We’re picking things out of our tom yum soup at Jax Thai Bar, a Tempe restaurant that’s the newest addition to Mill Avenue’s increasingly cosmopolitan culinary scene. Barklike nubs of galangal, a southeast Asian vegetable that’s a member of the ginger family. Whole kaffir lime leaves, dark green and similar…
Another dot-com company has gone bust, hitting several local freelance restaurant writers where it really hurts — in the pocketbook. Instead of collecting overdue paychecks, contributors to Foodline.com are being offered used furniture and computer hardware salvaged from Foodline’s corporate offices in New York. How an Arizona resident is supposed…
The phone is ringing again, rattling in its perch on the reservations podium next to the bar at Acqua e Sale. We’ve been listening to it all through dinner, not because it’s an irritation to our meal, but because we’ve been eavesdropping on the host. He’s telling yet another caller…
There’s a new book out called Zeguts. It should not be confused with the international restaurant guide of the similar name, Zagat. Because while both track dining establishments and rate them on similar terms of concept, food quality and ambiance, Zeguts is strictly a parody of made-up establishments.At least I…
If you order your wine by the glass when you go out for dinner, you may be getting gouged.Some high-end restaurateurs are increasing their already inflated profits on booze by hiding small servings behind those elegant, single-serving carafes and humongous glasses. You’ve seen them popping up at places like Tarbell’s,…
Pack 40 of the nation’s top chefs into extremely close quarters, arm them with sharp knives, and what happens? Despite a rocky start in its disorganized planning stages, Saturday night’s Pleasures of the Palettes at the Phoenician turned out to be a success for its 800 or so very well-fed…
To hear many native New Yorkers talk about it, you’d think they invented neighborhood-style Italian food. From antipasto to baked pasta, lasagna to ravioli and, of course, pizza, nobody does it better than the folks in the Big Apple. What gives? It’s not as if the requirements for back-East-style Italian…
Great chefs are not bred to be caged in corporate kitchens. There’s no keeping these talented souls confined with menus supervised by restaurant executives in business suits — their spirits yearn to run free. What else than a reckless urge for independence and self-expression would motivate a chef to leave…
The dining scene for much of Sun City, Del Webb’s masterplanned commune for silver-haired citizens, is a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. Looking for exciting, cutting-edge cuisine? You won’t find it here. Area retirees tend to be armed with aging taste buds and delicate constitutions — they’re not looking for high-speed chases of…
Rula Bula managing partner Steven Goumas hasn’t had the easiest go of it in getting his Irish pub and restaurant ready for business. Opened in late July inside Tempe’s historic Andre building, the Gaelic eatery debuted more than a year late, thanks to a fire that gutted its structure last…
The Valley’s own James Boyce was celebrated Saturday night at the James Beard House in Manhattan. Boyce, chef de cuisine at the Phoenician’s Mobil Five Star Mary Elaine’s, was invited to create a spectacular tribute to the late, legendary chef Auguste Escoffier, renowned as the innovator of modern French cuisine.I’d…
ZooFari is billed as one of the most important black-tie culinary events in the Valley. It’s always been an exciting opportunity to sample some of the best savories in town, at booths manned by the Valley’s top chefs. But this year, the food display at ZooFari looked like any intersection…
Homebuilders everywhere have their boxers in a bunch over Proposition 202, a pending initiative that will severely limit urban sprawl across Arizona. They say turning off their bulldozers will destroy the economy. Supporters of 202, on the other hand, see the initiative as a way to limit subdivisions that are…
Tomaso’s — the elegant Italian restaurant that’s charmed Valley diners for almost two decades in its original 32nd Street and Camelback location — has set up a sister shop in the East Valley. That brings to three the number of Tomaso’s in the metro-Phoenix area, all sporting the exact same…
Pleasures of the Palettes, one of the Valley’s most exclusive culinary fund raisers being held later this month at the Phoenician, has been leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of some local chefs.Some chefs are unhappy that they’ve been asked to serve hors d’oeuvres at a reception instead of…
New Times’ annual Best of Phoenix just came out and, true to form, someone’s not happy about being named the best. Like, for instance, the clothing boutique that was incensed at being singled out as “best place for drag queens to go shopping.” This year, it’s the folks from Chez…
Imagine what the horrible result would be if Denny’s switched its all-American concept to contemporary Mexican cuisine. Just try to visualize the culinary disaster assured if Furr’s doctored its menu to include $15 plates of prickly pear barbecue cactus shrimp. And what, God forbid, would diners be in for if…
The complaint I hear is all too frequent: There are no good, family-owned American restaurants in the West Valley. Mexican food, maybe, and national chains of all types, for sure. But where can a hungry diner find a delicious meat-and-potatoes meal, cooked with real love, after crossing into the Avenues?The…
Al Gore invented the Internet. That we accept. But who would have thought that Richardson Browne, feisty owner of Richardson’s Cuisine of Phoenix, has a patent on New Mexican food? What else would explain his bizarre attacks on the owners of Carlsbad Tavern in Scottsdale and Blue Adobe Grille in…
Eating healthful food lets us live longer. That’s something everybody agrees on. But what exactly is healthful? Scientists can’t agree on which kind of fat will kill us. We hear that alcohol is bad for us, and then nutritionists tell us to drink one or two glasses of wine each…
Dinner and a movie will take on new meaning this February when Farrelli’s Cinema Supper Club opens on Scottsdale Road north of Thunderbird. Set in an old-fashioned-style moviehouse, the restaurant will partner big-screen movies with upscale dining.Stale popcorn and a box of Goobers? No way. Moviegoers at Farrelli’s will feast…
Bistro 24 executive chef John Johnstone has been one busy fellow lately. Over the past several months, he’s packed up his pots and pans, relocated from New York’s Tavern on the Green, dismantled and rebuilt the Phoenix Ritz-Carlton’s kitchen, brought in a new staff and introduced new lunch and dinner…
