Don’t worry, McPhee’s Grill will be open soon
TIN CITY — McPhee’s in Tin City? Seriously, why hasn’t anybody thought of this sooner?
McPhee’s Canteen and Quality Meats is opening Oct. 20 at 3070 Limestone Way in Tin City, the evolving industrial makers market, south of Paso Robles. It will be next-door neighbors with Etto Pastificio.
The new eatery is the brainchild of McPhee’s Grill owner-chef Ian McPhee and son Max McPhee. The space has sleek, industrial lines with a roll-up front door, a spacious open kitchen, two large wood-fired pizza ovens, and a large patio with a dramatic rock waterfall.
“It’s got success written all over it,” said Ian as they were hashing out the menu that will feature some items from McPhee’s Grill down the road in Templeton.
McPhee’s Canteen will be more casual than McPhee’s Grill’s fine-dining experience but still feature the same high quality, locally sourced produce and meats that the Grill prides itself on.
“Before they (Tin Canteen) did table service,” Ian said. “Ours is going to be counter service. The whole thing is designed to be pretty fast.
“Not fast food, but pretty fast food,” Max said.
“Yeah, fast prepared but the quality of the food is going to definitely be McPhee’s as far as the products we are using,” Ian said.
The restaurant portion of McPhee’s Canteen will open first, followed by a meat counter, Ian said.
“Probably not right at the start, but after we get things running pretty smooth, we are going to develop a meat counter where people can come and buy McPhee’s Grill steaks, pork chops and jambalaya packages, all that kind of stuff,” Ian said.
Ian and Max generated a strong buzz about the new venture by serving barbecue tri-tip and fried chicken sandwiches and black bean burgers at the new location over the past couple of weekends.
Ian said talks of opening McPhee’s Canteen began months ago with somebody calling someone and one thing leading to another, and here they are.
“It’s a project that a friend said something to me, and I said tell somebody something and that somebody called me,” Ian said.
But honestly, Ian knew it was something he and Max were going to do when he first peeked inside of what was formerly Tin Canteen.
“I saw the facility and said oh, we got to work this out,” Ian said. “All of the wineries, the breweries, the guy that owns all these buildings is saying we gotta get something open.”
McPhee’s Grill fans will be happy to learn it will be reopening soon, probably in time for the holidays, Ian said.
Max will be running McPhee’s Canteen and Ian will be leading the Grill. McPhee’s Canteen will be open — 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
“It’s going to be the Max McPhee show,” Ian said.
“I’m excited. I’m stoked he’s giving me the opportunity to do my thing here,” Max said.
