It’s never too early in the day to start obsessing about lunch when you’re heading to Tempe’s Essence Bakery Cafe, where chef-owner Eugenia Theodosopoulos creates fantastic soups, sandwiches, and salads to compliment the day’s array of fresh croissants, macarons, and other pastries. Each week, she sends out a email newsletter previewing…
They have astroturf on the walls here! The folks behind The Dugout Sports Grill take game day seriously, boasting 18 flatscreen HDTVs inside and another five televisions out on the patio. If you can’t get a good view of the sports action from just about anywhere in the joint, you…
Any excuse to hang out at the iconic Arizona Biltmore resort is great (oh, that architecture!), but if you’ve got a thing for gourmet cooking, there’s extra incentive to visit, thanks to the new “Inside the Chef’s Studio” series. This will be your chance to step inside the Biltmore’s main…
Ever given in to temptation at Downtown’s Royal Coffee Bar — the hip coffee shop tucked in the back of the Phoenix Public Market — and grabbed one of those scrumptious oatmeal raisin cookies, bacon brownies, chocolate chip scones, or vanilla cupcakes to go along with your latte? I sure have,…
I left town for a whirlwind week back East — unplugged from web, email, and social media — and returned this weekend to big news I’d missed out on: that LGO Public House was pulling out of CityScape. Stunning, yes. But surprising? I hate to say it, but I’m not surprised…
Is it jumping the gun to wish it were April Fool’s Day, instead of Valentine’s Day? Not if you’re a fan of Simply Bread’s tasty artisanal baked goods. The five-year-old bakery — which served 1,400 retail and restaurant customers — reportedly shut down its operations yesterday. The company struggles weren’t…
I hate to break it to you, love birds, but it you weren’t an early bird this year, you might have a tough time getting a last minute dinner reservation for Valentine’s Day. I’ve heard that some local hot spots have been pretty much booked solid for weeks. Of course,…
Where am I again? To set foot in The Duce — a quirky mix of retail and dining in a cavernous, circa 1928 brick warehouse at Central and Lincoln south of downtown — is to experience a delighted sort of bewilderment, as if you’d stumbled into a funhouse-meets-time-machine, or at…
tastingpoland.com Why don’t we just make Super Bowl Sunday an official holiday? After all, it’s a time to gather with your family and friends, party like a rock star (albeit in front of the boob tube, unless you’re a lucky ticket holder), and eat just as decadently as you do…
Given the cultural similarities between Phoenix and L.A., it’s surprising that the Valley of the Sun isn’t already smothered in doughnuts. In La La Land, it seems like there’s a doughnut shop on every corner, in every strip mall, in neighborhoods both hip and low-rent. How that city manages to…
Thought New Year’s celebrations were last month’s news? Not when you’re talking about the lunar new year, making this the year 4079 according to ancient Chinese calendars. Today’s Chinese New Year, and the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit. Farewell, Tiger! Each of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac correspond…
Doesn’t a hearty brunch just seem like something a Southwestern restaurant should just own? Apparently chef Robert McGrath — being the Valley’s foremost authority on Southwestern flavors, thanks to that James Beard Award — agrees, and has just added brunch service to the offerings at Renegade Canteen. Cow pokes and…
After leaving PastaBar, the now-defunct downtown eatery that he founded two years ago, onetime Mario Batali protege and former Sassi chef Wade Moises headed to Adobe Restaurant at the Arizona Biltmore Golf Club with the goal of revamping the off-the-radar eatery’s breakfast and lunch menus. He hoped to eventually launch dinner…
The new year often inspires reinvention, even in the restaurant world. Among a slew of recent openings and closings was the December shuttering of Houston’s, a longtime staple at the Esplanade at Camelback and 24th Street. It was a routine lunch spot for countless office workers in the area and…
When it opened back in 2008, Cork Restaurant was a breath of fresh air in the Southeast Valley, a sophisticated fine dining destination that would’ve fit right in among Scottsdale’s top eateries but was designed to be enjoyed by folks right in its own South Chandler neighborhood. Sure enough, those of…
Even though I suspect that the folks at Cheba Hut have “420” on their minds, tomorrow they’re taking advantage of the date (“2/03”) to celebrate the passage of the Medical Marijuana Initiative, Proposition 203, with an all-day deal on munchies, plus free entertainment. All five Arizona Cheba Hut locations will have…
Back in early November, Fuego Bistro owner Jeff Ward told me he was about to demolish the old Nixon’s space at the Esplanade and begin work on creating Fuego Tacos, a casual spinoff of his Latin-inspired eatery at 7th Street and Bethany Home. The renovations are finally finished, and the…
The Valley’s hot ticket is chef Bernie Kantak’s brand-new gastropub Citizen Public House, which just opened its doors two weeks ago and specializes in bar snacks with a gourmet spin and contemporary American cuisine tinged with Eastern European influences (think pork belly pastrami with spaetzle and brusssels sprouts sauerkraut). It’s all meant to pair…
Phoenix doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to preserving its own history, but some folks here really do care about our past. How about saving a business that goes back to 1929? In this city of tear-downs and makeovers, that’s epic. As of last week, the Bidwill family,…
From marijuana-infused vodka to good old-fashioned pot brownies, people are coming up with all kinds of smokeless THC delivery methods now that medical marijuana’s picking up momentum. Almost makes you wonder if rolling papers will become extinct . . . The latest to bubble up is Canna Cola, a new line…
It’s sort of like musical chairs, isn’t it? At Posh’s Monday “Chef for a Night” dinners, chef-owner Joshua Hebert lets someone else into the kitchen to come up with the night’s offerings. And at tonight’s event, that someone is chef Aaron May, who’ll be stepping away from his other joints — Iruna,…
I can’t say I didn’t see this one coming. Pro’s Ranch Market has shuttered its adjoining Mexican restaurant, Tradiciones, for remodeling and a menu overhaul. The date of its reopening hasn’t been determined. While the sprawling, festive sit-down eatery was a New Times favorite in its early days, last year I found…
