Summer in Paradise Valley: New Resorts, Cellar Dinners, and What's Opening Around Camelback

Two resorts within a mile of each other are opening or reopening this year, both anchored on Camelback views, both actively courting locals rather than only travelers. That is not the usual Paradise Valley summer story. For years the neighborhood's June-through-September rhythm has been "wait it out." The rhythm this year is different, and if you already live here, the practical consequence is that your options for a Tuesday dinner, a Sunday morning round, or a Saturday chef event have quietly multiplied while everyone else is out of town.

Here is what changed, and how to use it.

The Palmeraie Finally Has a Timeline

The long-anticipated Ritz-Carlton at The Palmeraie is set to open in Spring 2026, with 215 guest rooms, a 400-foot pool that its developer describes as the longest resort pool in North America, and a spa positioned around desert-inspired treatments, per an April 2025 project update. The 18-acre resort sits inside a broader 122-acre master-planned community that Five Star Development has been building out since a 2007 proposal that stalled through the Great Recession, as AZ Big Media reported.

The reason to care as a resident is dining. The Palmeraie is being programmed with more than 15 restaurants across farm-to-table, pop-up, and open-air terrace concepts, per The Palmeraie's own project page. The first named anchor is Mott 32, the Hong Kong-born Cantonese restaurant that is opening its first Arizona location and only its second in the United States at the resort. Scottsdale.com's April 2026 announcement describes a menu built around a 42-day apple wood roasted Peking duck carved tableside, barbecue pluma Iberico pork glazed with yellow mountain honey, and an extensive dim sum program that includes a signature soft quail egg tucked inside an Iberico pork siu mai with black truffle.

Two things to notice. First, that level of specificity is not what typically arrives in Paradise Valley restaurant announcements, which lean on "elevated American" descriptors. Second, Mott 32 is the first of at least three named restaurants at the Ritz alone, before the wider Palmeraie retail phase adds its own tenants. The dining map is being redrawn on a single corner.

Kimpton Miralina, and Why 40 Acres Matters on a Tuesday

A mile away, the former Scottsdale Plaza Resort completed its transformation into Kimpton Miralina Resort & Villas Paradise Valley in January, according to BizBash's spring 2026 venues roundup. The property sits on 40 acres and includes 224 guest rooms, 36 casitas, a full-service spa, six pools, and a signature on-site restaurant, with villas and residences scheduled to open by the end of 2026.

That footprint matters. Forty acres is closer in scale to a small resort neighborhood than to a single hotel, which is why the property is programming six distinct pool experiences and a 50,000-square-foot events envelope rather than one grand ballroom. For residents, the practical read is that Miralina will function as walk-in territory. When a big property is designed to keep 224 rooms of guests entertained without leaving, the spillover is a mid-week bar seat, a spa opening, a pool day pass, or a quiet lobby lounge that is actually available.

Mountain Shadows Built Its Summer Around Locals

If The Palmeraie and Miralina are the openings, Mountain Shadows is the one that is already tuned for Arizona residents. The resort's summer pricing, running June 1 through September 30, waives the resort fee and starts weekday rates at $159 and weekend nights at $199, Fabulous Arizona reported in May 2026. Booking is no-deposit with a seven-day cancellation window, which is unusually flexible for a Paradise Valley property.

The golf side is more interesting. The Short Course is an 18-hole par-3 layout, and the resort's Summer Golf Pass is priced at $399 plus tax, which drops the effective round to $10 per day. The pass runs May 26 through September 20, 2026, allows up to 36 holes a day, and opens tee times anytime Monday through Thursday and after 10 a.m. Friday through Sunday.

The math to run against that pass is straightforward. If you would otherwise play the Short Course six or more times between late May and mid-September, the pass is already paying for itself before dinner at Hearth '61, the resort's on-site restaurant, which anchors the property's food program around seasonal ingredients.

The Hermosa's Cellar and the Rest of the Summer Chef Calendar

The Hermosa Inn, tucked into the residential section of Paradise Valley off McDonald, runs a summer-long chef's tasting menu called "Cool Dining in the Cellar" in its subterranean wine cellar, alongside wine-maker dinners and concert-dinner nights, per the Hermosa's events page. Lon's at The Hermosa, the property's flagship, still runs seven-day dinner service from 5 to 10 p.m. and weekend brunch from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., with a Trust the Chef four-course bespoke option where no two guests at the table receive the same courses, according to its OpenTable menu.

Beyond the neighborhood proper, two chef events belong on a resident's summer calendar. Chef Cory Oppold is running a one-day Father's Day prix fixe at COURSE on Sunday, June 21 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., starting at $150, with a seven-course menu that includes a haute loaded baked potato, cured tuna with cantaloupe Bavarian, and Oppold's lobster corndog with Thai red curry and coconut, Phoenix magazine reported in June 2026.

Uchi Scottsdale is running a monthly collaborative dinner series through September 8, one evening per month from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., where chef de cuisine Blake Luecke cooks alongside guest chefs from Latha, INDIBAR, Pa'La, and Chula Seafood. Tickets are $175 per person plus tax and gratuity.

If you have not booked a chef dinner in Paradise Valley recently because you assumed summer was the dead zone, that assumption is out of date.

A Planning Cheat Sheet for the Next Ninety Days

• Now through Sept 20, 2026: Mountain Shadows Summer Golf Pass window. Best value if you can play weekdays or late tee times.
• Now through Sept 30, 2026: Mountain Shadows resort fee waived on room stays.
• Through Sept 8, 2026: Uchi Scottsdale monthly chef collaborations, one Tuesday per month.
• All summer: Hermosa Inn "Cool Dining in the Cellar" tasting menu, plus Lon's four-course Trust the Chef.
• Spring 2026 opening watch: The Ritz-Carlton, Paradise Valley at The Palmeraie, with Mott 32 as the first named restaurant.
• Open since January 2026: Kimpton Miralina Resort & Villas Paradise Valley, on the former Scottsdale Plaza site.

What This Means If You Live Here

The reason to notice all of this at once, rather than as five separate press releases, is that the neighborhood's evening footprint is expanding faster than the residential inventory is turning over. That is unusual. Paradise Valley is famously slow to add anything, whether that is homes, hotels, or restaurants. When it does add, the additions tend to arrive in clusters after long dormancies, and this is one of those cluster years.

For homeowners who have been here through the Palmeraie's twenty-year gestation, the practical outcome is that a corner of the neighborhood most residents drove past for a decade is now the address that determines where friends want to meet for dinner. For newer arrivals, it is worth building a personal shortlist while the resorts are still in their opening season and reservations are easier to secure than they will be next winter.

If you are considering a move within Paradise Valley, buying a second home here, or preparing to list one, the changes at Camelback's base are the kind of neighborhood detail that shifts how buyers describe the area to themselves. Understanding that shift before it shows up in comps is where local advice earns its keep. Annie Cole has spent 26 years watching Paradise Valley's map redraw itself in exactly these kinds of increments. Let's Connect when you are ready to talk about what any of it means for your home.