The James Beard America’s Classics Award honors locally owned restaurants with timeless appeal, beloved in their region for serving quality food that reflects the character and cultural traditions of their community, and must have been operating for at least 10 years, recognizing enduring, community-rooted establishments over flashy new trends. While the America’s Classic award is presented annually, only six of the twelve James Beard regions are eligible each year. That means every other year, each region is represented. This ensures broad coverage over time. The most recent New Mexico recipient of the America’s classic award is the incomparable Mary & Tito’s.
In 2012, the Fry Bread House, a beloved Phoenix institution since 1992, earned the America’s Classic award, becoming the very first Native American restaurant in the United States to earn that distinction. The Fry Bread house was started by Cecelia Miller, a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation. After she passed away in 2020, her children Jennifer and Richard continue the tradition. According to the restaurant’s website “Tohono Oʼodham people are known throughout the southwest for their red chili beef, large, hand-stretched flour tortilla and fry bread.” Over the years, the restaurant has garnered many “Best of the City” awards from various media sources. Moreover, it’s earned the affection of legions of fans who frequent the restaurant for its delectable chewy and flaky fry bread adorned with a variety of savory and sweet ingredients.
More than many lauded restaurants you’ll find, the Fry Bread House operates out of a humble building that appears to have been converted from a family home. It sits on a mixed development neighborhood where family homes and businesses are next to one another. The area is heavily trafficked, much of the traffic destined for the Fry Bread House. Step inside and you’ll find a somewhat crowded but homey restaurant. Prospective diners congregate at a counter to place their orders. If you’re not sure what to have, you can take a menu back to your table to peruse it more thoroughly. A fountain drink machine stands to the left of the counter. For me, awards and accolades galore are well-earned because that fountain drink machine includes Barq’s Red Cream soda.
Near the counter, you’ll also espy a poster signed by Food Network gliteratti Guy Fieri who visited the Fry Bread House for a Season 38 episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. The episode aired in February, 2024. During his visit, Fieri helped create a red chile beef ultimate taco on a fry bread canvas. The recipe actually calls for New Mexico chiles (hooray!). The taco was so large that Fieri joked about inviting Paul Bunyan over to help eat it. He also observed the preparation of the restaurant’s posole which is served with a flour tortilla called a “chumuth” in the Native vernacular. Fieri praised the restaurant’s sharing of its Native culture.
Tohono O’odham people are known throughout the Southwest for their red chili (SIC) beef, large hand-stretched flour tortillas (chumuth) and frybread (popovers), amon)g their basket-making and various other skills and trades. Because the Tohono O’odham’s native lands encompass lands both south of the Mexico border and into central Arizona, traditional recipes have seen influence from our Southern neighbors in Mexico. This is why you see tortillas (chumuth), menudo, and tamales on our menu. Cecelia felt it important to stick with foods that were known to her and her culture. That is the reason she maintained these items on the menu rather than trying to incorporate native cuisine from other tribal communities and cultures.
You can take the boy out of New Mexico, but you can’t take New Mexico’s sacrosanct green chile away from the boy. Though other items in the menu appealed to me, only one item claimed to be made with Hatch green chile. That would be the Waila fry bread (two ground beef patties, onions, cheese, lettuce, tomato and Hatch chili (SIC). Essentially, this was a green chile cheeseburger made on fry bread. Alas, the green chile was a whole roasted chile with about as much bite as a bell pepper. The onions had more heat than the Hatch green chile did (maybe it came from bottomland). The fry bread was delicious–crispy and flaky as well as having some “pull” to it. Packets of mustard and ketchup came with the Waila fry bread, more indication this was a burger on fry bread.
My Kim who will no longer do “chile” or “chili” opted for a loaded cheese crisp. (chumuth, tomatoes, ground beef, cheese, sour cream). Cheese crisps are an Arizona phenomenon that hasn’t caught on in New Mexico. It’s essentially an open-faced, butter-brushed tortilla topped with sundry ingredients (cheese is essential) and broiled until crispy and golden. It’s similar to a thin, crispy quesadilla. This cheese crisp would have been significantly better had it not been for the overuse of Mexican oregano, a spice that can be rather ascerbic. Not even The Dude wanted the ground beef doused in that oregano.
The Fry Bread House understands the versatility of fry bread, offering it not only with savory ingredients but as a dessert. The dessert menu includes fry bread with honey, fry bread with powdered sugar, fry bread with honey and powdered sugar, fry bread with chocolate and butter and fry bread with cinnamon and sugar. My Kim’s sweet tooth called for the fry bread with honey and powdered sugar. Unlike New Mexico’s puffy sopaipillas, fry bread is rather on the flat side. It’s crispy where most sopaipillas are soft. For flavor, however, the honey and powdered sugar shine on the fry bread as they do on sopaipillas.
The Fry Bread House is indeed beloved in the region. It’s a popular restaurant frequented by people of all strips, but is especially beloved by Native Americans who are vastly underrepresented in the commercial culinary world.
Fry Bread House
4545 N. 7th Avenue
Phoenix, Arizona
(602) 351-2345
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LATEST VISIT: 5 January 2025
# OF VISITS: 1
RATING: N/R
COST: $$
BEST BET: Honey & Powdered Sugar Fry Bread, Loaded Cheese Crisp, Waila Fry Bread
REVIEW #1513