That’s good enough for me: Urban Cookies’ namesake snack is full of chocolate, oats, walnuts and coconut I’d like to keep cookie baking on my pre-Christmas agenda, but just in case the marathon of holiday parties catches up with me, I have a sweet back-up plan: buy a few dozen…
Evil genius: Tammie Coe’s irresistible Ooey Gooey cupcakes Tammie Coe, where have you been all my life? Okay, I know you’ve been around for awhile, with your beautful fondant-draped cakes calling my name at La Grande Orange, and your platters of Ooey Gooey cupcakes tempting me whenever I stop by…
Kobe Beef America Gimme my Kobe It’s nice to have options. If you live or work in North Scottsdale, now you have even more: Taneko, the new Japanese concept from the P.F. Changs peeps, and Ippei Japanese Bistro, an upscale spot across from Cine Capri, are now open for lunch…
Larry Fitzgerald works up an appetite Ever wonder how pro athletes chow down? Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald usually chats about football on his weekly Alltel Audibles podcast, but on a recent episode, he dished on local restaurants. Here’s a look at his top ten favorite restaurants in town:…
Either the wine went to my head, or that was really Santa dropping in to say hello From the looks of the prepackaged beer pong sets they’re selling now at BevMo, you’d think beer fanatics have all the fun. But this kooky event I just stumbled upon tells me wine…
Hey — got some hot-outta-the-oven news? Hit me up at michele.laudig@newtimes.com…
If anyone should have an easy time opening a business in a cool old building downtown, it’s Matt Pool. After all, Pool got his start managing Bar Bianco for his sister, Susan, and her partner, Chris Bianco, in an old house (the neoclassical Thomas House, built in 1909, to be…
“Geez, Michele, are we driving to New Mexico?” The two guys I was dragging to dinner weren’t particularly hungry when we hopped on the I-10 in central Phoenix, but by the time we were pretty far out on the Santan 202 — that new stretch of highway south of Chandler…
My Japanese friends must get a kick out of me. I hang out with Yuko and Chinatsu every year when I visit Japan, a place I’ve been obsessed with since childhood. (Blame it on Hello Kitty, Mr. Miyagi, and the early ’80s wave of Japanese fashion designers.) I met the…
So much eye candy, so little time. Visiting Olive & Ivy, a new dining hot spot at the Scottsdale Waterfront, is sensory overload in every way. Open about a month now, Olive & Ivy is the latest enterprise from Fox Restaurant Concepts’ Sam Fox, mastermind behind a number of other…
I’ve always loved to read menus. All it takes to make me hungry for a dish I haven’t tried yet is a vivid description and a dash of my own imagination. But I should be up front with you here, before I delve into writing about Quiessence, a charming restaurant/wine…
Everyone has desperation meals. You know, those old standbys you eat when there’s nothing in the fridge, you’re tired, time-strapped, and possibly broke, and you’re way too hungry to go to the grocery store and hunt for ingredients. (Besides, everyone knows it’s dangerous to shop on an empty stomach.) For…
It’s hilarious — and pathetic — to recall my notion of a bagel when I was a kid: rock-hard frozen rolls, usually six to a bag, that needed to be nuked or toasted to be edible. To actually be palatable, they needed to soak up a good slathering of butter…
Quick — cue the menacing B-movie horror soundtrack so I can tear at my hair and shriek, “It’s everywhere! Everywhere!” That’s how I feel when I’m behind the wheel, heading into yet another construction zone in some random part of town. I thought bumpy, torn-up roads, pylon obstacle courses, and…
Damn that Tony Bourdain. Whenever I watch No Reservations, his jet-setting culinary Travel Channel show, I end up with unbearable cravings for foreign food that I stand no chance of finding in this country. At least, not in Arizona. It’s often a dish I never knew existed, but after hearing…
This summer, I saw an amazing performance of the national anthem before a D-Backs game. The singer was a young boy with a graceful voice that made me think, “This kid’s gonna be the next Luther Vandross.” When he hit the highest note, I know I wasn’t the only baseball…
Not long ago, in a downtown starved for more restaurants of any kind, Matt Pool and his wife Erenia figured out just what the neighborhood needed: a mom-and-pop breakfast joint. So while Pool was working nights managing Bar Bianco (owned by his sister Susan Pool and her partner Chris Bianco,…
Ten years ago, architect Neil Kilby fell in love with Ro Ho En, the Japanese Friendship Garden in downtown Phoenix. He began volunteering as a gardener, and when Ro Ho En expanded to include a lush stroll garden and koi pond, the city tapped Kilby’s professional expertise as well. After…
“Urban. Latin. Sexy. Chill.” That caught my eye when I checked out the online menu for Ticoz, a self-described “resto-bar” that opened last month on Seventh Street, just north of Camelback, in the same strip that houses tiki treasure trove Go-Kat-Go. I’m not sure if those four words qualify as…
Chandler used to strike me as a mild-mannered commuter ‘burb that wasn’t so different from other booming parts of the Valley — a young population like Tempe, a historic downtown area like sprawling Mesa, and the upscale aspirations of a junior Scottsdale. But over the past several years, I’ve found…
If middle-school kids work at all, they might mow lawns or deliver papers to earn a few bucks. My first job was a little more unusual. Almost 20 years ago, I worked at my parents’ seafood shop, spending hours picking shell from piles of crabmeat for my mom’s homemade crab…
“This is cooool!” I almost blurted that out loud the first time I visited Tradiciones, a new Mexican restaurant at the Phoenix Ranch Market. From the parking lot, it doesn’t look like much, but soon I found myself in a Mexican courtyard with benches, a fountain, and a stage where…
