After days of eating sleep-inducing Thanksgiving turkey, I’m ready for a jolt to my taste buds. And Bradley and I are absolutely starving. After spending the day fastening a new, remarkably heavy metal roof to my barn, struggling in the chill and gusting winds of a wintry Sunday, we’ve worked…
Call it a Spanish invasion. At the same time Bistro Madrid (see review in this issue) opened in Ahwatukee this spring, Ibiza Café threw open its doors within rock-tossing distance of the canal at Scottsdale and Camelback. Named after an island off Spain’s coast, the restaurant isn’t all authentic Spanish…
Q.I feel so stranded in Fountain Hills. Where can I find good, authentic Italian food? A.Skip over to Olives Big City Italian on North Saguaro Boulevard, overlooking the eastern foothills of Fountain Hills. Signatures include baked-on-site focaccia and olive bread with pesto, “pastabilities” (create your own pasta plate), “drunken calamari,”…
Never underestimate the power of word of mouth. I rely on it heavily when choosing where to eat. If, for instance, a chef tells me he despises some new place, I’m there in a heartbeat. The latest place to hate seems to be The Table, a tiny two-dozen-seat bistro just…
Mom is making macaroni and cheese. The noodles are boiled and drained. The saucepot sits on the stove, heat rising to slow burps of milk, cream and chunked Velveeta. She takes the pan, pours the thick cheese liquid over the pasta, and frowns. “I forgot to put the mustard in,”…
I’ve just hired a CPA and am quite optimistic about the future. He promises he can make my money management — both dollars I’ve got — a breeze. I came in seeking advice on how to wrangle a major investment: not buying a house, but eating dinner out in north…
Chu-hai is an evil, evil thing. The base of that Japanese cocktail called chu-hai — an alcohol named shochu — tastes like nothing. Just soft, clean liquid, with a lurking shadow of melon and rice. The shochu spirit is similar to vodka, but more suave. When mixed with any variety…
Choose a three-course meal:
cream of asparagus soup,
cornmeal-crusted ocean
perch, and assorted pastry plate: $13
480-603-1066. Hours: Lunch, Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Reservations required, taken in 15-minute increments.
Former Arizona governor John Fife Symington III was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and now he’d like to stick one in ours. Ever since he abruptly resigned his political post in 1997 after a federal fraud conviction of using false financial statements to obtain loans, he’s been…
James Beard Award-winning chef Janos Wilder has finally departed Tucson for the big city. Sort of. The big city is the Gila River Indian Reservation and its new Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa. And while Wilder helped plan the concept and menu for the property’s glamorous Kai restaurant,…
It’s been the kind of week I’d rather just forget. Nothing’s been going as smoothly as it should. Now I’m camped out at Iguana Mack’s, a new Chandler food hall that describes itself as a “hip dining experience” celebrating the “early Arizona desert oasis: the Roadhouse.” Groovy concept, I’m thinking…
Michael Lewis shakes his head politely as I boast where I’m heading for dinner. Owner of Drinkwater’s Liquor and Cheese in north Scottsdale, he’s wrapping up my purchase of a bottle of Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio, and hasn’t heard of BYO Bistro, a new restaurant in Phoenix that capitalizes, appropriately…
He’s here. He’s gone. He’s here again. Two years ago, chef-owner Razz Kamnitzer moved his Razz’s Restaurant across the parking lot to a new, improved space on the southeast corner of Scottsdale Road and Shea (his previous location, in the way back of the same complex, was virtually impossible to…
I hate Qwest. This is not a random pronouncement, but an unwavering truth. If Qwest could be whittled to one person, I’d hunt him down, strap this horrid excuse for a human being into shackles, toss him in a dark shed and subject him to the same torture he’s giving…
Restaurateurs Lizabeth and Dennis Sirrine are requesting that New Times make a correction to our recent Best of Phoenix supplement (September 26). The Sirrines, owners of Rancho de Tia Rosa in Mesa, are “really upset” that their restaurant did not receive an award, and contend we “really made a mistake…
Not just one, but two restaurant servers last week refused to send my dessert up in flames. I ordered dishes traditionally prepared au flambé, but management wouldn’t allow the servers to handle tableside infernos; they said it was something about fire codes. I smelled a rat. The Terrace Dining Room…
Pity the humble chicken. Few edible creatures are so vastly consumed, yet so socially snubbed. We may roast a chicken for our relaxed family table and enjoy it greatly, but in nicer restaurants, we skip it. Real foodies, I hear again and again from my snootier friends, scorn the simple…
Some things are just so male. There are events that fascinate guys in ways I’ll never understand. Like last week, after a squirrel crawled into my car engine, I considered it a bad thing. After driving with me a few blocks, the poor creature didn’t fare well at all. My…
Yes, that was us (the New Times group) crashing the 944 party last week at Christopher’s Fermier and Brasserie. 944 is a new magazine that, as far as I can figure, celebrates breast implants. It’s a glossy four-color thing plush with photos of drunken women hanging out (literally) in the…
We need another upscale steak house. Not. So many of these fancy meat markets have opened up in the Valley over the past year, I’ve got to wonder about the potential of a cow shortage. Not only are there so many beef-oriented restaurants around suddenly, but the portions they serve…
New baby smell. If a manufacturer could package that, I’d buy it by the bucket. And I don’t even like kids all that much. But the owner of Manila Café in Chandler is jostling a teeny child on her arm and stops by our table to show the infant off…
Excuse my drool. Richardson Browne, owner of Richardson’s and Dick’s Hideaway in Phoenix, is opening a new restaurant. And it sounds so good that, after printing out the e-mail information I begged out of him, I’m tempted to eat it. He’s been highly secretive about his plans for the longest…
