First look: Udi's Cafe, Pizza and Bar opens in Glendale's City Set Project

Lori Midson | July 3, 2013 | 5:00pm

It's rocketing restaurants in Glendale. Two weeks ago, Dave Query opened his fourth Jax Fish House, which unveils its rooftop patio tomorrow night, and this week, three more restaurants opened in the Glendale City Set Project: Big Smoke Burger, Cuba Cuba Sandwicheria, and today, Udi's Cafe, Pizza and Bar, a "hybrid," says Udi's district manager Kirk Bliss, of fast-casual and full-service dining.

"If this works," he adds, "This is the restaurant that we'll multiply in the future -- a full-service dining experience in a luxurious fast-casual atmosphere."

The 175-seat space, which includes a patio, features three separate areas: a large ordering counter that doubles as a fresh pastry stage, a centerpiece marble-surfaced bar trumpeting two flat-screen TVS and Art-Deco flooring, and a dining room strewn with wooden tables and sepia-hued leather booths. "We're focusing all on meal periods -- breakfast, lunch and dinner -- and this space really gives us the ability to do all three services well, plus we also have a coffee bar and a juice and smoothie bar," notes Bliss.

The kitchen, helmed by Denis Hynds, who was most recently at Three Tomatoes Steakhouse & Club, the in-house restaurant at Fossil Trace golf course, will serve continuously throughout the day -- and late into the night Thursday through Saturday, offering a limited happy hour menu until midnight. And that abbreviated menu will also be available between 2 and 6 p.m. daily.

Within the next several months, City Set will welcome two more restaurants: Native Food Cafe, a vegan restaurant based in Boulder, and The Kitchen [Next Door], which also began in Boulder. "I see this as becoming like Larimer Square, insomuch that it's just a great restaurant destination where you can park your car in one spot and take your pick from just about every kind of food imaginable," says Bliss.

Here's a first glimpse of the space and a few of the dishes -- some of which are only served at this Udi's -- that the kitchen is pumping out.