James Beard Award-winning chef Nobuo Fukuda may have broken Phoenix foodies’ hearts when he closed his Scottsdale restaurant Sea Saw last year, but there’s good news: he’s ready to win them all back.

The chef’s latest project, called Nobuo at Teeter House, opens today, but for lunch only. Fukuda plans to do dinner openings toward the end of the month, with full lunch and dinner service beginning in August. The Nobuo at Teeter House location is one gastronomes will already be familiar with – Heritage Square, home to other favorite local dining hotspot, Pizzeria Bianco. Currently, there are approximately 30 seats at Nobuo at Teeter House, making for quite an exclusive place to nosh, but the planned addition of a patio (to hopefully be completed by end of year) will roughly double the restaurant’s available seating.

Rumor has it Fukuda’s new restaurant will be in the casual, izakaya style, and serve fare at a lower price point than at Sea Saw. But knowing the chef’s attention to detail and demand for perfection, he won’t be sacrificing anything as far as quality is concerned. As is to be expected, the kitchen will be testing guests’ palates and adding and rotating new dishes for the first few weeks to see what works, but some of the plates Fukuda plans to initially serve include a tonkatsu (pork cutlet) sandwich, duck breast salad, coconut-curry grilled lamb and a pork belly bun.

In addition to lunch and dinner, the establishment also hopes to eventually begin serving an afternoon tea, as well as Fukuda’s fabulous omakase (chef’s choice) menus, which were so well-received at Sea Saw.

Nobuo at Teeter House is located at 622 E. Adams Street in Phoenix

Pictured above: Teeter House prior to the Nobuo at Teeter House renovations.