The Guilty Pleasure: Mighty Wings Where to Find It: McDonald’s; limited availability now, soon available everywhere Price: About a buck per piece. What it Really Costs: For most of metro Phoenix, time. For a few weeks (possibly months) now, I’ve heard that McDonald’s has a new product on the way:…
One of my favorite uses for flavored vodka has to be Lemon Drops. As far as drinks go, they’re almost foolproof. I’ll even tolerate low-rent ones made with (gasp!) bottled sour mix. While the vast majority of Lemon Drops out there are at least somewhat drinkable, a well-made one is…
The Guilty Pleasure: Twilly Dog Where to Get It: Pittsburgh Willy’s, Chandler Price: $3 What It Really Costs: Your friends’ horrified stares are icing on the cake. I’ve eaten a lot of weird things in the name of the Guilty Pleasures column. This week’s offering takes the cake, both figuratively…
Up in Canada’s Yukon Territory, a bar is missing its most famous toe. A patron took it home… by swallowing it. Apparently, the long winter nights up in Dawson City are conducive to strange behavior. Back in 1973, one of the bar regulars at the Downtown Hotel in Dawson City…
Last week, we got to tell you about a brand new pizza joint, Fired Pie. Quick version: Some guys who worked together at California Pizza Kitchen and Oregano’s got together to create their own quick-service pizza place. Since I’m the Guilty Pleasures guy, I had to make a beeline for…
I had fun writing about triple sec last week. It was one of those articles that almost asked more questions to me than it answered. After all, triple sec is but one liqueur of literally hundreds out there. Why should triple sec have all the fun? Let’s take a look…
The Guilty Pleasure: Fiery Doritos Locos Tacos. Where To Get It: Taco Bell, locations nationwide. The Price: $1.39 for regular, $1.69 for supreme. What It Really Costs: Orange fingers. By now, even the most casual observer of fast food trends has witnessed the rampant popularity of Doritos Locos Tacos at…
This week, the mailbag fell open to reveal this missive: “I have a bottle of triple sec on my shelf, and I have no idea why I have it. What is it, and what should I do with it?” As you might have guessed by the pictures on labels, triple…
This time of year, conversations at Chow Bella staff meetings tend to turn to who’s eaten what and where. With the summer travel season in full swing, we bring you Food Tours, our writers’ suggestions of what to eat and drink out of town. I keep meaning to travel around…
The Guilty Pleasure: Smothered Burrito Where To Get It: Taco Bell, locations nationwide Price: $2.99 (or $3.99 with steak or chicken) What It Really Costs: Dairy-induced heartburn. Of all the fast food items I’ve seen, few have had the rabid following of Taco Bell’s cult classic Enchirito. I never understood…
More than a few craft bartenders I know have a certain disdain for shots. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a mixed drink with an X-rated name or the bottle of the moment. They sniff that shots are vulgar, more suited to the realm of nightclubs and frat parties than Serious…
The Guilty Pleasure: Two limited-edition varieties of Oreo cookies Where To Get It: Your favorite grocery store The Price: About $3 What It Really Costs: It’s all in the aftertaste. I have to hand it to Nabisco for revving the Oreo marketing machine in recent years. The product line was…
Thanks to a recent shift change at work, I’m now off on Sundays. This means I can once more be on the receiving end of that wonderful Sunday morning drinking tradition, brunch. Some of my favorite cocktails are tailor-made for brunch. I can get picky with my brunch drinks. The…
The Guilty Pleasure: Strawberry Pop Tart Ice Cream Sandwich Where To Get It: Carl’s Jr., locations Valleywide The Price: $1.50 or so (depending on location) What It Really Costs: The damage all around is light, relatively speaking, about 320 calories. Months ago, in Chow Bella’s underground lair, we heard buzz…
The Guilty Pleasure: Midnight Mac (the DIY Pig Mac) Where To Get It: McDonald’s, locations everywhere The Price: About $6 What It Really Costs: About 900 calories, but in the middle of the night, who cares? Last week, I got to sing the praises of the Pig Mac at Brat…
One of my favorite parts of tending bar is clearing up misconceptions about alcohol. The biggest one has to be the old saw about beer before liquor or vice versa. (Answer: It doesn’t matter, except you tend to drink faster and, therefore, drink more when you start with beer.) Right…
The Guilty Pleasure: Pig Mac Where To Get It: Brat Haüs, downtown Scottsdale The Price: $9 ($10 with a fried egg) What It Really Costs: I’m glad they don’t post calories on the menu like McDonald’s does. It has long been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery…
While looking through all the Last Call columns I’ve done, I was somewhat taken aback that I’d been writing about cocktails for this long and have yet to discuss a cocktail cornerstone, the Manhattan. It’s a very elegant cocktail; it has only three ingredients, but its flavor is almost infinitely…
The Guilty Pleasure: Caramel Chocolate Pretzel Doughnut Where To Get It: Krispy Kreme, four locations Valleywide The Price: 99 cents each What It Really Costs: 420 calories for one doughnut? Yikes. Blame it on Voodoo Doughnut up in weird ol’ Portland. Ever since someone there slapped a couple of strips…
The Guilty Pleasure: Cheddar Bay Biscuits Where To Get It: Red Lobster, locations Valleywide The Price: Complimentary with your entrée order, $7.50-$26 What It Really Costs: Only 150 calories each. Good luck eating just four. If there’s one thing that we food-crazed folk have in common, it’s disdain for casual…
Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron once said “The main reason for having a lot of liquor is to show off.” You know what? He’s exactly right. We bar folk tend to be show-offs, whether through technical drink expertise, or good old extroversion. Either way, bartenders often have very impressive home bars…
The Guilty Pleasure: Habanero Lime Soft-Serve Ice Cream Where To Get It: Certain QuikTrip locations Valleywide The Price: $2.39 and up What It Really Costs: “You’re eating what?!” I feel weird writing about convenience store food. For the most part, convenience stores’ “fresh” items are of questionable provenance, sitting in…
