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“It’s all about the passion project.”
With a mantra/philosophy of “fresh and seasonal”, Harvest Restaurant offers a rich dining experience that has made it a local favorite for many years.
Director of Operations David Lazarus was kind enough to sit down and share with us some of the magic that is cooked into the Harvest experience every day.
The phrase “house-made” appears often throughout the seasonally-inspired menu. Indeed, Harvest creates all of its culinary delights from scratch, which David refers to as a “back to basics” approach.
Dressings and sauces are hand-made in-house. The chef smokes their own salmon. They braise their own short ribs for eight hours. There are no shortcuts.
“We also do our best to accommodate for allergies, and we offer house-made gluten-free bread and other options.”
While many restaurants use national restaurant food distributors such as Sysco
Harvest goes to smaller distribution companies for its grass-fed beef and wild-caught fish. They do not use the huge food distribution companies (such as Sysco Foods) like many restaurants.
David admits that “we have to spend a little bit more” for these specialty food providers, but it pays off in the quality of the food.
“We really focus on being efficient, and being able to prepare the same dish consistently. We want to ensure that our diners aren’t waiting 30-40 minutes for their meal.”
One of the things that is telling about Harvest’s commitment to fresh, high-end food is that they do not partner with delivery services like UberEats or DoorDash.
“Though we’ve tossed the idea back-and-forth, our concern is the quality of food the longer it travels.”
Harvest could easily increase its sales if it used one of these delivery services. But they refuse to risk the high-quality standard of their food — even if it were only to cool down a bit en route to someone’s home.
This shows that cooking up great food is not just a business for Harvest – it’s a labor of love.
Since 2011, Harvest has been family operated under Reza Shapouri, a long-time restaurateur. Reza’s wife Lisa has extensive experience as a pastry chef.
“Lisa creates all of the ideas for our desserts. We make them all in-house. She takes a big role in helping create those recipes. It’s all about the passion project.”
Harvest churns their ice cream in-house, and strives to rotate in new flavors on a regular basis. In addition to staples like chocolate, espresso flavor, and sorbets, they also shoot for “very experimental” flavors, such as using candy pecans to create a sort of praline/pecan blend flavor.
“Some diners go straight to dessert first.”
While it is possible to reserve the patio and/or dining room (e.g., for wedding rehearsals or business gatherings), “we do everything we can to keep tables available for our regular customers.
“We have a fantastic, loyal customer base. We have guests that we know are going to come in every week at a certain time.” A second Harvest Restaurant was formerly located on Craycroft in Tucson, and many loyal patrons from that historical location come to dine regularly at the Oro Valley location.
Diners are also asked to help the restaurant continually improve its fare.
“Whether it’s the 1st or 100th time, it’s important to have feedback. We love to include our customers in improving. We share ideas and listen, so that every customer can be heard.”
At the end of the day, what Harvest represents is a very local dining experience.
“I think that the reason that OV has a smaller number of chain restaurants is because it’s a very tight community. Everyone likes to support the local businesses.
“Around Covid, there was an influx of chains and fast food. But I think that local, family-owned, and independents are coming back in force.”
Harvest is part of a family of three local restaurants that also includes Charred Pie and Zona 78. Both Harvest and Charred Pie are on Yelp’s “Top 10 Restaurants in Oro Valley” (Harvest ranks #2).
While each of the three restaurants in the Harvest family have their own chefs, all three restaurants are also headed by Executive Chef Daniel Shapouri. This management structure helps all three restaurants share a consistently high level of quality that David sets in place.
When asked if Harvest has competition, David replies “we like to stay in our own lane.” He notes that all of the independents in OV support one another.
Anyone who has worked in the restaurant business know that it’s hard work. You have to move at a fast pace and constantly be on your toes – especially when a large group comes in, or you have diners waiting for a table.
David has a lot on his plate: he oversees the culinary division of all three restaurants in addition to the front-of-house (bar and dining room) service. But he is also involved in hiring, marketing, purchasing, planning, and just about everything else.
But David doesn’t see it that way.
“It’s a rewarding industry. Watching the guests leave happy, and seeing them come back multiple times – that’s what makes the hard part worth it. We aim to keep the customers leaving happy through the plates, the customer service and the atmosphere. This is vital to us.”
It’s been two decades since David started as a dishwasher at age 15. “I’ve pretty much done every role within the restaurant, from dishwashing up to general management.”
But he also gained experience previously working as a sales consultant for the largest distributor of adult beverages, where he spent 10 years to be exact.
“I got to see right and wrong for 10 years. I gained a substantial amount of experience in the hospitality industry by building relationships with other owners and managers and having the ability to bounce ideas and opinions off of them.”
Seeing how different operations work helped him with things like pricing menu items, or cocktail flavor palates. Most importantly, he has been able to share his accumulated knowledge with his staff.
“Gaining that experience and sharing the wisdom with others allowed me to grow within the industry and come back to the restaurant to help elevate the guest experience.”
All three restaurants have regular staff meetings – some of which are educational.
“We utilize relationships with distributors to do staff trainings.” This includes workshops such as “Wine 101”.
The managers of all three restaurants try to include all of the staff in a meeting at least once every 4-6 weeks to share this information throughout the organization. The managers also have state-of-business meetings on a regular basis.
“Right now, a big focus for us as a restaurant group is community outreach – we want to become more active in the community.” This includes participating in farmer’s markets and OV Fest, and hosting events.
Despite all of the shared knowledge, David says that they are always shooting for improvement. They’ve recently created a new wine, cocktail and food menu, and are trying to include more local beer selections. But even bigger is the newest menu.
“Our new menu rollout allows introduce something different, something that’s not already found somewhere else.”
Some highlights include:
House Made Seven Onion Soup
Yes, there are really seven onions in this hot bowl of deliciousness: Leeks, garlic, shallots; yellow, red, sweet, and yellow onions.
Hemp & Chia Crusted Seared Ahi Tuna Salad
“The hemp has a unique crunch to it. It really forms a great outside layer of the ahi. And it goes really well with the dressing.”
Airline Chicken
A unique cut of chicken breast which consists of a boneless skin-on chicken breast that has the drumette attached. It was developed for first class airline passengers so that they could eat the chicken breast without utensils by holding the drumette.
Portobello Mushroom Tacos
This is the top meatless option, and a collaborative invention of the Harvest chef and the Executive Chef of all three restaurants.
Duroc Tomahawk
This unique bone-in tomahawk is Duroc pork, which is prized for its tenderness, marbling, juiciness, and flavor.
Hungry yet? Here’s all you need to know.
Hours and Information:
Sunday – Thursday 11:00AM – 8:00PM
Friday – Saturday 11:00AM – 9:00M
3-6pm daily Happy Hour
Daily food specials throughout the week
Sunday Brunch
10355 N. La Cañada Dr.
520-731-1100
dine@harvestov.com
By Tom Ekman, J.D., M.Ed
