Downtown Phoenix can be roughly divided into quadrants. The southeast is dominated by sports and entertainment, the northeast focuses on education and the arts, and the northwest is predominantly residential. The southwestern quadrant is defined mostly by the criminal justice system with massive edifices that function as courthouses and jails. With blank and imposing walls, these facilities don’t invite a dialogue with the street, but hidden behind them are a few notable places of other types. One of them is a breakfast and lunch spot known as ZeeZ Grill.
ZeeZ is one of those types of places that used to be the norm Downtown: a restaurant open only on weekdays until mid-afternoon to serve a clientele of office workers. Most of those places have disappeared in favor of restaurants focusing on dinner service for people who live and play Downtown, even if they work elsewhere or at home. ZeeZ has escaped this transformation because its hidden location behind the courts and jails keeps it out of mind as an evening destination. Instead, it serves criminal justice personnel whose jobs cannot be done remotely.
ZeeZ is the ground floor of an apartment building at Second Avenue and Jackson Street, a short walk from both the Downtown Phoenix Hub and the Lincoln Street platforms on the A Line. Bike racks are built into parking meters along Jackson, and the restaurant’s entrance is found around the corner facing Second Avenue under some awnings. Unfortunately, the shade these provide goes unused because the restaurant’s seating is all on the inside. Still, it’s an unexpectedly spacious dining room with high ceilings, concrete floors, tall windows, and wooden tables.
Soap operas and courtroom shows play on screens overhead, and the complete menu is displayed on the wall opposite the counter. Most items are presented in writing,but there are also pictures of items not included there. A daily special, sometimes drawn from the regular menu and sometimes unique to the moment, is listed on a sign at the counter where all orders are taken. During busy times, customers are given a number to display at their chosen tables; at other times, matters are handled more casually with the friendly staff recognizing customers.
The menu seems at first like straightforward diner or deli fare with a variety of lunch and breakfast classics. There are, however, some international touches of Mexican, Mediterranean, and east Asian origin. The last of those appears linked to the heritage of the restaurant’s owners, and items from these disparate influences such as teriyaki chicken, bulgogi beef, and shawarma, all with tender meat marinated in seasoning, are unexpected standouts on a menu that is otherwise the domain of well-crafted if familiar burgers, sandwiches, wraps, and salads.
The shawarma comes in a wrap and is accessorized with a flavorful garlic sauce. The Mediterranean salad eliminates the bread and instead involves the same preparation of poultry on top mixed greens with cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and feta cheese. The teriyaki is served over steamed white rice with a drizzle of sauce to supplement the marinade and abundant vegetables. The bulgogi incorporates thin, tender, lightly marinated beef over rice with a side salad. The same meat also appears in chopped form as the filling inside fried pot stickers.
Within the canon of traditional diner fare, a turkey melt is simple but satisfying with sliced poultry, cheese, and tomato in between pieces of griddled bread. A similar approach works with a beef patty, melted cheese, and rye for a straightforward patty melt. A weekly special, a Bamba melt, adds a Southwestern touch via its pairing of sliced roast beef with pepper jack cheese and green chilies inside sourdough bread. Several other sandwiches are available constructed as wraps or with croissants as their foundation, and many offer a choice of different kinds of bread.
Southwestern dishes include a bountiful taco salad with a choice of the same beef used in bulgogi or chicken in shawarma or teriyaki. A Southwestern chicken wrap presents a nice contrast between crisp, smoky bacon and creamy avocado. There are also fish tacos, which are presented almost as fish sticks inside tortillas with rectangular slabs of white flesh breaded, fried, and matched with a mild white sauce, julienne carrots, and shredded cabbage. They gain an extra dimension of flavor when accessorized with a drizzle of Frank’s RedHot sauce.
All of the sandwiches come with a choice of crinkle cut fries, onion rings, potato salad, macaroni salad, or a small green salad as side dishes. With its morning hours, Zeez also serves some breakfast foods such as pancakes, several types of omelets, and a variety of breakfast burritos. There are no desserts prepared in house, but some packaged cookies, candies, and ice cream are sold at the counter. For something with a more handcrafted feel, Creampuff’s decadent brioche donuts and croissants are just a short walk from ZeeZ in the nearby Warehouse District.
There is no liquor license, and that seems appropriate given both the daytime hours and the role that driving while intoxicated plays in the situation of many of those incarcerated in the nearby jails or on trial in the adjacent courtrooms. Instead, there are fountain drinks and bottled beverages, including green tea. With an emphasis on law and order and crime and punishment, the southwestern portion of Downtown is hardly as exciting to the outsider as its other quadrants. Nevertheless, ZeeZ offers a little break from the seriousness of the neighborhood.
209 S. 2nd Ave, Phoenix AZ 85003
https://zeezgrillphoenix.com
PHX Rail Food 