Barbara Yost

Yes, there will be jokes about eating hockey pucks.

But Andrei Nazarov, who plays left wing for the Phoenix Coyotes, and Stephen D'Amico, a longtime restaurateur from Boston, promise to liven up downtown Phoenix with their new late-night coffee shop and dining room at the Hotel San Carlos.

"It's a beautiful city that needed more life," says D'Amico, who came to visit after his friend was traded from the Boston Bruins in January. "We want to bring more business downtown."

In February, the two were having coffee in the corner cafe at the San Marcos and noticed a for-sale sign. As quick as a slap shot, they decided to buy the place and ended up with an agreement not only to run the cafe but expand into empty space with a fine-dining room and take over food service at the hotel.

Priv?, the dining room, opened Aug. 16. Several of Nazarov's teammates and even managing general partner Wayne Gretzky have already dropped by to sample the food.

Priv? (which means private in French) is skating on international ice - French name, mostly Italian menu but with such items as coconut shrimp and salmon Provencale, run by an Italian and a Russian. The chefs are two 2000 graduates of the Scottsdale Culinary Institute, Paul Schuele and Rich Grothaus, who D'Amico says were hired for their creativity and youthful energy.

Says Schuele, "They've allowed us a lot of room to create."

Creativity means tweaking D'Amico's prized recipes handed down from his Sicilian grandmother. No sharing here. "We keep them in a safe," he says.

Nazarov will be a hands-on partner. He and D'Amico designed Priv?'s interior - understated blue and white with one glitzy silver wall hanging.

"It's a lot of fun, something new every day," says Nazarov, who comes from the small but hockey-passionate Russian village of Chelabinsk, "in the middle of nowhere." He's married and has a little girl.

D'Amico still owns a nightclub in Boston but sold his Italian restaurant there. Born and raised in Beantown, he's single and says he wearied of the city's eternal construction zone. His restaurant was adjacent to the infamous "Big Dig" freeway renovation project, which decreased business. And he was more than happy to abandon Boston winters.

The San Carlos coffee shop will be open until 4 a.m., challenging the city's reputation for rolling up the sidewalks at 10 p.m. Patrons too tipsy to drive home can get a special overnight room rate at the hotel.

"We're just trying to bring something to the city it hasn't had before," D'Amico says.