From a distance, it’s hard to distinguish between the Downtown and Midtown business districts of Phoenix. Both are defined by clusters of high-rise office buildings, and from some vantage points, the two merge into a single skyline. At ground level, there are differences. Downtown towers are more likely to directly address the street and have ground floor retail. In Midtown, most of the skyscrapers are set back from the street, and any retail presence they have is a small space for a sandwich shop frequented only by people who work in the floors above.
Occasionally, that style of semi-hidden space becomes home to a restaurant good enough to draw traffic from a wider radius. CC’s on Central is one of those rare cases. In the heart of Midtown, wedged in a common area shared by the twin towers at 2700 and 2800 North Central Avenue, CC’s offers a mix of Southern, Cajun, and Creole cooking with some of its own creative touches. CC’s is found just a block south of the Thomas/Central light rail station. Amazingly, neither office tower has a visible bike rack, but the railing outside CC’s works as an alternative.
Since the space was designed primarily for quick-service operation as an office building “cafe,” there’s a counter front and center where everything is ordered. Customers make their selections from printed menus and then find a table. There is plenty of shaded outdoor seating, as well as some space at counters and tables in the small dining room, which is full of natural light and just a little anodyne decor on the walls. There are also two seats at the small bar counter, which is, in a somewhat surprising move for an office building setting, equipped for full liquor service.
CC’s menu includes all-day breakfast fare and plenty of options for hearty lunch. Morning favorites include fluffy buttermilk pancakes, breakfast sandwiches and burritos, and praline French toast. The last item stands out in particular. It is made with milk bread, finely ground pecans, and an assertive seasoning mix that recalls Chinese five spice. The fennel present in the finished product offers an effective balance to the sweet notes found elsewhere. Meaty sides include bacon, in addition to chicken sausage patties with a bit of tang from powdered vinegar.
Grits have long been a sort of crossover food in Southern cooking that can extend from breakfast into lunch or dinner. The buttery, cheesy corn porridge is offered paired with debris (roast beef) and a fried egg; collard greens and “potlikker,” the liquid the greens were cooked in; or the classic grits accompaniment of shrimp. Like nearly everything at CC’s, the shrimp and grits here starts with tradition and then amplifies and improvises beyond that. Plump prawns swim in a slightly spicy tomato gravy with a bit of sausage over a bed of creamy ground corn.
Shrimp also star in an etouffee, and again with this dish, CC’s isn’t afraid to depart ever so slightly from tradition while losing none of the dish’s classic essence. In this case, the crustaceans swim in a thick sauce with a pleasingly coarse holy trinity that involves gold bell peppers in place of the usual green. Shrimp is an optional add-on to the sausage and chicken already included in the jambalaya, made with a thick, deeply flavored roux. Hot sauce can be requested, but it might not be needed because this is already one spicy bowl of jambalaya.
The final Lousiana touch here is a big bowl of red beans and rice with smoked turkey, abundant beans, and sausage over fluffy rice and a little shaved onion on top for good measure. It has a slight burn and appreciable depth of flavor. Like the etouffee and the jambalaya, it comes with a slightly sweet corn muffin. Beyond its “bayou bowls,” the phrase used on the menu, CC’s offers several sandwiches, including smoked turkey on a toasted focaccia roll with a bit of unexpected spiciness from harissa verde mayo, smoked cheddar sauce, olive tapenade, and arugula.
The chicken salad sandwich, enlivened with golden raisins and chopped pecans, is served on something that looks at first like a cinnamon bun but is actually a circular croissant. The default side with all of the sandwiches is potato chips. They’re house-made with an assertive, crisp texture but tasted like they had been too aggressively salted when sampled. A more consistent choice is the collard greens, served either cooked in a preparation which is tangy and even a little bit spicy, or raw in a salad that can also become an entree when ordered in a large size.
CC’s offers wings every Wednesday with original flavors like dill pickle or its signature “dankenstein.” On Fridays, there’s catfish, available over grits, in a po’ boy, or with fries, coleslaw, and a slice of white bread. No throwaway, this is the same milk bread used for the French toast, and it is perfect for soaking up the hot sauce and remoulade that come with this end-of-week special. On the second Sunday of each month, CC’s has rare weekend hours with specials like smoked turkey wings, fried chicken, or seafood gumbo instead of the usual menu.
For dessert, CC’s has every day with options like oatmeal, chocolate chip, and peanut butter with Reese’s cups on top. During monthly “Sunday service” and sometimes at other times, there can be additional choices like peach cobbler or blue velvet cake, which uses blueberries instead of red dye for a boost in color and flavor. The full bar offers wine, beer, and cocktails, and CC’s iced tea and lemonade are dependable non-alcoholic choices. It may be hidden in an office complex, but CC’s offers a mix of downtown energy and uptown sophistication in Midtown.
2800 N. Central Ave. #A100, Phoenix AZ 85004
https://www.ccsoncentral.com
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