Gainey Ranch's Fairways Come Back Nine by Nine, and the Neighborhood Has New Ways to Fill the Wait
The Gainey Ranch Golf Club greens do not all come back at once this fall. The Arizona Golf Association's 2026 overseeding schedule shows the Dunes and Lakes nines closing October 5 and reopening November 3. The Arroyo Nine started a week later, on October 12, and reopens November 10. So as this week ends, all three nines are still closed. On Tuesday, November 3, two of them open, and the last one follows a week after that.
The neighborhood has dealt with that gap every autumn. What has changed is just outside the gates. Along Doubletree Ranch Road and Scottsdale Road, the resort and the shopping center that border Gainey Ranch each added something in 2026 that wasn't there last overseed season. That includes a new weekend brunch, a New Mexican restaurant back from closure, and the first Arizona location of a California lunch chain. Taken together, the closed weeks fill up nearby.
The stagger sets the shape of the next few weeks, so here it is in order with the nearby dated events added:
Halloween is the last full weekend before any fairway reopens. The Thanksgiving price change comes just before the first one does.
Grand Hyatt Scottsdale Resort is the former Hyatt Regency at Gainey Ranch. Hyatt announced in November 2024 that the property had become a Grand Hyatt after a $115 million renovation. As part of that work, Chef Richard Blais created four new restaurant and bar concepts plus two poolside venues. So the change itself is two years old. What's new this month is a different hour of the day.
On its homepage, the resort describes an "all-new weekend brunch starting October 2026" at La Zozzona. The resort's dining page lists brunch Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Until now, La Zozzona was a dinner room. The menu was built around handmade pastas and charcoal-grilled steaks, and Phoenix New Times described it at opening as a pasta and steakhouse hybrid with a tableside porterhouse. In the same coverage, Blais described the concept in his own words:
"Itali-zona," a "spaghetti western," with mesquite flour, local dates and nopales tying the Italian-American menu to Arizona.
The timing works for a neighborhood without fairways. Brunch began in October, the same month the closure began. Its four-hour window covers the late-morning stretch a weekend round would normally take.
The resort's dinner service shifts across the week, and the current hours on Hyatt's dining page are narrower than the schedules PHOENIX magazine listed for both Blais rooms in its July 2025 review. These are the current listings:
| Venue | What it serves | Current listed hours |
|---|---|---|
| Mesa Centrale | Southwestern American grill, buffet, wood-fired pizza | Breakfast and lunch daily; dinner Sunday through Wednesday, 5 to 9 p.m. |
| La Zozzona | Italian-American with Southwestern ingredients | Dinner Tuesday through Saturday; brunch Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. |
| Tiki Taka | Japanese sushi and Spanish tapas with Southwest flavors | Dinner Thursday through Saturday |
| Grand Vista Lounge | Craft cocktails, whiskey, small plates | Afternoon into late evening daily; happy hour 3 to 5 p.m. |
Monday is the thin night. Mesa Centrale is the only listed dinner room open then. Thursday through Saturday, both Blais dinner rooms are open plus the lounge. The resort's FAQ notes that parking validation is available for diners. These are live operating hours, so they are worth confirming before a specific evening.
Spa Avania keeps its own weekly pattern. It is open every day except Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. The resort's FAQ says the spa is open to locals as well as guests, and Arizona residents can get treatment and salon discounts with proof of residency. From October 1 through December 31, 2026, anyone who buys a gift card of $300 or more in person also gets a complimentary day pass. The resort notes the offer is subject to change.
At The Shops Gainey Village, the bigger 2026 change is a restaurant coming back. Frank & Lupe's served New Mexican food at 4121 N. Marshall Way in Old Town from 1995 until a quiet closure that Phoenix New Times reported in September 2025. In March 2026, AZ Big Media reported the restaurant's new home at Gainey Ranch, under owner Piero Aviles. By late May it was soft-opening at 8787 N. Scottsdale Road, Suite 214, according to Phoenix New Times, with a grand opening that Friday. PHOENIX magazine noted that the new owner is keeping the Bernal family's recipes.
That makes this Frank & Lupe's first fall at Gainey Village. A restaurant that spent three decades in Old Town is now a short drive from the Gainey Ranch gates.
A few doors along, Mendocino Farms opened its first Arizona location in February, near Scottsdale and Doubletree Ranch roads, as Phoenix New Times reported. The company lists the store at 8777 N. Scottsdale Road. So Gainey Village goes into this overseed season with a long-running local name and a chain new to the state, neither of which was there a year ago.
For one week in November, two of the three nines are open and the Arroyo is not. The things around the fairways stay on their usual weekly pattern that week. On the Tuesday and Wednesday after the Dunes and Lakes reopen, the resort's dining page lists La Zozzona and Mesa Centrale both open for dinner. The spa is closed Wednesday. The weekend of November 7 and 8 is the last La Zozzona brunch weekend before every nine is back.
After November 10, the resort's fall and winter page shifts to the holidays. It describes seasonal programming, firepit s'mores kits overlooking the golf course lake and the McDowell Mountains, and family activities. It also says New Year's Eve 2026 reservations will be announced later this fall. Gainey Village's events calendar currently lists nothing for November or December. For now, Halloween and Thanksgiving at the resort are the two dated anchors on either side of the reopening.
For Gainey Ranch owners deciding when a season starts, whether it's a listing date or a return from a summer residence, the November 3 and November 10 reopenings are useful dates to have. For a quiet conversation about timing in this market, Bob Martz and The Martz Group are available. Request a Private Market Consultation.
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