Locating The Ends in Old Town Scottsdale isn’t as simple as plugging an address into Google Maps. While the restaurant appears as a pin, there’s no flashy sign pointing the way. Instead, guests wander toward an unmarked hostess stand, often looking uncertain, before stepping inside to a warmly modern dining room alive with some of the best aromas in town.
The Ends is the culmination of Tommy Plato’s winding journey. In his twenties, he opened six gelato shops across Arizona. Later, he launched the Second Story Liquor Bar and dove into bourbon culture—before realizing sobriety was his true path. In 2024, he opened The Ends, a restaurant that blends his passion for food, wellness, and meaningful connections.
The menu is eclectic and globally inspired, ranging from a raw bar and bone-in tomahawk to Tommy’s signature biscuits. Drinks playfully carry names like Impeccable Arm Candy—Plato has been known to name cocktails after ex-girlfriends—while the mocktail list features creations such as The Smartest Cocktail in the Room.
Through his own experiences, Plato identified three things that mattered most: a fulfilling life, good friends, and traveling to the ends of the earth in search of growth and connection. He translated that philosophy into an acronym for his new restaurant: Energy Never Dies.
At The Ends, this philosophy shapes not just the menu but also the workplace. Unlike the grueling schedules common in the service industry, Plato’s employees work four-day weeks. The restaurant closes by 11 p.m. nightly, and every eight weeks, staff receive an extra day off to spend time with loved ones, travel, or pursue fulfillment. Over the past year, team members have journeyed to Vietnam, Italy, and Hawaii, sharing photos and food inspiration in a staff WhatsApp group. Plato believes those ideas will eventually find their way onto the menu.
His own travels have already influenced the restaurant’s foundation. In Italy, he embraced respect for quality products and traditional techniques. Costa Rica helped him reconnect with his soul; Mexico City fed his love of food, art, and design; and Baja’s Valle de Guadalupe sparked inspiration with its elevated cuisine. “I realized that if I’m going to give back to the community, I needed to be a whole person myself,” he reflects, noting that his sobriety has been central to that goal.
Plato also insists that mindset matters in the kitchen. “I have fired so many grumpy chefs because I think the energy goes into the food,” he says. Many of his team share his sober and health-conscious outlook. From day one, The Ends was committed to being seed-oil-free, becoming the first verified seed-oil-free restaurant in Arizona. The atmosphere, warm and welcoming, seems to attract like-minded seekers.
His outlook is also shaped by admiration for Anthony Bourdain, who traveled widely to explore the intersection of food, culture, and human connection. What resonated with Plato was not just Bourdain’s global perspective but his honesty about personal struggles. “He was a tortured soul in a lot of ways, and would write about that and share that openly. And I think it gave him a realness,” Plato says.
As The Ends celebrates its first year, Plato is already thinking about how to expand its reach—not through franchising, but by sharing signature creations with a wider audience. He hopes to bring his biscuits to market and is pursuing trademarks to launch seed-oil-free consumer products.
At the heart of it all is his philosophy of following the energy. “If you wake up in the morning and you’re stoked to make the dessert, then you should be making the dessert,” he says. Today, that means returning to his gelato roots in the kitchen, while continuing to collect inspiration from conversations and restaurants around the globe. For Plato, the journey to the ends of the earth is far from over.