.” Even now that the property has been developed, Lucia admits that she still gets the same feeling.
Perhaps some of the space’s magic stems from its history. The original building on the acreage was an adobe home built in the 1920s. This was the homestead of the Wasser family, who tended to the orchard that was also part of the land. Today, more than 80 citrus trees surround the venue.
The second structure was a ranch home built in 1949. This home belonged to Ralph Castro and his family, who purchased the land from the Wassers. Ralph then transformed the property into Ralph’s Citrus Nursery and ran that business for years.
It would have been so much easier to demolish the buildings and start anew, but it was important to Ken and Lucia, and their partner Jerry Mansoor, to incorporate as much of the existing structures as they could into their concepts. As Lucia explains, “When you are doing a huge re-purpose project, you don’t know what you are going to come across, what challenges are going to present themselves within an existing structure you are trying to work around.”
Despite the challenges, the result is seamless between the old and the new construction. When you walk into Pomelo, the entrance, the bar, the lounge, the private dining room and the basement are all part of the original 1920s adobe home. Across the lawn area from Pomelo, stands the refurbished ranch house, which encompasses a large part of Luci’s at the Orchard. The area housing the kitchen to the ice cream shop, Splurge, is new construction, but feels like it has been there for decades.
The impeccable craftsmanship continues from the construction to details like the large table cut from a 100-year-old eucalyptus tree on the property that sits in the private dining room, the bar “made from the ground up” by local artist Michael Peterson and the stained glass windows created by artist Chris Powers utilizing glass pieces from Lucia’s great grandmother.
Lucia enjoyed working with these and other local artists, “The whole process has affected me – by the people I have met along the way.” She marvels at the way in which all the small businesses support each other, “That journey has been, for me, the most touching, because we have all worked together to create what you see now.”
The Schnitzers plan on hosting live music (as appropriate for the neighborhood, which has been so welcoming), yoga on the lawn in the mornings, an urban farmer’s market and other community events. “Come with your kids, don’t come with your kids, come on a date, come with a friend, come with your spouse. The property has been set up to accommodate all stages of life,” explains Lucia.
The importance of creating a place where the community can come and families can congregate was in the back of everyone’s mind while developing the space. “Everyone who was part of this project are parents or grandparents,” Lucia explains. The Schnitzers have four children ranging in age from 3-10: Yasmina, Gavriel, Bentzion and Aviva. If you look carefully at the sidewalk next to the splash pad, outside of Splurge, you can see their handprints in the cement.
Also, giving back to the community that has been so welcoming to them is forefront. One example is the assistance they are extending to a neighborhood boy. During the opening of Pomelo, monies raised from beverage sales went towards a fund set up for 7-year-old Hollis R. Doherty. Hollis is fighting an extremely rare, highly aggressive and difficult to treat brain tumor.
After devoting the past three-and-a-half years to this project, Ken and Lucia affectionately call The Orchard PHX their “oasis in the desert” and after one visit, you will understand why.
The Orchard PHX is located at 7100 N 12th St, Phoenix. For more information, visit Facebook.com/TheOrchardPhx
