Desert Canyon Center Is Trading Its Morning Café for a Wine Bar While Thompson 105 Adds Brunch

The small center at McDowell Mountain Ranch Road and 105th Street is shifting its hours in two directions. Suite 100 used to be Café Au Plait, a coffee shop with a children's play area. It is being rebuilt as Turquoise Wine Bar North Scottsdale, which is planning live music on Saturday nights. Next door, Thompson 105 built its reputation on dinner and a patio at sunset. It now advertises Sunday brunch starting at 10 a.m.

Taken together, the two changes rearrange the corner. The space that used to fill up in the morning will be busiest at night, and the restaurant that used to open in the afternoon now has a Sunday morning service.

A Suite Built Around the Morning

Café Au Plait had a specific job in Desert Canyon Center. Phoenix With Kids described it in June 2020 as a coffee shop with a children's play area, reopening under new owners after an earlier version closed that year. As of July 2024, Raising Arizona Kids still listed it at Suite 100 among Valley coffee shops with play areas.

A business like that is busiest in the morning and early afternoon, when parents want coffee and young kids need somewhere to play. By September 2026, Forking Scottsdale was calling Suite 100 "the former Café Au Plait space near Thompson 105." The suite's next tenant is a very different business.

What Turquoise Is Putting in Suite 100

Turquoise Wine Bar North Scottsdale is under construction at 10405 E. McDowell Mountain Ranch Road, Suite 100. The owner and operator is Ariel Sheely. The brand's owner page says she brought the concept to North Scottsdale after a career in law enforcement.

According to Forking Scottsdale's September 17 report, the space will be four things at once:

• A neighborhood wine bar pouring wines by the glass
• A tasting room built around flights
• A bottle shop
• A bistro serving shareable food designed to go with wine

The same report says the plans include live music, food-and-wine pairings, community events and a dog-friendly patio facing the McDowell Mountains. The site editor summed up the concept this way:

"This feels less like another giant Scottsdale concept and more like the kind of neighborhood place where they're hoping people become regulars."

The bottle shop also changes how the suite gets used. Café Au Plait was a place you sat in. Turquoise will sell bottles to take home as well as pour by the glass, so people can stop in on the way home from 105th Street without staying for a drink.

The Brand Behind the Name

Turquoise started on the west side of the Valley. Phoenix New Times reported that founders Jen Sinconis and Laura Hernandez opened the original Glendale bar in 2022, and that the Roosevelt Row location in downtown Phoenix was the brand's first franchise, opening July 31, 2025. The Turquoise website now lists Arizona locations in Glendale, On 67th, Roosevelt, Surprise, Catalina Foothills and North Scottsdale, plus Round Rock, Cypress and The Woodlands in Texas.

That matters most for the wine club. The club page lists memberships from $29 a month, with one-, two- and four-bottle tiers, sommelier-selected wines, discounts and monthly tastings. Members choose a home location for pickups and events. Once the North Scottsdale bar opens, McDowell Mountain Ranch residents can choose 105th Street as their pickup spot instead of a location across the Valley.

Turquoise Has an Opening Target but No Date Yet

As of this Thursday, the opening is still a target. Sheely told Forking Scottsdale she was aiming for late October or early November 2026. The October 8 edition repeated that window and said the site was still waiting on an official date. The North Scottsdale location page still tells visitors to follow the bar on social media for grand-opening news.

The location's events calendar already runs through the end of December, which shows what kind of business the suite is about to become. Every listed show is on a Saturday:

The page lists these dates without a year. The days of the week line up with 2026. A booking calendar like this does not confirm an opening date. It does show the plan for the suite: weekend nights with live music on a patio facing the mountains.

Thompson 105 Is Moving the Other Way

Next door, Thompson 105 is stretching toward the hours the café used to cover. The restaurant opened in early 2022 in the former Twisted Lizard space. Mouth by Southwest reported the launch on February 24 of that year. Its About page describes an Italian-influenced wood-fired grill and rotisserie that uses local produce, meat and seafood, with a large patio and mountain views. In November 2025, Arizona PBS included it in a Check, Please! Arizona feature on restaurants with great views. What Now Phoenix identified Ric Gordon as the operating partner ahead of the opening.

For most of its run, Thompson 105 has been an afternoon-and-evening restaurant. Its OpenTable listing shows a 3 p.m. opening every day, closing at 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, with weekday happy hour from 3 to 6. In early October, the restaurant's homepage began promoting a new Sunday brunch starting at 10 a.m. It also announced that Burger Tuesdays are back. Sunday brunch moves the restaurant's Sunday start five hours earlier and puts it in the late-morning slot the café used to hold. Because restaurant hours change often, the restaurant's own site is the best place to confirm brunch times before you go.

How the Corner's Day Reads Now

Here is how the two suites compare across the day, based on what each business has published:

The center keeps two restaurants side by side, but the hours have moved. People looking for a weekend morning out on 105th Street will now find it at Thompson 105's brunch. Saturday nights, Turquoise is planning a second patio with live music next to a grill that already serves dinner until 9.

Dates to Hold on 105th Street

For the rest of 2026, these are the dates on the corner's public calendar:

1. Late October or early November. This is Turquoise's target opening window. The official date will come through the bar's social accounts and its North Scottsdale page.
2. Every Sunday from 10 a.m. Brunch at Thompson 105.
3. Every Tuesday. Burger night at Thompson 105.
4. Saturday, November 14. Guillaume Jefferson is the first show on Turquoise's North Scottsdale calendar.

If you want something closer to the old café's family afternoons, the City of Scottsdale's Dunkin' for Pumpkins runs Sunday, October 25, at McDowell Mountain Ranch Park & Aquatic Center. Sessions run 1 to 3 p.m. and 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., and pumpkins cost $15 each.

New tenants affect how a homeowner describes the neighborhood around their house, and Brent tracks openings like these alongside the numbers. If you live near McDowell Mountain Ranch Road and want to know how changes at Desert Canyon Center could come up when you sell, reach out to Brent Votroubek. Let's Connect.