The day after I got back to Tokyo, my sweetie and another friend and I trekked up to Mt. Takao, outside the city. So many restaurants have plastic models of food on display outside, but at one place, they had a cute display made out of papier-mache. Engrish is everywhere!…
The lunch set at Imobou, this tiny restaurant on the northern edge of Maruyama Park in Kyoto. The place has been there for generations, and it’s famous for the dish on the lower left: a kind of boiled potato with dried cod. I dutifully ate it, but it had a…
Edible souvenirs in Himeji: Bean-paste-filled pancakes with images of Himeji Castle. Can you imagine having this right in the middle of town? This castle is the pride and joy of Himeji, a.k.a. Phoenix’s sister city in Japan. I’d been there eight years ago, but it was fun all over again…
Aw, thanks for worrying about me, guys! Everything’s cool, I’m alive and well, but just a little jet-lagged. As some of you know, and some have correctly guessed, I was on my annual jaunt to Japan, this time for a bit longer than in years past. My pre-vacay trying-to-get-ahead workload…
Last August, when I heard that Sabuddy, the popular Israeli restaurant in Tempe, had opened a second location in Scottsdale, I took it as a sign of progress (and felt a pang of envy of folks who live and work near the new spot on Shea Boulevard). I’m not a…
When I heard chef Brian Ford was opening his own place, I got excited. The last place on his resumé was Quiessence, the wonderful fine dining spot at the Farm at South Mountain, so I expected something good from Madelyn’s Restaurant & Wine Bar. But when I heard the new…
Just when you thought the intersection of 40th Street and Campbell couldn’t get any more mobbed, along comes radioMILANO, the latest hotspot from LGO Hospitality (the folks behind Postino, La Grande Orange, and Chelsea’s Kitchen). Imagine a cocktail-centric Postino with the frenetic, open-kitchen buzz of La Grande Orange, and then…
People are getting restless. The oppressive late-afternoon sun is glaring down on the parking lot outside Desert Body & Custom in Chandler, and about 50 onlookers — many of them in wheelchairs — are gathered, waiting for the body shop owner to stop fidgeting with a shoddy microphone. He’s standing…
Paul Markow Mark Tarbell gets some sweet airtime this September. Last fall, the gregarious Mark Tarbell — chef-owner of fave Phoenix eatery Tarbell’s — traveled to New York to appear on The Food Network’s Iron Chef America. He was joined by chef de cuisine Paul Steele and operating partner Jim…
I just confirmed with the folks at Market Street at DC Ranch that two upscale eateries — The Tavern and Baroque Luxe Lounge — closed at the end of last week. The former started off as Star-Spangled Tavern, a spendy comfort food concept from Blue Wasabi owner Jimmy Carlin and…
In observation of National Independents Week (clever name!), Local First Arizona, the new face of Arizona Chain Reaction, is offering a sweet 20 percent discount coupon for 35 participating local businesses (including lots of great restaurants, such as Kazimierz, Duck & Decanter, Twisted, Uncorked, and more) if you pledge to…
1.) Mamey agua fresca at Phoenix Ranch Market — I thought I’d tried the full lineup of drinks at Phoenix Ranch Market, but the other day, on a quick lunch break with a coworker, I saw a milky pink liquid called Mamey along with the usual offerings, like Pina, Jamaica,…
So I heard from Carson Quinn yesterday. He’s the owner of Camus, the scene-y bar/restaurant at the Clarendon that’s been closed since late April. Quinn couldn’t talk about the current legal troubles between Camus and the Clarendon that spawned from the incident that shut down the restaurant, but he did…
Just because Phoenix doesn’t have a Little Italy doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of Italians here. You just have to know where to look. A few months ago, when I was researching a story about Arlecchino Gelateria (“The Big Chill,” May 3), I was pleasantly surprised to see so many…
According to Ben Bethel, the owner and general manager at the Clarendon, a new restaurant will debut at the hotel by late summer. It’ll be called C4, and the menu will feature casual Asian fusion dishes with a Southwestern touch — sunomono with chili flakes, gyoza with habanero sauce, ramen…
For me, reviewing restaurants is so personal, so subjective, that it’s hard to imagine anyone doing it with an actual checklist in hand. But for employees of AAA whose full-time job involves judging more than 60,000 dining establishments across the nation, determining a restaurant’s Diamond Rating comes with a set…
Hey, it’s nice to finally see some more action at Artisan Village — Sister’s Homestyle Cafe Express just opened for business last Friday, serving barbecue, fried chicken, jambalaya, and all those tasty-sounding sides that caught your attention in the subject line. (Sorry — I make myself hungry, too, just so…
Okay, so tomorrow night’s Digestif tasting at Kazimierz (see my last post) doesn’t have a mystery dessert anymore. Here’s the lowdown, straight from pastry guru Tracy Dempsey: Olive oil torte (light hint of rosemary) with fresh cherries in a vanilla bean red wine (little balsamic vin for good measure) glaze…
Even though Digestif Urban Enoteca, restauranteur Peter Kasperski’s new “Cal-Ital ‘soul food'” spot at Fred Unger’s indie-glam SouthBridge development, isn’t supposed to open until this October, antsy foodies eager to sample chef Payton Curry’s creations can get in on two four-course tasting menus that will be served at Kazimierz World…
This sounds like fun: On Saturday night, from 5 to 10 p.m., the Irish Cultural Center will host the Bloomin’ Beerfest, a Bloomsday party with beer tastings from Sonoran Brewing, Oak Creek Brewing, Rock Bottom Breweries, Copper Canyon Grill & Brewpub, and other members of the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild…
People often ask me about how I decide what restaurants to review, and how I find them. Well, there’s really no formula for it. A lot of the time, I get tips from friends, I hear about new places that’ve opened, or I find a noteworthy spot that has never…
Do you love knives like a samurai loves katana, or are you just looking for a new chef uniform? Former chef Eytan Zias dropped me a line recently to tell me about his new shop, Phoenix Knife House, located at the corner of Goldwater and Indian School in Scottsdale: My…
