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Amy's Baking Company: Overcooked Reality and the Decline of Western Civility

Editor's note: After the insanity of the last two weeks, we decided that the Amy's Baking Company saga desperately needed some context. New Times food critic Laura Hahnefeld graciously complied. A tall, thin man with long, gray hair and a pair of saggy but expensive jeans shakes the handles of tw ... More >>

Amy's Baking Company: Top 5 Most-Read Stories

Are you excited for the "grand re-opening" of Amy's Baking Company? We're thinking it could go one of three ways: anti-climactic, shit show, or surprisingly well. While we're waiting anxiously for tomorrow's events, check out our most-read Amy's Baking Company stories from last week. If you're one ... More >>

Seven Amy's Baking Company Parodies in Video, Gifs, Memes and a Song (NSFW)

We were there with front-row seats when all the drama began back in 2010. Since that time, when a local business owner totally flipped her shit over a negative Yelp review, the Amy's Baking Company drama has combusted and set off a national media firestorm. See also: - Amy's Baking Company - A Hi ... More >>

Amy's Baking Company Shit Show Continues: Now With Grand Re-Opening Press Release

Seemingly moments after most of us were making Amy Bouzaglo's cat impersonation ("Meow, meow, meow -- meow, meow!"), uttered on last Friday's season finale of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, the ringtone on our cell phones, the Internet decided to blow up, bonkers-style. See also: - Meet Amy's ... More >>

Colbert on Yelp: "The Critical Palate of Zagat With Not Having Anything Better to Do"

Monday night on The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert joined the chorus of people who like to hate on Yelp, the business-review site. Colbert called Yelp a social media site that combines the "critical palate of Zagat with not having anything better to do." See also: - Is Yelp Fair to Restaurants? - ... More >>

What Is the Role of the Food Critic?

Welcome to Chow Bella's Bites & Dishes, where Valley chefs and restaurateurs respond to a question New Times food critic Laura Hahnefeld has on her mind. Have a question you'd like to ask? E-mail laura.hahnefeld@newtimes.com.Writer, analyst, restaurant rater? To the reader, the job of a food critic ... More >>

Rough Draft's Barrel-Aged Freudian Sip: Your Subconscious Will Love It

Beer: Barrel-Aged Freudian Sip Brewery: Rough Draft Brewing Co. Style: American Strong Ale ABV: 10 percent Around 1901, Sigmund Freud came out with his book The Psychopathology of Everyday Life. In it, he described a number of verbal "slips" -- errors that seem trivial but may actually reveal repr ... More >>

The Hunt for Fresh Mexican Coconut in Metro Phoenix Is Over

My search for fresh Mexican coconuts started with a tall tale of a machete-wielding old man running a stand at the Phoenix Park'n Swap selling the hard-shell beauties, breaking them open enough to first enjoy the refreshing water, then fully cutting the top to expose the tender flesh inside, and sla ... More >>

Is the Michelin Guide Still Relevant?

Over a century old, the Michelin Guide, the star-ratings restaurant guide paid for by the French tire company, is arguably the best-known on the planet. See also: - What Are the Pros and Cons of Food Festivals? - What Are Three Cooking Skills Everyone Should Know? But recently, the guide has taken ... More >>

This Is What Your St. Patrick's Day Could Have Looked Like Through Google Glass

Comedy group stuntbear takes a good hard humorous look at the future through the lens of Google Glass. For those of us who haven't been keeping up with the latest tech news, Glass is a pair of augmented reality glasses that promise to take us one step closer to our Minority Report future, in which a ... More >>

Paradise Melts Food Truck Is Up and Running: Where to Find It

Earlier this month, we shared the news that the Valley's homegrown grilled cheese mobile was under new ownership and getting geared up to hit the road again. And it didn't take long -- lucky for those melted-cheese fanatics out there -- for the new owners to get things ready to go. You can find th ... More >>

Is it Rude to Take Photos of Your Food in a Restaurant?

Welcome to Chow Bella's Bites & Dishes, where Valley chefs and restaurateurs respond to a question New Times food critic Laura Hahnefeld has on her mind. Have a question you'd like to ask? E-mail laura.hahnefeld@newtimes.com.Thanks to social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, it' ... More >>

What's Your Least Favorite Holiday to Work?

Welcome to Chow Bella's Bites & Dishes, where Valley chefs and restaurateurs respond to a question New Times food critic Laura Hahnefeld has on her mind. Have a question you'd like to ask? E-mail laura.hahnefeld@newtimes.com.When you're in the food business, holidays can mean big money. What's the w ... More >>

Where Do You Side on the Tasting Menu Debate?

Welcome to Chow Bella's Bites & Dishes, where Valley chefs and restaurateurs respond to a question New Times food critic Laura Hahnefeld has on her mind. Have a question you'd like to ask? E-mail laura.hahnefeld@newtimes.com.Vanity Fair food writer Corby Kummer likened them to a form of culinary dic ... More >>

What National Chain Restaurants Do You Secretly Like?

Welcome to Chow Bella's Bites & Dishes, where Valley chefs and restaurateurs respond to a question New Times food critic Laura Hahnefeld has on her mind. Have a question you'd like to ask? E-mail laura.hahnefeld@newtimes.com.As much as they may deny it, chefs and restaurateurs secretly enjoy nationa ... More >>

The "ReviewerCard" Will Allow The Ethically Challenged to Extort Local Businesses and Screw Up Crowd Sourced Reviews

A Los Angeles-based entrepreneur has introduced a "ReviewerCard" which designates a person a prolific writer of reviews on sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor. The purpose of this card is simple: To extort local businesses into providing better service or face the wrath of the dreaded 1-star review. Pre ... More >>

Yelp Begins Including Health Inspection Scores In New York City and San Francisco Reviews

Yelp has just announced plans to integrate health inspection information directly into restaurant reviews and they're starting with New York City and San Francisco. According to their blog post, the new system will be called Local Inspector Value-entry Specification (LIVES) and was co-developed with ... More >>

Is Yelp Fair to Restaurants?

Welcome to Chow Bella's Bites & Dishes, where Valley chefs and restaurateurs respond to a question New Times food critic Laura Hahnefeld has on her mind. Have a question you'd like to ask? E-mail laura.hahnefeld@newtimes.com.Last December, when Bizarre Foods host Andrew Zimmern called Yelp a "forum ... More >>

Yelp Begins Outing Businesses with Fake Reviews

Yelp has begun outing businesses which solicit for paid positive reviews. Businesses that are found to have participated in "significant attempts to pay for reviews" will be slapped with a "Consumer Alert" for 90 days. See Also: --Are Yelp Extortionists Giving Restaurants the Shakedown? --Ouch! To ... More >>

What's the Best Way to Send Food Back at a Restaurant?

Welcome to Chow Bella's Bites & Dishes, where Valley chefs and restaurateurs respond to a question New Times food critic Laura Hahnefeld has on her mind. Have a question you'd like to ask? E-mail laura.hahnefeld@newtimes.com. Miss a question? Go here.We've all been there: hungrily taking the first b ... More >>

Silvana Salcido Esparza Dishes About Eating Iguana and Whether She Is or Isn't a Badass

See also: Silvana Salcido Esparza: Tastemaker #92 This is part two of my interview with Silvana Salcido Esparza, chef-owner of Barrio Cafe and Barrio Queen. If you missed part one, read it here. Do you read cookbooks?: NEVER, but I like to own them. All those pretty photos of food are like food po ... More >>

Real Actors Bring Hilarious Gravitas to Real Yelp Reviews

See Also: Are Yelp Extortionists Giving Restaurants the Shakedown? See Also: CrazyAmy Yelp Feud Lands on TV Have you ever read an Yelp review so outlandish and melodramatic that you wished you could gaze into the face of the person who wrote them? Wait no longer, the fine people at Gotta Kid to Fee ... More >>

"Talk to the Manager" Fights Passive-Aggressive Anonymous Reviews With Anonymous Texts

In light of Yelp extortionists and other less than awesome experiences at restaurants across the nation, perhaps there is a market for Talk To The Manager, a new service that provides anonymous communication between consumers and the restaurants they eat at. TTTM acts as a digital middlemen betwee ... More >>

Are Yelp Extortionists Giving Restaurants the Shakedown?

Generally, here at Chow Bella we tend to report on restaurant owners behaving badly. Whether that be Amy's Baking Company's Yelp tirade or Tina's Ethiopian Cafe's comment section meltdown. We still have a team of our best people decoding some of those pseudo-sexual insults. But today we're consideri ... More >>

Mirth Wants to Be the Groupon Killer

Mirth, which announced its existence at TechCrunch's Disrupt NYC convention, bills itself as a business-friendly alternative to deal programs like Groupon and LivingSocial. A Mirth account is attached to your credit card and automatically recognizes when you've gone to an establishment twice in a si ... More >>

Playlist

Three Things to Eat, Drink, and Make this Weekend

MIchelle D. via Yelp, Cibo, Twopeasandtheirpod.com ​Ahhhh -- a much needed quiet weekend with not a single major food event to speak of! No events = no drama -- which is going to be a nice change of pace -- at least for one weekend. But, a girl still has to eat even if it isn't off a truck, or in ... More >>

Boners BBQ in Atlanta Is Awarded "Worse Use of Social Media 2012" Award

​And it's only the second week of January.While perusing the interwebs yesterday, I came across a disturbing story about a restaurant in Atlanta called Boners BBQ. I'll say that one more time -- BONERS BBQ. And their slogan is worse than the name. Wanna take a guess at what it is? Try "Put a Littl ... More >>

Eat Out in Phoenix and Support Japan Disaster Relief

​Eating out is no guilty pleasure when it's for a good cause. And what better cause than the tragic trifecta of catastrophes in Japan? Phoenix area restaurants are supporting disaster relief efforts and you can help by opening your mouth. Follow the jump for some prime spots to dine and don ... More >>

2010 Redux: Culinary Happenings

Crudo dished up beautiful plates of fish at the Devoured culinary fest.​In the spirit of tying up loose ends, we're recapping some of our favorite food-related finds of the year. We've already looked back on the Best Books, Battle of the Dishes, Just Offal, the Best R ... More >>

Getting Fried for Chanukah: The Parlor vs. The Grind

Sorry to disappoint, but no, we're not indulging in pot brownies or some other drug-laced food during the Festival of Lights. This is a serious religious holiday, folks. So for this week's Battle of the Dishes, we're clogging our stomachs and arteries with greasy donuts! Apparently, oil-fr ... More >>

A Thanksgiving Dinner Fowl: Cornish Pasty Company vs. All Wrapped Up

Remember that scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory where disgusting gum-chewing champion Violet Beauregarde gets her choppers on a piece of gum that tastes like a roast beef dinner, complete with tomato soup and blueberry pie? According to the Institute of Food Research,&nbs ... More >>

The Crepes of Wrath: Cupz N' Crepes vs. Sandwich Club

Sometimes the best cure for a rough week (or the dreaded Monday blahs) is an international escape. When you can't literally hop a plane, the next best thing is to indulge in a foreign treat. My personal favorite are crepes, the wafer-thin stuffed pancakes that originated in Northern France ... More >>

CrazyAmy Yelp Feud Lands on TV

What does it take to make the evening news? A Yelp feud and a whole community chatting about a restaurant owner who went ballistic. Check out the clip from last night:

Going Postal on the Web: More Lessons From the CrazyAmy Saga

When I called it a "shit show," I had no idea just what kind of vague de merde was heading our way. My jaw dropped yesterday when I noticed a local restaurant owner's name-calling tirade in response to a negative Yelp review, and when I wrote an impromptu blog post, readers responded in dr ... More >>

Sugar Cookie Wars: Sweet Cakes vs. Cake Cafe

Last week, I had a craving for one of my favorite childhood snacks: sugar cookies. While I could've gone to the grocery store for some take-and-bake dough, let's face it, only 50% of the dough would've ended up in the oven. The other half would've been hoovered straight out of the package ... More >>

Yelp Announces Changes ― Are They Enough to Satisfy Class-Action Plaintiffs?

Three separate lawsuits accuse Yelp of strong-arming potential advertisers.​Are lawyers in the class-action suit against Yelp smelling victory? Yesterday, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman announced the user review giant would drop the "Favorite Review" feature and let readers see the reviews that w ... More >>

Chef Talk with Stacy Phipps of Stacy's Smokehouse (part two)

Claire Lawton Stacy Phipps and his mother in the Smokehouse kitchen. ​Yesterday we sat down with Stacy Phipps of Stacy's Smokehouse. Today, the conversation continues. Want to hear more about Stacy's favorite kitchen tool and what's next? Read on.Where does your culinary inspiration come fr ... More >>

Yelp Lawsuit Widens: From Washington to Chicago to L.A., Plaintiffs Charge Extortion

​Nine companies have joined the proposed class action lawsuit against Yelp, the San Francisco-based Internet giant, attorneys in Miami and California announced this morning. The new plaintiffs are located everywhere from Tujunga, California to Washington, D.C. They include businesses ranging from ... More >>

Is Yelp Kind of Like the Mafia?

Like many local food fanatics, I've had mixed feelings about Yelp. And I still do. Some of the most venomous restaurant reviews, posted by users with no prior history on the site, come across as blatant trash-talking by competitors, while some of the blow-jobbish raves also seem like ... More >>

Battle of the Gazpacho Soups

Pita Jungle vs. DeluxGazpacho is a cold soup, originally from Spain, and is the perfect antidote to these hellacious summer days. There are so many variations on gazpacho (chunky or pureed, spicy or mild) but they're all tomato-based and raw, making them vegetarian and, more often than not, vegan-fr ... More >>

Yelp Eats $25 Prix-Fixe Menu Starts Today

OK, Phoenix, indulge a little. We've been telling you about it all summer, and today the week-long event is finally kicking off. All week (until Sunday, July 26) fifteen of the Valley's best restaurants are just asking you to let them do the dirty work for you. Yelp.com has recruited fifteen res ... More >>

July 20 In Blogs: Napolitano, Cronkite, McCain, and Pitchfork

In the 24-hour news cycle it can be difficult to keep up. We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times' blogs. Today's entries: Feathered Bastard: Janet Napolitano Blasted as "Law and Order Extremist" by 287(g) Expert Aarti Shahani Up on the ... More >>

Cool iPhone Apps for Foodies

The new iPhone is a lust-worthy gizmo to begin with, but if you're into food and wine, there are even more reasons to chuck your Crackberry and give in to Apple: the apps. One of the newest ones, WinePhD, was created by two locals, sommelier Brian Pierce and his business partner/co-in ... More >>

Coming in July: Yelp Eats! Prix Fixe Promo

http://www.flickr.com/photos/disneymike/For a full week in July (the 20th through 26th), the popular website Yelp will be sponsoring its own restaurant week, Yelp Eats!, showcasing 15 local restaurants that will offer three-course prix fixe menus for only $25 per person. Thanks to the c ... More >>

The Return of Beef Eaters?

Do you remember Beef Eaters? The old-school steak and seafood restaurant that closed several years ago and still sits vacant on Camelback Road? I drove by the other day on the way to Target, and noticed signs of life -- looked like there was some kind of construction going on. Somebody on a Yelp Ta ... More >>

Fried: Cheese 'n Stuff Doughboy

What do Yelpers really think about free food?