Consumer Products and Services

Ten FIDY, Oskar Blues and the Canned Beer Apocalypse

Beer: Ten FIDY Brewery: Oskar Blues Brewery Style: Imperial Stout ABV: 10.5 percent As we inch ever closer to the third annual AmeriCAN Canned Craft Beer Festival our discussion of aluminum cylinders continues, and it's only right that at this point we bring up Oskar Blues. See also: - 2013 Ameri ... More >>

Comic Figures

Sam Pillsbury Spills on the Reason He Landed in Arizona, and Launches a Wine Column for Chow Bella

This week we introduce a new, occasional wine column by one of the best-known Arizona winemakers, Sam Pillsbury. Welcome to Spillsbury. When managing editor Amy Silverman asked me to write for Chow Bella and New Times, I had to stop and think how that was going to work. I think that will evolve. I ... More >>

Class of '88 Barleywine: A Taste of Craft Beer's Past

Beer: Class of '88 Barleywine Brewery: Deschutes Brewery/North Coast Brewing Co./Rogue Ales Style: American Barleywine ABV: 10 percent Hello out there! Today, we step into the WayBack Machine to take a look at craft beer's past, all the way back to the year 1988. Times were good -- Prozac had just ... More >>

Arizona WIne at Devoured 2013

Pavle Milic knows his way around a bottle of Arizona wine, so when he graciously offered to give us the rundown on the local wine showcased last weekend at Devoured, we jumped at the chance. Full disclosure: As co-owner of FnB in Scottsdale, Milic serves AZ wine and he's in the process of making his ... More >>

Candy Land

Famous Chefs Stand With Teenager Over Calls for Gender Neutral Easy-Bake Oven

Manuel Trevino from "Top Chef" is just one of the many chefs who stepped forward in this video address to show their support for one teenager's petition to get Hasbro to market their Easy-Bake Oven in a gender neutral manner. See Also: --Powdered Food DIY Kits From Japan Are Kinda Creepy but Also ... More >>

LongHorn Steakhouse Tries Arizona (Again): This Time in Mesa and With More Locations to Come

Darden Restaurants, Inc., the same company who owns and operates Red Lobster, Olive Garden, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52, and Eddie V's, is playing Santa this year in the form of steakhouse chain, LongHorn. See also: New Steakhouse Coming to Chandler Today, the casual American steakhouse that op ... More >>

Yavapai College Launches Associates Degree in Enology -- the Science of Wine

Love wine? You can get a degree in it for real here in Arizona. Did you know enology is the science and study of wine and wine making while viticulture is a subfield specializing in vine-growing and harvesting? If you're looking for a new career or are just really into learning more about wine, you ... More >>

Pavle Milic Harvests the Grapes for His Still Unnamed Wine

In this occasional series, Pavle Milic (co-owner of FnB, Baratin, Bodega and AZ Wine Merchants in Scottsdale) will spill about his current mission to learn how wine is made -- literally from the Southern Arizona ground up. Today: the harvest. Momentary Suspension of Reality I have made the drive t ... More >>

BrewDog's Latest Beer Claims It'll Get you Banned From the Olympics (But It Really Won't)

Scottish craft beer company BrewDog is not fond of the massive corporate backing of the Olympic games. It is protesting the likes of McDonald's and Heineken by producing a beer guaranteed to contain "at least 50 percent of your daily allowance of sarcasm." BrewDog's protest beer is called Never Mi ... More >>

Three Things to Eat Drink, Drink, and Bake this Weekend, The Craft Beer Edition

See Also: Here Come The Growlers: Starting at Midnight, Bars Can Hand Over 64 oz To Go Happy weekend Chow Bella friends! Ready for another road trip? This time we're heading out west to sunny Palm Springs, California for one of the desert's biggest craft beer parties. Then we'll head home for a f ... More >>

A Sirius Plan

Brave: A Family Film About Courage That Actually Has Some

Your Guide to Highly Anticipated Summer Films

Drew Alexander Got Burned By a Major Label, and He Doesn't Mind

Wine Regions 101: Sonoita/Elgin

Welcome to Vine Geeks, where Brian Reeder and Pavle Milic of AZ Wine Merchants take the drinking game quite seriously. Pay attention -- you might just learn something. One of the consistent columns I'll be writing as the resident 'vine geek' will be about different wine regions around the state, n ... More >>

Pavle Milic's Quest to Make Wine: A Quixotic Exploit?

Earlier this spring, we launched Vine Geeks -- in which AZ Wine Merchants' Brian Reeder and Pavle Milic share advice, news and a little levity from the world of wine. Today, we bring you Romancing the Grape. In this occasional series, Milic will spill about his current mission to learn how wine is ... More >>

Make Phoenix 2012's BeerCity USA

In 2009, National Beer Examiner writer and Brewers Association President Charlie Papazian created the BeerCity USA poll. Designed to judge the strength of a city's beer community, the online poll drew thousands of voters to throw their support behind their hometowns and the brew culture therein. As ... More >>

Meet the Vine Geek (Part Two)

On Tuesday, you met Brian Reeder, co-owner of AZ Wine Merchants and one of our new wine columnists. Today, his story continues. When we left off, Pavle Milic (in the photo above, from left, it's Reeder and Milic) had opened a little restaurant in Scottsdale and Brian had decided resort life at the M ... More >>

Four Peaks Makes List of Top Fifty Craft Brewers in America

Here's a little something to raise a glass to. Four Peaks Brewing Company, the Tempe institution serving up handcrafted suds in a 1892 Mission-style warehouse since 1996, has been named one of the top fifty craft brewers in the U.S. by the Brewers Association -- a not-for-profit trade group that ta ... More >>

Uwe Boer of SunUp Brewing Co., the Jolliest Man in Brewing

Who hasn't wanted to chat up the guys who make their favorite brews? The Chow Bella team, lucky dogs that we are, recently got the opportunity to do just that. Thing is, we only got a few minutes with each one. These guys are busy! Watch the short video below for an insight into the mind of an Ari ... More >>

Brewing Down South with Barrio Brewing Co.

Who hasn't wanted to chat up the guys who make their favorite brews? The Chow Bella team, lucky dogs that we are, recently got the opportunity to do just that. Thing is, we only got a few minutes with each one. These guys are busy! Watch the short video below for an insight into the mind of an Ari ... More >>

What's with the Monkeys? An Interview with Nimbus Brewing Co.

Who hasn't wanted to chat up the guys who make their favorite brews? The Chow Bella team, lucky dogs that we are, recently got the opportunity to do just that. Thing is, we only got a few minutes with each one. These guys are busy! Watch the short video below for an insight into the mind of an Ari ... More >>

Barrel-Aged Beers, Experimentation and Randamonium with Four Peaks Brewing Co.

Who hasn't wanted to chat up the guys who make their favorite brews? The Chow Bella team, lucky dogs that we are, recently got the opportunity to do just that. Thing is, we only got a few minutes with each one. These guys are busy! Watch the short video below for an insight into the mind of an Ari ... More >>

Chow Bella Rides With Mother Road Brewing Co.

Who hasn't wanted to chat up the guys who make their favorite brews? The Chow Bella team, lucky dogs that we are, recently got the opportunity to do just that. Thing is, we only got a few minutes with each one. These guys are busy! Watch the short video below for an insight into the mind of an Ari ... More >>

Chow Bella Hates on Fruit Beers With Lumberyard Brewing Co.

Who hasn't wanted to chat up the guys who make their favorite brews? The Chow Bella team, lucky dogs that we are, recently got the opportunity to do just that. Thing is, we only got a few minutes with each one. These guys are busy! Watch the short video below for an insight into the mind of an Ari ... More >>

Cider's Growth has Big Beer Jumping on the Bandwagon

​Cider is so hot right now. On Monday, Miller Coors craft/import division Tenth & Blake purchased Minneapolis, Minn.-based Crispin Cider. The deal also includes Fox Barrel Cider Company, a Crispin affiliate that produces multiple varieties of pear cider. Not to be outdone, Anheuser-Busch ann ... More >>

Arizona Lottery Sales Up About $24 Million: Good Marketing or Bad Economy?

Nothing like a bad economy to get people to line up for those lottery tickets. State lottery officials say ticket sales in Arizona totaled $293 million between July 2011 to December 2011, nearly 9 percent over the same mid-term sales figures last year. Arizona lottery officials parceled out the $ ... More >>

Drink Wine with NPR's Peter Sagal and Support KJZZ's Youth Media Center

​First Press Arizona is throwing its 10th live fine wine auction and dinner on February 11 at Kierland Resort and Spa to benefit KJZZ's Youth Media Center. The smart and witty Peter Sagal, of NPR's game show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, will be the evening's host. Guests will live it up with liv ... More >>

Little Big Man

The Valley's 80/20 Records Signs Dry River Yacht Club in the Midst

​Thousands of independent record labels are started each year, some more successful than others. Over the past decade, as major label profits have declined thanks to file sharing and even legal downloading, independent labels have been searching for a new, more effective method to turn a profit.&n ... More >>

Purple Drank

Samuel Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale

Zach Fowle ​Beer: Samuel Adams Harvest Pumpkin AleBrewery: Boston Beer Company Style: Pumpkin beerABV: 5.7 percent Well, Pumpkin Month is at an end. It's been four weeks filled with pumpkin pie spiciness and every shade of orange here at Craft Beer of the Week, and the mob of pumpkin brews t ... More >>

Eddie V's Prime Seafood and Wildfish Seafood Grille Sold to Parent Company of Olive Garden and Red Lobster for $59 Million

​Holy oceans, that's a lot of shellfish. ​Last week, Phoenix-based Eddie V's Prime Seafood, a luxury chain of eight restaurants in Arizona, California, and Texas with one location in the Scottsdale Quarter, and Wildfish Seafood Grille, Eddie's sister chain of three restaurants in the s ... More >>

Fred's at Barneys New York Closed

​Fred's at Barneys New York, the stylish, modern bistro and brainchild of Fred Pressman, son of Barneys New York founder Barney Pressman, closed today. Located on the second floor of Barneys New York, which opened in October of 2009 in the Fashion Square Mall in Scottsdale, a Barneys' associa ... More >>

Publishing Rights Could Hold Back Apple From Releasing Cloud Service Soon

​Just a few speed bumps and stop signs are hindering Apple from releasing its new cloud music service sooner rather than later, according to Prefix.The company has yet to conclude its negotiations with publishers. All that Apple has to left to figure out with the music publishers is how much they ... More >>

Warner Music Group for Sale: The Multi-Billion Dollar Battle for Ownership Winds Down this Week

Wikimedia CommonsWarner Music Group artist Madonna​Warner Music Group -- home to acts like Led Zeppelin, Green Day, and Tempe-based indie rock band The Maine -- is for sale. If you think it's tough outbidding other eBay users for a rare record, you should see the bidding battle currently underway ... More >>

Blast by Colt 45, Made by Pabst Brewing, Called Excessively Strong by Tom Horne and Other State Attorneys General

Blast by Colt 45, made by Pabst Brewing Company, is like a "binge in a can," according to Tom Horne and other state attorneys general.​ Arizona's official state gun is the Colt .45, but a trendy alcoholic drink that shares the name shouldn't be on shelves in its current form, says state A ... More >>

Avery Brewing Co. Pulls Out of Arizona, 7 Other States

whatweredrinking.blogspot.com ​Get your Maharaja, The Czar, and White Rascal while you can. Colorado-based Avery Brewing Co. announced Thursday it plans to withdraw from eight states and seven other partial-state markets beginning in April.

Fired Up

Grammy winners come to Phoenix

Record Store Day Round Up 2011 : Phoenix Stores Offer Up Exclusives, Live Performances and More on RSD

​"Folks who work here are professors. Don't replace all the knowers with guessors -- keep'em open -- they're the ears of the town." - Tom Waits, on the important of independent record stores. If you're a nerd like me, April 16 isn't just another Saturday. It's Record Store Day, the day independent ... More >>

Wine, Winemakers and Winos: What You Missed at the Paso Robles Winemaker Dinner

Where there is wine and winemakers, you can be damn sure there will be winos, which is why we hit the trifecta at the Paso Robles winemaker dinner at Petite Maison this Monday. The winemakers of Paso Robles showcased their signature Rhône varietal blends with a five-course meal Chef James Porter s ... More >>

Sweet Stuff

Chow down on some tasty bits

Latest Cake Album Hits No. 1, Sets Dubious Record In The Process

Robert McKnightCakeThis year sure has been a fickle beast thus far -- treacherous weather, Jared Lee Loughner and now a slumping music industry.Showroom Of Compassion, the latest album from venerable rock band Cake, took the top spot on the Billboard charts for the week ending on January 1 ... More >>

FnB Wine Dinner and BBQ Chicken Tacos in Today's Eater's Digest

cakebatterandbowl.com​ Hungry for your early morning serving of food news, with no preservatives or additives?FnB Wine DinnerNeed a post holiday pick me up? Treat yourself to FnB's Javelina Leap Winemakers Dinner Tuesday, January 4th from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.. Enjoy a four-course dinner specially pre ... More >>

Back in Black: Arizona Tribal Gaming Revenue on Rise for First Time Since 2007

​ Can it still be called a recession if Arizonans are dropping wads of cash into tribal casinos? The state's still chock-full of empty storefronts and foreclosed homes, but state officials report the first increase in tribal gaming revenue since 2007. After 10 consecutive quarters of negativ ... More >>

"Tiffany Style"

Politics: A Smelly, Puking Habit

Mayor Rimsza urges reticent council to embrace local antitobacco enforcement

RING AROUND THE DAY CAREPUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE THE LOSERS IN A MOVE TO DEREGULATE PRIVATE CHILD-CARE CENTERS