The Olive Farmer brings bronze-extruded pasta to Phoenix’s Arcadia

Phoenix’s Arcadia neighborhood is set to get a layered Italian destination at 44th Street and Osborn Road, where The Olive Farmer is slated to take over the former Santo Arcadia space and the hidden bar Pecado with an opening target of September 2026. The project brings together In Good Spirits Hospitality and Queen Creek Olive Mill, with chef Bernie Kantak and olive mill cofounder Perry Rea leading a concept built less like a single restaurant than a full-day food hall for pasta, retail and cocktails.

Kantak and Rea conceived the idea about a year before the April 2026 coverage, after meeting through a mutual friend and bonding over focaccia, slow-fermented dough and olive oil. Kantak called it an all-day restaurant-market hybrid with “a cool little Italian speakeasy for folks in the ‘hood,” a line that fits the way the partners are leaning into both neighborhood ease and destination appeal. The morning and daytime side will center on locally roasted coffee, house-made pastries, sandwiches, pizzas and grab-and-go items, then shift at night toward pasta, Italian classics and a more bar-forward experience.

At the center of the operation will be a Flour Lab led by Agostino Trentacoste, a Palermo-born pizzaiolo and certified flour technician. The lab is expected to produce bronze-extruded pastas, bread, pastries and slow-fermented dough, turning the making of the food into part of the experience rather than something hidden behind the kitchen doors. Kantak said guests will be able to watch bread, pastries and pasta being made, giving the room a production-floor energy that is rare even in a crowded Italian dining scene.

The market side is just as central. Rea said The Olive Farmer will use Queen Creek Olive Mill olive oils and balsamic vinegars throughout the menu, while the retail component will stock QCOM food products, Olivespa skincare items, imported pantry goods and fresh pasta to take home. That makes the project another channel for Queen Creek Olive Mill, which was founded in 2005 by Perry and Brenda Rea and their family and has grown into Arizona’s only active olive mill, drawing about 650,000 visitors a year. With the company’s Kierland Commons marketplace location now closed, the Arcadia market gives the brand a fresh foothold in Phoenix.

The hospitality side carries its own weight. In Good Spirits Hospitality traces its roots to Citizen Public House, which opened in downtown Scottsdale in 2011, and its portfolio now includes The Gladly, Beginner’s Luck and Minnow. The group had eyed the Arcadia building for years before Santo opened, making The Olive Farmer feel less like a sudden pivot than the long-planned reuse of a corner with built-in foot traffic and a ready-made neighborhood audience. In a dining market crowded with red-sauce sameness, this one is betting that pasta, olive oil and retail can all pull in the same direction.