A collaboration between owner Danny Quinn and Chef Danny Garcia, Pubblico is where classic old school Italian meets contemporary casual. We may have traded the carpet and doilies for craft cocktails and cool light fixtures, but that’s about it.
With no prior restaurant experience, Quinn found himself working as a bus boy at a local Santa Barbara restaurant after starting over personally and professionally at age 32. Less than a decade later, he was running the place.
Quinn moved to Scottsdale for a management and operations position at an Italian restaurant called Cucina Cucina, where he met chef Danny Garcia. Struck by his talent, the dream was planted in Quinn’s mind to open a restaurant where Garcia could have full creative control. A few years later, Pubblico was born.
That being said, Chef Garcia doesn’t deviate too much from classic Italian cuisine. He knows that with homemade pasta made daily in house and the freshest ingredients, you don’t really need to.
“We attract two different groups of people: the wiser crowd looking for their parents’ old-school Italian, and the younger crowd, looking to grab a drink in a hip, casual joint with solid food.”
When he’s not cooking up a storm for Pubblico, you can find him spending time with his family (his son Edgar is the in-house Italian wine expert) or testing out the latest Mexican joint. “I always try a restaurant’s beans and rice before getting anything else. If they can’t get those things right, there’s no point trying anything else.”
