When Simply Bread closed nearly two years ago, it was a major blow for those of us who love crusty, European-style bread. Good news is: there’s a new bakery called Mediterra Bakehouse in town (well, in Coolidge, to be precise), and they’re turning out ravishing artisan loaves — large and…
The Spot: Gallo Blanco 401 W. Clarendon Avenue, Phoenix, 602-274-4774, www.galloblancocafe.com See also: — BLT Steak: Happy Hour Report Card — Gallo Blanco’s Doug Robson to Open New (and Slightly Different) Mexican Restaurant in March Hours: Happy Hour is offered 3 to 6 p.m. every day…
When it comes to high-quality, locally grown produce, indie restaurants, CSA members and health-conscious farmer’s market shoppers have been saying “Vaya con Maya” for nearly a decade. But these days, farmer Maya Dailey — who cultivates two acres at The Farm at South Mountain and another five acres just down…
This is part two of my interview with Todd Sicolo, executive chef of T. Cook’s and the Royal Palms Resort & Spa. If you missed part one, read it here. See also: — Chef Salad Highlights: The Funny, Astute and Provocative Comments Our Local Chefs Made in 2012 — Chef…
Chef-owner Charleen Badman and her suavecito, front-of-the-house partner Pavle Milic served their last supper at the original FnB on Stetson Drive on New Year’s Eve. And now they’re getting everything organized and spiffed up for a Tuesday opening (that’s tomorrow, January 8) at their Craftsman Court location — which has…
Welcome to Brunched, where Chow Bella samples local restaurants’ offerings for our favorite meal. Hey, you get to sleep in and eat breakfast — what’s not to like? See also: — So-So Huevos and Fabulous French Toast at SOL Mexican Cocina — Pork Belly and Chawanmushi for Bento Box Brunch…
Todd Sicolo T. Cook’s at Royal Palms Resort & Spa 5200 E. Camelback Road, Phoenix 602-808-0766 royalpalmshotel.com See also: — Josh Riesner of Scottsdale’s Pig & Pickle Dishes on Bartending Bullshit and What He Ate That You Never Will – Keenan Bosworth of Pig & Pickle Dishes about Chrysa Robertson,…
Tracy Lee hated her corporate gig, but she loved going out to eat with friends. In fact, she enjoyed taking whole groups of them on little tours of her favorite restaurants. And so three years ago, she created Dishcrawl — a guided walking tour of restaurants in the Bay Area…
Okay, we all vowed to shed a few pounds in 2013, that’s a given, but if one of your resolutions involved being a stand-up citizen and doing something good for your fellow man, here’s an easy, feel-good contribution: Pick the citrus you won’t and cannot possibly use from your trees…
Everybody likes to say that Phoenix is years behind “real” food and drink towns, and for an embarrassingly long time, that was absolutely true. Lately? Not so much. I’ve read a slew of end-of-the-year predictions about what we Americans will be eating and drinking next year, and in many cases,…
Ask any chef: Food- and restaurant-related TV may provide drama and entertainment (although even that is questionable), but it sure as hell isn’t based in reality. Feet ache, ceilings leak, employees call in sick, the health department shows up, grease traps overflow, food prices skyrocket, stoves catch on fire, customers…
Say what you will about weird weather, the economy, the election, the budget battle, gun control or whatever else has put your brow in a knot and your britches in a bunch this past 12 months, but 2012 has been a fantastic year for cocktail drinkers. Here in Phoenix, we’ve…
If you’ve been reading Chef Salad here at Chow Bella for a while, you’ve probably gleaned a few tasty nuggets about your favorite chefs: what they like to eat and where, the colleagues they admire, the mentors they’ve learned from and their views on trends and celebrity. As the interviewer,…
When the Stovanovic family, which opened the original Stanley’s Homemade Polish Sausage on McDowell in 1989, closed up shop at that location last spring, they promised a new store right across the street in the months to come. That dream never materialized, although the Stovanovics still own a retail-only shop…
Fizzy cocktails are nothing new. The Tom Collins, gin and tonic, French 75, Champagne cocktail and good old rum and Coke have been tickling noses for decades, if not centuries. But these days, bartenders in New York and San Francisco are making house-carbonated cocktails, and to hear them tell it,…
We’ll soon be saying sayonara to 2012, and as media custom would have it, we’re taking a look back at the culinary news that inspired us, enraged us, made us hungry or just gave us a good laugh. In the world of food and drink (and frankly, we don’t care…
This is part two of my interview with chef-owners of the Pig & Pickle: Josh Riesner and Keenan Bosworth. Today, it’s Bosworth’s turn. If you missed Riesner’s dish on bartending bullshit and the soul-lessness of Las Vegas, read it here. See also: Pig & Pickle Pretty Perfect Keenan Bosworth remembers…
Word on the street was that Chris Bianco had installed somebody new in the kitchen at Italian Restaurant, but nobody was quite sure who. So I called the pizza maestro and soon-to-be cookbook author (No, it won’t be entitled The Life of Pie), who confirms that he’s brought in some…
Josh Riesner Pig & Pickle 2922 N. Hayden Road, Scottsdale 480-990-1407 pigandpickle.com See also: -Pig & Pickle Pretty Perfect -Cowboy Ciao’s Lester Gonzalez Dishes On Food Truck Fantasies and His Love/Hate Relationship With the Bacon Obsession -M.J. Coe Dishes on the Weirdest Thing He Couldn’t Eat and the Death of…
It may be an old-fashioned name, but at the Desert Botanical Garden, founded by visionary environmentalist Gertrude Divine Webster in 1939, “Gertrude” has a decidedly modern ring to it. In fact, a brand new restaurant, named in her honor, is slated to open adjacent to the plant shop on the…
Rich Heider — head bartender at Market Street Kitchen and the guy who whips up the most outrageous, boozed-up hot chocolate in town — cringes at the word “mixologist,” so let’s put terminology aside for a moment. He’s a booze-slinger in possession of a sophisticated palate (the good ones always…
There was always a certain irony in the name Matt’s Big Breakfast, given that the original 800-square-foot space at the corner of 1st Street and McKinley was so insanely cramped and tiny. But when owners Matt and Ernie Poole moved the city’s most popular breakfast spot a block north to…
