Oregano’s Pizza Bistro is planning a new location at 3506 South Signal Butte Road in Mesa — inside the Elliot Tech Center development at the northwest corner of Signal Butte and Elliot roads. The applicant, Oregano’s AZ LLC, filed for a Series 12 Restaurant License, and Mesa City Council is scheduled to vote on the application at a public hearing on August 31, 2026.
If you live in 85212 or 85209, your corner is about to change
East Mesa has grown fast. Dining options haven’t always kept pace. A sit-down restaurant from a 30-year Arizona chain landing at Signal Butte and Elliot is the kind of addition residents in the surrounding subdivisions have been waiting on — and it arrives just as the corridor is filling in with retail, coffee, and fuel.
For families in zip codes 85212 and 85209, this is a lunch-and-dinner option close to home. The location sits on a recently expanded stretch of Signal Butte Road with improved connections to US 60 and Loop 202. That infrastructure work makes this address genuinely accessible now in a way it wasn’t a few years ago.
The Oregano’s pad is one of five retail sites inside Elliot Tech Center. Black Rock Coffee Bar and a Circle K with a fuel station have already committed to two of those pads. Nearby, the larger Medina Station development is drawing anchors like Target and Dick’s Sporting Goods. The whole corridor is in active build-out, and this restaurant is part of that wave.
The hearing is open to the public. You don’t have to live within a mile to speak — any resident may address Mesa City Council at the August 31 meeting.
The full civic record: what the city filing shows
Oregano’s AZ LLC applied for a Series 12 Restaurant License at 3506 South Signal Butte Road. Kevin James Holt is named as the agent on the application. The site falls within Mesa Council District 6, and the matter is on the City Council agenda for August 31, 2026.
There is no prior liquor license at this address. Mesa’s licensing office ran a 20-day public posting period and found no adverse information and no petitions against the application.
The office also counted what’s already in the neighborhood: 42 active liquor licenses and 2 pending applications within one mile of 3506 South Signal Butte Road, serving an estimated population of 22,472. That count is routine context the city includes with every application — it does not trigger automatic denial.
Oregano’s AZ LLC is not new to Mesa. The same entity previously obtained a Series 12 license at 6821 East Superstition Springs Boulevard in Mesa, with Steven David Dunsire as agent. That prior license, originally held by OPB Restaurants Inc., had reverted to the State before Oregano’s AZ LLC applied there.
What a Series 12 license means — and how the Arizona process works
A Series 12 Restaurant License covers on-site consumption of beer, wine, and spirits. It is the most common license type for sit-down restaurants in Arizona. A full bar is permitted under this license.
In Arizona, liquor licensing is a two-step process. Mesa City Council holds a public hearing and votes on a recommendation. That recommendation goes to the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control (DLLC). If the city recommends approval and no member of the public files a protest, the DLLC can approve the license administratively — no State Board hearing required under A.R.S. § 4-112. A city recommendation of disapproval, a DLLC disapproval, or a public protest can trigger a State Board hearing.
Because the 20-day posting period closed with no petitions, the application is on a straightforward path to the August 31 vote.
Inside Elliot Tech Center — the development around the Oregano’s pad
Elliot Tech Center is a Thompson Thrift project at the northwest corner of Signal Butte Road and Elliot Road. At full build-out, it is planned to cover 75 acres and include roughly 1 million square feet of industrial and retail space across eight buildings. Phase I covers 25 acres with five retail pads and three industrial buildings ranging from about 79,000 to 89,000 square feet each.
The Oregano’s site sits on the west side of the 3500 block of South Signal Butte Road, north of Elliot Road, on roughly 2 acres. The landscape plan reviewed by the Mesa Design Review Board calls for desert museum trees, evergreen elm, hybrid mesquite, Texas mountain laurel, and Mexican bird of paradise.
Signal Butte Road itself has seen major investment. A completed southward expansion now connects Germann Road to Williams Field Road, tying the corridor to SR-24, US 60, and Loop 202. That road work is a direct reason a restaurant operator would choose this address today.
The chain behind the application
Oregano’s Pizza Bistro was founded on November 18, 1993, by Mark S. Russell in Old Town Scottsdale. The chain grew to 21 locations across the Phoenix metro, Tucson, and Flagstaff before a consolidation period that included the 2025 closure of its downtown Tempe location. As of early 2025, the chain operated around 14 to 15 Valley locations.
The Signal Butte location would be operated by Oregano’s AZ LLC — the same entity that holds the chain’s Superstition Springs Boulevard location in Mesa.
How to weigh in before or at the August 31 hearing
The public posting period has already closed, so written comment through that channel is no longer available. The next opportunity is the City Council hearing on August 31, 2026. Any person — regardless of where they live — may speak before the Council at that meeting. Residents and property owners within one mile of the site also had the right to submit written comments or petitions during the posting period, but no one did.
If Council recommends approval and no protest is filed with the DLLC, the license moves to administrative approval at the state level. No further public hearing at the State Liquor Board would be required.
