Retail Corridor: Mesa gets a Tilted Kilt

A Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery has opened on Gilbert Road, just north of Baseline Road in Mesa. One thing is for sure. The place will be fairly revealing.

Photos of scantily dressed female servers featured on Tilted Kilt's Web site show waitresses wearing what looks more like a Catholic schoolgirl's uniform than traditional Celtic regalia, with super-short plaid kilts, knee-high socks and plaid bikini tops under knotted, white belly-shirts. The bar serves food, beer, cocktails and other fare.

T.G.I. FRIDAY'S

There are no plans yet to rebuild or relocate a T.G.I. Friday's restaurant that caught fire at the northwest corner of Ray Road and 54th Street in Chandler, according to restaurant managers.

SHOPPES AT CHANDLER HEIGHTS

Pure Fitness, Francis & Sons Car Wash, TCF Bank, Tutor Time, El Paso Bar-B-Que Company and Country Kitchen are a few retailers planned for the Shoppes at Chandler Heights in Chandler.

Developers said the center is due to open in October at the northeast corner of Chandler Heights Road and Arizona Avenue.

RACK ROOM SHOES

Rack Room Shoes, a discount retailer of brand-name footwear for men and women, will open a location at Fiesta Mall in Mesa by July 24. The chain has one store in Tempe and two in Gilbert.

WINESTYLES

WineStyles - sort of a BevMo for wine drinkers - is opening a wine and accessories store at Tatum and Shea boulevards in Phoenix.

The store, which is under construction, is set to open in June or July, said Bob Simpson, the company's vice president of real estate.The company said that most of the store's wines range in price from $10 to $25 per bottle.

WEST ELM COMING

Scottsdale Quarter, which already landed Arizona’s first version of low-priced global fashion retailer H&M, just snagged another first in the state.

West Elm, the contemporary furniture arm of Williams-Sonoma, plans to open a store in the north Scottsdale shopping center in spring 2009.

Scottsdale Quarter is the 365,000-square-foot upscale shopping center under construction at Hayden-Greenway Loop and Scottsdale Road, across the street from the slightly smaller Kierland Commons.

West Elm, which has about 30 stores nationwide, sells contemporary furniture and accessories.

ANOTHER FIRST

Papaya, a trendy, upscale women’s clothing store aimed at the 16- to 25-year-old crowd, is pegged to open in the space recently vacated by the Hobby Bench at Paradise Valley Mall.

Papaya plans to open the store in late June. It will be a first-in-the-market catch for the mall.

Another new and interesting feature at the shopping center is the State Farm floor ads that recently appeared in red circles outside Gymboree and Gap Kids stores.

The mall has ads stuck on the ceiling arches and the side of the parking garage and on free-standing marquees throughout the center, so you can’t look forward or skyward without getting a pitch.

Now you even get one when you stop to tie your shoes.

COMING BACK

Longtime north Scottsdale eatery Café Ted will be reopening a larger location in late August at 18835 N. Thompson Peak Parkway.

That’s in Canyon Village, a new mixed-use development of luxury offices, boutiques and restaurants at DC Ranch, Union Hills Drive and Thompson Peak Parkway.

“At our larger DC Ranch location, we can deliver the service, breadth of menu and experience I have always envisioned for Café Ted,” said owner Nina Dorman. “We’ll offer more of everything that our customers have always loved us for.”

The original Café Ted at Pinnacle Peak and Pima Road closed about a year ago.

The new menu, which Dorman labels primarily comfort food, will be available for restaurant dining or takeout and will include old favorites such as French toast made from croissants, a signature Parmesan chicken dish and Café Ted’s original osso buco.