




A Michelin-star chef is bringing an old school Italian American steakhouse and a North Carolina-style barbecue joint to Downtown Disney.
New York City celebrity chef Joe Isidori will open Arthur & Sons Steak and Bourbon and Pearl’s Roadside BBQ on the footprint of the former Tortilla Jo’s location in the shopping district next to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure in Anaheim.
New concept art offers the first look at the interior design plans.
Arthur & Sons will offer prime cuts of beef, chops, seafood, sandwiches and salads along with a center bar serving bourbon-focused craft cocktails.
Renderings show a two-story entry atrium with a cascading crystal ball chandelier and a single-story restaurant where the two-story Tortilla Jo’s once stood.
The interior will feature rich wood tones, geometric tile floors and brick walls lined with black and white photos. Arthur & Sons will be dominated by a round, marble-top bar with spare liquor stowed on an overhead shelf.
The Pearl’s Roadside quick-service barbecue restaurant next door will serve North Carolina-style pulled pork, beef brisket, smoked turkey and smoked wings along with craft beers and moonshine cocktails.
Concept art shows a large outdoor patio and U-shaped bar facing Splitsville Luxury Lanes in Downtown Disney. Signage promises “Quality ’Que,” “Magnificent Shine” and “Sassy Sides.”
The barbecue joint will feature interior fixtures and finishes designed to evoke the nostalgia of a vintage filling station turned into a roadside restaurant.
A mural will depict a pastoral scene with rolling, golden fields, while family photos will cover the back wall of the restaurant.
Pearl’s will boast roll-up glass garage doors that will allow for an indoor/outdoor setting when weather permits.
Construction work has begun on both restaurants. Disneyland has filed for building permits with the city of Anaheim to demolish the 18,900-square-foot Tortilla Jo’s building. The permits calls for utilities to be capped and the basement-level staircase and elevator shaft to remain.
Isidori served as Donald Trump’s executive chef at Mar-a-Lago and earned a Michelin star at the president’s DJT restaurant in Las Vegas.
Isidori oversaw dining concepts for several restaurants in the Trump empire, including the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, DJT restaurant at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas and Trump’s golf courses.
Isidori operates Arthur & Sons locations in Manhattan that focus more on Italian food than steaks. The restaurant is named for Isidori’s father, Arthur, who butchered steaks and chops during the day and ran a restaurant in the evenings.
Isidori’s family has owned and operated restaurants in Manhattan, Harlem, Brooklyn and the Bronx since 1954.
Isidori is probably best known to Disney fans as the co-founder of Black Tap Craft Burgers in Downtown Disney and co-creator of Everglazed Donuts & Cold Brew in Florida’s Disney Springs.
The celebrity chef has participated in “Iron Chef America,” “Beat Bobby Flay” and various Food Network culinary competition shows.
The New York native has been cooking since he was 5 years old, when he stood on a packing crate as he prepared salads and side dishes in his family’s restaurants. He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 2000.
Arthur & Sons will mark the presence of a steakhouse at the Disneyland Resort for the first time since the pandemic closure of the parks in 2020.
Disneyland shuttered Steakhouse 55 in the Disneyland Hotel during the COVID-19 pandemic.
That restaurant aimed to take diners back to a bygone era of lavish decadence and Hollywood glamour with dirty martinis, bone-in rib-eyes and a legendary 24-layer chocolate cake.
Walt Disney Imagineering created a new Broken Spell Lounge in the former Steakhouse 55 location.