Watch out, Hooters. Move over, Tilted Kilt. Twin Peaks, the Dallas-based “breastaurant,” an actual term used to describe restaurants that sport scantily clad women as waitresses, is busting into Scottsdale — get it!? — BUSTING!!! (sigh.) Billing itself as, “the ultimate man cave,” and featuring comfort food, draft beer, and…

Last week, I drove by the Krispy Kreme on Indian School Road and it was closed — yep, as bare as an Original without the glaze. Curious, I called some other locations in town and was met with stone cold doughnut silence. Except for the one in Mesa. “I can’t…

Sure, bacon is considered “meat candy,” we’re all comfortable with that, but Austrian artist and photographer Jasmin Schuller has taken the “meat as sweets” concept one step farther — waaaaay farther. Using ingredients such as meat scraps, blood, raw meat, and a bucket of animal grease, Schuller, for her series…

“Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!” If you like Panda Express, that’s what you’ll be saying when you find out about the new one being built on Indian School Road (Indian School and 7th Street) next to a…

Last year we marked the hundred day countdown to Best of Phoenix by sharing our 100 Favorite Dishes with you. Now we’re back – with the 2011 edition. Have a suggestion for a dish you’d like us to try? Leave it in the comments section or email laura.hahnefeld@newtimes.com. 40: Toffee…

Jeff Fischer, owner of Lux Coffeebar in Central Phoenix, tells me a question he asked Chris Bianco a while back. “I asked him why he started his pizzeria,” Fischer says. “He said, ‘I did it because I knew if I liked it, other people would like it, too.'” That thinking…

Who doesn’t love a room with a view, let alone a restaurant with one. Open Table, the online restaurant reservations provider, has identified the top 50 restaurants in America with the most scenic views. Two restaurants from the Valley make the cut — which isn’t bad considering that Open Table…

“I try not to think about it,” says chef Cullen Campbell, owner and chef of Crudo, who was recently forced out of the Steven Paul Salon, where Crudo made its home on the patio and in-house cafe. “The only problem is I have to go back there to get my…

Last year we marked the hundred day countdown to Best of Phoenix by sharing our 100 Favorite Dishes with you. Now we’re back – with the 2011 edition. Have a suggestion for a dish you’d like us to try? Leave it in the comments section or email laura.hahnefeld@newtimes.com. 41: Raw…

As long as there are rules, there will be renegades. Those who, whether for themselves, humanity, or both, deem that the current playbook needs to change and are willing to give their respected fields a kick in the ass, shocking some, delighting others, and challenging the conventional. Ernest Hemingway, Albert…

For those of you missing the garden sections of the recently deceased ReadyMade magazine, take heart, there’s a new publication on the horizon and according to Trend Central, it’s “poised to become the indie authority on the natural world.” Ooo, gardening goodness! Wilder Quarterly, with roughly 180 pages in its…

Last year we marked the hundred day countdown to Best of Phoenix by sharing our 100 Favorite Dishes with you. Now we’re back – with the 2011 edition. Have a suggestion for a dish you’d like us to try? Leave it in the comments section or email laura.hahnefeld@newtimes.com. 42: Beer-Battered…

A tomato soup and grilled cheese cupcake? That sweet creation was one of four made by owner and baker Brady Breese and lead baker Salvador Garcia of the Valley’s own Urban Cookies (the name changed to OllieCake for the show) to win last night’s Cupcake Wars on the Food Network…

From Birmingham, Alabama, to Laramie, Wyoming, Food Network Magazine recently completed a cross-country road trip to discover the best slices in every state. The Arizona winner? The Salsiccia From The Parlor Pizzeria in Central Phoenix. Here’s what they had to say about it: “This popular spot had a former life…

Oh dear, it seems I may have let a big secret out of the bag. Wahsun, the tasty, no-frills, quirky Chinese restaurant I reviewed a couple of weeks ago calling it, “one of the Valley’s Chinatown-style secrets,” appears to also be a hidden favorite of a couple of other Chow…

Yeah, he didn’t stay quiet for long. Chris Curtiss, the former chef at Noca who left his position in June and is now the catering director for One Step Beyond Inc., a community-outreach program in northwest Phoenix for people with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and autism, has found himself a…

Last week, Caffe Boa owner Jay Wisniewski said local celebu-chef Payton Curry, Caffe Boa’s executive chef for a year and a half, was “getting expensive” after business started to decline at the Tempe location — and that there was a “backlash” among diners who, in addition to not liking or…

Last year we marked the hundred day countdown to Best of Phoenix by sharing our 100 Favorite Dishes with you. Now we’re back – with the 2011 edition. Have a suggestion for a dish you’d like us to try? Leave it in the comments section or email laura.hahnefeld@newtimes.com. 44: Kung…

Sheesh — take forever, landmark Phoenix restaurant. Since last October’s fire that shut down Cork ‘N Cleaver, the Arcadia chophouse that’s been around since 1978, reconstruction efforts have been taking their sweet time — but there finally seems to be an end in sight. An employee at neighboring Taylor’s Cafe…

Update: After this piece was published, Wisniewski called to clarify that Payton Curry wasn’t overpaid, but was getting expensive. Charleen Badman, Bernie Kantak, Silvana Salcido Esparza — who needs ’em? Jay Wisniewski, owner of Caffe Boa, the Italian-inspired eatery in Tempe, is convinced you don’t need a big-name chef to…