The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain has introduced a juicy take on farm-to-table dining, allowing hotel guests to pick fruit from one of 42 citrus trees in the property fruit orchard, and then to have a chef prepare a seasonal fresh juice for morning breakfast.
The new opportunity will be available this fall, when the hotel’s burgeoning orchard is set to produce Arizona oranges, Minneola tangelos and red grapefruit. The orchard is located within steps of the resort’s CORE Restaurant & Wine Bar, which specializes in regionally-grown Arizona ingredients.
Once harvested, freshly-picked citrus from The Ritz-Carlton grove is also used for signature drinks and restaurant menu items, and it is featured in complimentary juices presented at the hotel lobby welcome station. The property’s signature Arizona Greyhound cocktail, served in CORE and the Ignite lobby lounge, utilizes the fruit harvest in the freshest of ways, combining the juice of picked-on-the-spot grapefruit with grapefruit-infused vodka.
In its commitment to using foods grown on-site, The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain is also home to a year-round chef’s garden producing dill, parsley, cilantro, basil, rosemary and fresh sage, some of which may be savored in the property’s Sparkling Rosemary Lemonade and Sage Smash cocktail.
The Ritz-Carlton Spa, Dove Mountain also features its own spa herb garden, offering mint, lemongrass, rosemary and lavender plants. When the plants are ready for their fall harvest, guests will be able to pick their own leaves and sprigs for use in customized spa treatments, spa teas and take-home wellness and beauty products.
Moving just a few miles away from The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain itself, a major external provider of the hotel’s local ingredients is culinary partner Farmer Starkey, whose rocky hillside organic farm and orchard produce 100 pounds of produce each week, from tomatillos to okra.
Farmer Starkey also provides local eggs and pork to the hotel. Another Arizona food source, Sunizona Family Farms in Wilcox, Arizona, provides a bounty of summer’s-end tomatoes for Cayton’s Restaurant, located at the resort golf club, while Arizona Stronghold Vineyards provides local wines for property menus and wine events.
Any time of the year, Arizona prickly pear juice can be enjoyed in the hotel’s salad dressings and cocktails, and local tepary beans, avocados and late-summer squash also figure into dining choices, including the property’s best-selling Avocado Fries. Tucson’s Arevalo Tortilleria supplies daily freshly-made tortillas to The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain, including their coveted mesquite flour tortillas, which are indigenous to the region and acclaimed for their slight cocoa taste.
Additionally, and if a bit more removed, Kanaloa Seafood in Santa Barbara provides the resort with all-sustainable fish and seafood. Kanaloa is North America’s only International Organization of Standardization-certified seafood company in North America and it is widely recognized for its environmental management practices and efforts to reduce the size of its environmental footprint.
An exotic bounty of Arizona ingredients can especially be enjoyed right now and into the fall, as rain from the high Sonoran Desert’s summer monsoons significantly increases local farm variety and output. Such fresh-grown, summer/fall choices as Arizona summer squash, chili peppers, local field greens, corn and brilliantly-colored tomatoes are currently making their way onto the CORE seasonal prix-fixe menu, which was developed as a salute to local growers.
The culinary team of CORE Kitchen & Wine Bar partners directly with local producers to create this $39 three-course dinner menu inspired by the season. While the menu changes based on daily harvests, sample highlights include a starter of Chilled Corn Soup and Chili Popcorn; a main course of Cilantro-Marinated Chicken Breast with Calabacitas, Red Pepper Sauce and Chili Tortilla Strips; and Three-Berry Sorbet. Wine pairings are available as an added option.
