Discover Dellepiane with Chef Tomás Agostino

Restaurant: Dellepiane – Sedona, Arizona

Niman Ranch Products Used: Beef and pork

When you pull into Dellepiane’s parking lot in the Village of Oak Creek near Sedona, the first thing you’ll notice is a large custom-built smoker. Chef Tomás Agostino uses it for smoking Texas-style brisket and pork. But walk up the steps to the front patio, and you’ll see the restaurant’s centerpiece—a giant Argentine wood-fired asador for cooking just about everything from fruits and vegetables to slabs of ribs and tomahawk steaks. Large grates sit above a fire pit, and an apparatus (a “birdcage”) with hanging hooks crowns the whole thing. Agostino, who grew up in Buenos Aires, says the traditional flavor of food cooked on the asador is still smoky, but not as intensely so as Texas barbecue. 

While Dellepiane is mostly known for its award-winning burgers and empanadas, inside the door is a fresh meat case featuring Niman Ranch pork and beef, and in the back corner reside two dry-aging refrigerators filled with slabs of Niman beef. If you want to take home a steak or chop to cook for dinner after enjoying your lunchtime burger, that’s entirely doable. 

Agostino is also expanding the scope of the restaurant. He’s combining what he’s learned about fresh, wholesome ingredients and the importance of beef in a menu to add Niman Ranch steaks, both fresh and dry-aged, to the large menu of creative burgers, empanadas, and other dishes. “I want to have an Argentinian grill with great steaks, with the great food that’s coming from my country, mixed up with a little bit of American as well. A little fusion, so everyone can enjoy,” he said. 

When he first opened in Sedona, he used Angus beef from his food supplier, and it was fine, but he wanted more. After doing some research and seeing Niman Ranch products both in the grocery store and on other restaurant menus, he asked for an introduction to the distributor. He started with brisket and chuck roll for making the burgers and was so impressed with the quality he moved on to other products, as well. His customers are pleased. Agostino said he appreciates Niman Ranch. “When you work in something food related, the quality and freshness are the first things you want to know. And their customer service is really good, too.” 

Cooking wasn’t Agostino’s first choice for a career. Growing up in Buenos Aires, no one in his family was in the restaurant business, but his Italian immigrant grandparents taught him to appreciate good food. “I had really good grandparents from Italy that cooked from scratch, everything organic, everything farm to table,” he said. “I would say I learned pretty much everything I know from them.” 

His other big childhood influence was grilled beef. “It’s not a thing being vegetarian or vegan in Argentina,” he laughed. “If you’re from Argentina and you say you’re vegetarian, they’ll probably say, ‘but chicken is okay, right?’” 

Agostino attended a hospitality management school in Argentina, but then wanderlust took hold. He moved to Brazil and then Europe, where he spent six years in Spain learning about Spanish culture and gastronomy. He worked front of the house jobs in the restaurant business, bartending or serving as a barista.  

After returning to Buenos Aires, Agostino opened his own small breakfast and lunch cafe. He hired a highly recommended chef to run the kitchen, but it didn’t work out. Customers didn’t like the food, and business was poor. One day he made a decision. “I said you know what? I’m gonna jump in the kitchen. You are fired. It was 2014 when I first moved into the back of the house, but I had actually never worked in a professional kitchen before.” 

He took all the knowledge gleaned from his grandparents and his culinary travel experiences and turned things around. Customers came back, and he soon sold the café to open a bigger burger restaurant. That place became the first version of Dellepiane.  

“I was into building a good quality burger with a homemade bun, and my goal was to be in the top five of the entire city. And we reached that,” Agostino said. Dellepiane became known as a hot spot in Buenos Aires, with visits from celebrities, including the U.S. Ambassador; national TV coverage; and even an article in Rolling Stone.  

And the name? The space was located in what he calls a sketchy little alley off a street named for Luis Dellepiane, a famous Argentine war hero. “I decided to name it after the street so people could find it. But we turned that sketchy alleyway into a really fun place where all young people were sitting outside waiting for the chance to go in or even eating outside on the street, enjoying a craft burger and a beer. It was always full of people,” he said. “So in some way, I helped the community turn the alleyway into something nice and touristy.” 

He opened a second spot in Buenos Aires, and both restaurants flourished until the one-two punch of a bad Argentine economy and a global pandemic made it impossible to continue. Agostino made the sad decision to close both popular locations. 

But he and his wife had moved to Scottsdale in 2017, and a chance encounter at a burger cookoff introduced him to Chef Lisa Dahl, one of Sedona’s most successful restaurateurs. She was hiring a manager for Mariposa, her Latin-themed restaurant, so Agostino applied and got the job. Eventually though, he felt the need to strike out on his own, and the Arizona version of Dellepiane came into being.  

Dellepiane’s location had been home to several other restaurants over the years, but none of them lasted. Agostino attributes his success to the fact that he and his staff deliver high-quality, healthy food. “I think we’re doing it the right way, and slowly people are understanding that our kitchen is healthier,” he said. “You can have a good fresh fish to an amazing Peruvian style roasted chicken. And everything that goes through the grill is grass fed. We really care about that. The buns are no GMO. The veggies are no GMO. We try to do it the best way and people are happy with that.”