If you’ve ever toured the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland, you’ll feel right at home at Monti’s La Casa Vieja in Tempe. Picture hunkering wooden walls, patch-painted but inescapably old. Imagine yawning galleries hung with portraits of ancient, macabre and deceased former residents. Visualize mismatched furniture, creaking doors, alarming discrepancies in…
Since the Arizona Center opened in 1990, Valley diners have been poised, fork and knife grasped firmly in hand, waiting to pounce on the many culinary wonders promised by downtown’s then-developers and politicos. Coupled with the Mercado, the center was to attract celebrated restaurants and breathe new culture into the…
It’s been several months since the hugely popular Pizzeria Bianco stopped offering lunch, yet my phone still rings with hungry diners’ lamentations — and speculations. Perhaps chef-owner Chris Bianco has gotten too big for his pizza pans, callers propose, and doesn’t want to serve the common lunchtime diner. It might…
One of my best resources for reviews of one-of-a-kind, out-of-the-way restaurants is word of mouth. Usually, these places don’t have the funds for elaborate marketing or benefit from having a big-name chef backing them. So when a friend mentions Mangos Mexican Cafe to me, I perk up at her description…
TV Dinner: There’s no question that sizzle sells, but when is a menu recommendation just so much bravado? I applaud when a good restaurant earns media recognition, but I’m not sure that being told by a server to order a dish simply “because it has been on TV” is enough…
I grew up in a condiment-free household. It’s sad, but true. Our house was in a salad-dressing-free zone. Sauces were used only if they were imperative to the construction of a dish, and even then, sometimes not. Mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, barbecue sauce or salsa on our food? Never. Even spices…
My dining companion is messing with my head, or, should I say, my palate. He swears there’s lemon in the complimentary pre-dinner plate of iced watermelon we’re enjoying at the Green Leaf Cafe.I pluck another chunk of fruit, but there’s no lemon flavor here. I even dip my fingers in…
This past weekend was the 81st annual National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant & Hotel-Motel Show in Chicago, the largest industry gathering of the year. More than 2,000 exhibitors pitched their products in almost 900 restaurant-related categories, and I think I saw every single display. But truth be told, rather than showcasing…
Dating is an evil practice. It forces people who barely know each other to spend awkward hours suffering through dinner and a movie, a night at the theater, or a weekend trying to find their way home from a foreign country that doesn’t even have the courtesy to use English…
By the time you read this, chef Erasmo “Razz” Kamnitzer will be packing up his pots and pans and getting ready to shutter his eponymous Razz’s restaurant as he does every summer. From May 20 to September 1, the popular eatery goes dark as Kamnitzer and his family take some…
To draw on a line from Kermit the Frog, it’s not easy being mean.Life as a critic — be it theater, art, music, architecture or food — is a balancing act. Critics strive to be fair while both entertaining and informing their readers. A positive report is easy; everybody’s happy…
Gourmet of Russia, 4515 North 16th Street, 602-263-0200. Hours: Lunch and dinner, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Dinner, Saturday and Sunday, 5 p.m. to midnight.
Menu writing is an art. Savvy restaurateurs go to great lengths to make their dishes sound appealing, waxing poetic about the virtues of even the commonest hamburger, meat loaf or macaroni and cheese. The more adjectives, usually, the more expensive the meal. I’m waiting for the day when it’s also…
Acacia at the Four Seasons, 10600 East Crescent Moon Drive, Scottsdale, 480-515-5700. Hours: Dinner, nightly, 6 to 10 p.m. (to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday). My dining companion and I are debating whether to order wine this evening. Not whether we want it, because of course we do. But whether…
It’s a wonder we don’t hear more news of restaurant staffers going completely postal. They’ve got the motives — long hours spent on their feet, often with demanding customers, and with little control over (but ultimate blame for) the kitchen, low pay and, too frequently, lousy tips. They’ve got the…
Ironwood Café, inside the Heard Museum, 2301 North Central, Phoenix, 602-252-8840. Hours: Breakfast and Lunch, Monday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. As drivers on I-10 approach the Seventh Avenue and Seventh Street exits, signage directs them to Phoenix’s downtown cultural mecca. Longtime…
So many events, so little time, my party companion laments, digging through the stacks of announcements crowding my desk. It’s April again, and it seems that everywhere we turn, there’s another tempting fund raiser, festival or feast demanding our attention. The Valley’s reservations-required dining season is drawing to a close,…
Va Bene Ristorante Italiano, 4025 East Chandler Boulevard, Phoenix, 480-706-4070. Hours: Lunch, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Dinner, daily, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Va Bene owner Sasha Cosic welcomes us warmly, leading us through small clusters of tables, inviting us to “sit, please, and enjoy.” He…
Sometimes it is so simple to bash chain restaurants, and admittedly, it can be fun. They’re behemoths with mass-feeding troughs. They’re invisible, out-of-state corporations more concerned with the bottom line than with creative cuisine. They bombard us with maddening commercials about “baby back, baby back, baby back ribs.” But it’s…
New York has its bagels, pretzels and pizza. Chicago has its hot dogs and sliders. San Francisco has its sourdough. And the Valley doesn’t have its fry bread. It’s a perplexing situation. While less than three percent of the Valley’s 2.7 million residents are Native American, fry bread is an…
Why do people love to tell me about their food-provoked illnesses? Perhaps they’re concerned for my occupational safety. More likely it’s similar to that perverse urge we all have to tell our newly pregnant friend about a woman who gave birth to a three-headed sock puppet. Either way, though I…
Quiessence Culinary Center, 6106 South 32nd Street, 602-305-8192. Hours: Dinner, Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m., October 1 through June 1. Sometimes, you must admit, eating out can be such work. First, there’s figuring out what you’re hungry for. Chinese? Italian? American? Mexican? Then, you have to navigate the menu, with…
