Food & Drink

Turkey. France. Mexico. Morocco. Italy. List of vacation destinations? Nope. These are just a few of the countries whose culinary traditions Charleen Badman skillfully plucks from her vast mental Rolodex of flavor combinations and techniques, creating some of the best and most elegant food in the country. Badman, who won a James Beard Award earlier this year, knows that cooking begins with the sun, rain, and soil. She tirelessly seeks out the best and most arcane of what Arizona’s premier farmers and ranchers have to offer. She then gives our state’s top-notch produce her royal, global treatment, plating the likes of Mexican pickled shrimp with fennel, and lamb loin with purple peas chermoula. Badman sources local date varietals for simple salads, seeming to extract the maximum flavor from every ingredient. She uses chiltepin and soft tofu, celtuce and tepary beans. She’s at the apex of her culinary superpowers, and she glorifies the bounty of Arizona like no other chef behind a stove today.

Though not located in the crook of bustling downtown Phoenix or the reviving Melrose District, Cotton & Copper stands as a crown jewel of the dining destination that is the northeast corner of Rural and Warner roads. This 50-seat south Tempe restaurant and bar overseen by Chef Tamara Stanger serves New Arizona-style dishes and thoughtful cocktails. Food enthusiasts may be interested in knowing how many of the ingredients in Stanger’s dishes are foraged from the surrounding Sonoran Desert. Heck, even the eatery’s name ticks off two of Arizona’s Five Cs. Aside from Cotton & Copper’s progressive Arizonan cooking style, another draw is bartender Sean Traynor shaking up house cocktails in the saloon-style bar, including the must-try Agua Caliente.

Even through the fantastic river of high-end wine, beer, and sake that comes with the drink pairing, a meal at Binkley’s is something you can see clearly in your memory long after the storied night goes down. Structured like a dinner party at a friend’s, the meal begins on the patio for a few courses, moves into the bar room, and finishes in the cozy formal dining room. At any point during your meal, you can rise and wander around the bungalow where the magic steadily unfolds, the spell seamlessly cast by Kevin Binkley, Amy Binkley, and their highly capable staff. You can even go into the kitchen and watch the chefs cook, if you please. Binkley is an inspiring talent, plating the likes of micro lamb pastrami sliders, apples in chimichurri, Hokkaido scallops poached for 38 seconds, and a carnival of playful, perfectly executed small plates, some two dozen in all. A meal at Binkley’s is like a trip to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, but for adults who love food and appreciate living genius.

A lot of our Best of Phoenix categories are close calls. Not this one. Opened by Dom Ruggiero and Charles Barber in February, Hush Public House has been plating A-plus food since the very beginning. Barber has assembled a rock-solid drink program based on classic cocktails, and manages the front of the house with the bonhomie and familiarity of an old friend from college grown up and moved on to big things. Ruggiero has proven to a large audience what his followers already knew: He is a rare talent whose food overflows with heart and soul. On a nightly basis, he displays his mastery of plant and animal, land and sea, and giant, smoky, chile-driven flavor combinations as well as subtle balancing acts (pea, strawberry, salty cheese, pepper, olive oil). Just a half-year in, many dishes already feel like time-honored classics — oxtail “Italian beef” and chicken liver mousse most of all. The best thing about Hush is how young it is, and how great this already 10/10 restaurant could one day become.

Subash Yadav’s food draws from both north India and Nepal, the countries of his parents, crossing the border as freely as his truck crosses the Valley. His most popular plate? The momo, a rarity in this part of the world. Yadav fills his Himalayan dumplings with chicken, beef, or vegetables. They are lavishly spiced with ginger, turmeric, and other warm flavorings. The sloping walls of these Nepali-style dumplings are thick and rich, and disclose hot, tender interiors, plus intense flavors lengthened by cilantro and chile sauce. Be sure you order these should you spot the blue-and-white truck, and be sure to round them out with Yadav’s other memorable offerings, like mango lassi with cardamom and saffron. Yadav is just getting started. He’s looking to expand his menu — and his momo styles.

In February, the two-day Devour Culinary Classic celebrated its 10th anniversary with a whirlwind of a weekend food festival. The Desert Botanical Garden continues to be the ideal setting for such a showcase of local food and drink, as attendees are able to weave through the garden’s many sections and pathways, browsing vendors busy plating and pouring. Memorable offerings from the 2019 event included mega shrimp from Bourbon & Bones, wagyu brisket from Roka Akor, toasted head cheese from Welcome Diner, and jamon iberico ice cream from Talavera. Devour’s complimentary wine glasses did not stay dry for long, especially when passing booths manned by Pillsbury Wine Company or The Shop Beer Company. Beloved chefs were also in the mix, including Silvana Salcido Esparza, Lori Hashimoto, and Christopher Gross. In addition, the weather was ideal — sunny and chilly, even for February. We’re excited to see what organizers Kimber Lanning and Local First Arizona have in store for the 11th annual Devour Culinary Classic.

Many had high hopes for the first-ever Arizona Bao Fest, held on March 24 at Unexpected Art Gallery, so much so that people were lined up for samples of steamed buns, noodles, takoyaki, rice bowls, skewers, boba, and desserts from more than 10 local eateries. To stave off long waits, organizers implemented staggered admission, with half-hour entry times throughout the day. But lengthy delays ensued, as did sunburns. More than 3,000 people tried to attend, cramming into the parking lot on Polk Street. People complained on social media about the long lines, the lack of food, the number of actual bao vendors, the parking, the way tickets were presold, and so much more. However, we don’t mean to be entirely bitchy. We sincerely mean it when we say better luck next year, because bao are the bomb.

For a few seasons now, Sacha Levine has been translating the earth’s bounty into some unforgettable food at Singh Meadows. She has used an orange blossom gastrique to sweeten a deconstructed Napoleon, teetering with layers of peak-season strawberries and whipped goat cheese. She fries herbaceous falafel for sandwiches, fritters charged with jalapeno, leeks, and green garlic. She imbues nuanced tang into a bowl of Anasazi, cranberry, and runner beans, the fine zap coming from pickled fennel and escabeche. Her menu rotates with the seasons like an out-of-control airport door. And that’s a good thing, because if you’ve eaten at Singh Meadows even once since Levine took over, you know that you’ll have to be back again in a few weeks, when half the menu has morphed into a new set of enchanting creations.

This year, we’ve tried our hardest to highlight how food waste is a big issue. And in the spirit of offering solutions along with problems, we’ve written about what regular folks can do — both at the restaurant and household level. Phoenicians may choose from a couple of new habits to reduce food waste, including smarter grocery shopping, practically ignoring expiration dates, and loving leftovers. These are all forms of waste diversion, and part of the Reimagine Phoenix initiative — a Phoenix Public Works Department program designed to increase the city’s waste diversion rate to 40 percent by 2020, then, hopefully, to a big fat zero by 2050. The Reimagine Phoenix program hopes to do this through educational outreach on the five pillars of waste diversion (some of which may sound familiar) — reduce, reuse, recycle, reconsider, and reimagine.

You’d balk if your grandma told you she invented the apple pie or your cousin said he came up with the first bite of sushi. But Julio César Morales, curator of the Arizona State University Art Museum, takes his grandfather’s accounts of helping to make the first Caesar salad, along with notorious gangster Al Capone and a chef at the Caesar’s Hotel in Tijuana, Mexico, to heart. Family lore says the trio put the salad together one night during Prohibition, using what was left in a hotel restaurant kitchen after an onslaught of tourists practically wiped them out. He’s visited the hotel, shared his family’s oral history through art, and still makes the salad today for friends and family. Morales knows food lore can be tricky, but credits his grandfather’s stories with helping to fuel his shared passion for art and culinary creations. Every family tale should be so inspiring.

The old Rose & Crown building in Heritage Square recently morphed into Anhelo, a playful restaurant helmed by 28-year-old Chef Ivan Jacobo. Until he rewired the lighting and relaid the floors of this spot, refreshing the structure while preserving the old charm, Jacobo helmed a cult pop-up called Hidden Kitchen. The whimsical vibe of that bygone endeavor carries over to the space of the old building, made new by some of Jacobo’s uncommon ideas. Giving to charity. Operating with almost no fridge space. Going way out of his way to compost. Plating a ceviche that features not marine life but cubes of watermelon. Coating Caesar salad in a blanket of cheese. Plating a cluster of scallops on one point of a sweet potato ring tracing the rim of the dish. And crafting some of the more surprising desserts you can find these days, like granitas and pavlovas with pickled strawberries, and a cold quenelle of salted caramel ice cream striped with honey surrounded with fixings to turn you into a kid again.

Fate Brewing opened in Scottsdale in 2012, but there was an issue: There already was a similarly named brewery in Colorado. So, in 2016, Scottsdale’s Fate Brewing Company had to reopen as McFate Brewing, a nod to founder Steve McFate. Eventually, a second Scottsdale location opened. But actual fate intervened. The Boulder, Colorado-based FATE Brewing Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2018, and McFate jumped on the chance to reclaim the original name. McFate Brewing Company was rebranded as Fate Brewing Company just in time for the opening of its third location and beer garden, this time in Tempe. The new name couldn’t feel more appropriate.

Few restaurants in Phoenix have ever gotten as much bad publicity as The Monocle. The restaurant and bar was set to open in 2017 until Phoenix New Times revealed that co-owner Arthur John Bachelier was a convicted sex offender who served six years for having sex with a minor. That prohibited him from obtaining a state liquor license. Bachelier went on the lam after he was convicted of probation violation. Law enforcement officials finally caught up with him in Seattle, where he was working at another restaurant, and he is back behind bars. But there’s a happy ending for the historic Phoenix building, at least. It finally reopened this year as The Farish House, taking the original name of the 1899 brick home near Roosevelt Row. And early reports on the neighborhood bistro are quite promising: Our food editor called it “ideal for a date night or a quiet family dinner.”

Jobot is why God created coffee shops. It makes the Friends gang’s episodic hangouts at Central Perk look juvenile and tame. The long-standing Roosevelt Row establishment has grown into its new location at Third Street, and has beat all the odds to maintain the inclusive and unpretentious vibe of its old bungalow setting on the Row (perhaps accomplished by simply not turning half of the lights on). With excellent espresso alongside great craft beer selections, a full bar, a gated patio, an ice cream stand, and a full kitchen with vegan options, even the pickiest of your friends will find something to love here. Especially if it’s bingo night. Or karaoke night. Or open mic night. Or, it’s First Friday and the place is packed full of happy people watching the teenage nu-metal cover band across the street. Jobot is the place to take anyone and everyone.

El Charro is more than a coffee shop experience. Husband-and-wife owners Francisco and Azul Peralta, former workers in STEM fields, have drawn from their world travels and aimed for more of a salon vibe. They hit that target. Sit at the bar, and unbidden, Francisco may pour you high-end mezcals, just so you can taste. This friendly duo source coffee blends from Mexico and mix some fascinating brews with them, including horchata-coffee hybrids and lattes fortified with marigold liqueur from Guadalajara. There is food (though there’s no kitchen). There are folks hanging out, typing, reading, or talking under a mural of Frida Kahlo painted by the couple’s daughter, Geraldine. There are group painting sessions, open mics, and musical artists. This could easily be your office. This could easily be your playground.

MacAlpine’s is an iconic spot on the boundary of downtown Phoenix that seems never to have aged in 60 years. There are red booths, jukeboxes, and an antique store (you can buy saddle shoes!) attached to the restaurant, along with endless syrup options and ice cream sodas available to order with fun names referencing pop culture. The staff wear those pink dresses you won’t see anywhere else; essentially, this dessert haven is like living in the moment when Tobey Maguire arrives in Pleasantville, except it’s not black-and-white — it’s full color, but just as beautiful a thing. So pop a quarter in the jukebox, order soda and a pie, chat up the friendly staff, and forget what year it is. The ’50s are just around the corner.

Ever had an au jus made with preserved ocotillo flowers? How about White Sonora wheat pasta tossed in miso, made from Gambel oak acorns foraged from the forest near Payson? Scallops and fermented blueberry paste? No? How about pickled palo verde sprouts with a tang to sub for capers? When you order correctly at Cartwright’s in Cave Creek (hint: tasting menu), you eat in a radical, galvanizing sphere apart from what we expect from our dining scene, but one vital to eating in our state in 2019. Whether it’s ga’ivsa and Navajo steamed corn mingled under line-caught fish, or an artful composition squiggling through a smear of saguaro jam, Chef Brett Vibber’s creations wheel you through the groves, washes, and pine forests far beyond town. He leads his kitchen crew out into the backcountry to forage for ingredients like sumac and wild grapes. Many are pickled, jammed, dried, or otherwise preserved for select use well beyond their seasons. In recent years, Vibber has grown and fine-tuned his foraging program, which is exciting for this pioneer of New Arizonan cuisine. Eating at Cartwright’s is eating Arizona.

Is there anything better than knocking off work early to get cheap drinks and eats? (Answer: no.) Lovecraft in north central Phoenix is our favorite place to observe happy hour, which runs from 3 to 6 p.m. every day. The “ale house, bottle shop, and smoke kitchen” does a progressive happy hour; the closer to 3 you get there, the cheaper things are. We like the broken chip queso dip and the smoked jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped with bacon, and it’s always fun to pick out a can of beer from the fridge (there’s a great selection). Of course, we like to visit Lovecraft any time the doors are open for the green chile pork burrito, the beers on tap, the cool decor, and the friendly atmosphere.

Harlow’s Café sates every morning mealtime craving imaginable: the early-bird cup of joe, the quick and healthy, the greasy and hearty — and the chorizo and eggs may be the best hangover cure in the state. Oh, and if a hair of the dog is your thing, find solace in the fact that Harlow’s recently added booze to the menu. This experience is everything you could want from a classic local diner that has been open for business for over 40 years. Everything is made from the greasy pits of Arizona love, from the Pancho platter (pancakes, eggs, and bacon or sausage) to the Percy omelet (onion, garlic, bell pepper, tomato, sausage, and cheese).

The ride was supposed to be a preconditioning workout to get us primed for a planned 40-mile ride around South Mountain. We got an early start with our riding partner, who would lead the morning’s trek. But after only about seven or eight miles of pedaling through local neighborhoods and canal paths on a perfect early-spring morning, we landed at O.H.S.O. for its “beer brunch.” From there, any thought of improving our fitness level was pure fantasy. O.H.S.O., which has four Valley locations, touts its Arcadia pub as bike- and dog-friendly, with a patio facing the nearby well-used Arizona Canal trail that, at that point, is just north of Indian School Road. We ordered avocado toast, which with the beer was $13. The price was good enough to justify a second beer. Yes, the bike ride home seemed very long indeed. We’ve been back to O.H.S.O. on two wheels a couple of times since then, but planned it better — this is best done after, not during, the ride.

Bringing up the Phoenix neighborhood staple Windsor as a brunch option after a lengthy night fueled by laughs and libations is the most assured way to win the debate with your friends about where to nurse your party wounds and reminisce about the night before. Let’s face it: Brunch is mainly about quelling the hangover that screams for your immediate attention from the howling, depths of your core. In such a frail condition, you want to know that you’re going somewhere that is devoid of judgmental eyes and also unwavering when it comes to the quality of grub, booze, and atmosphere. We get it. Your demonic hangover demands a shady patio, a build-your-own Bloody Mary bar, endless coffee, biscuits and gravy, french fries, and — oh, dear God — a bacon cheeseburger? Okay, this might be more serious than we thought. Get to Windsor’s brunch, stat.

Pickles. Chicken. Heat. That’s what’s for lunch at Monroe’s, founded by Larry White, the man behind Lo-Lo’s Chicken & Waffles. Modeled after the Nashville-style hot chicken meals that have become a trend from coast to coast, this chicken packs the kind of intensity you want when skipping the bagged lunch al desko. Chicken gets a heavy breading. You could probably design maps of each piece’s varied landscapes. All that furrowed, contorted, brown-fried casing doesn’t have the shatter you would expect — but there, rising hard and fast, comes the heat. The secret is to dig in before the pepper sauce that makes the chicken molten sogs the exterior. Milkshakes frost over the heat some. If you get a chicken sandwich, the slaw will control the fire and lend a nice snap. However you do Monroe’s, you’re in for a downtown lunch with the personality to make your day better.

If you have never descended the dark stairwell into The Rokerij, the cellar bar at Richardson’s, put this unique Phoenix experience at the top of your list. Sitting at “the wood” is serious business, and when you belly up to the bar in this beautiful underground restaurant, you immediately know that you’re in for something special. In this intimate, cabin-like setting, the bar is the focal point, stretching magnificently through the middle of the place. The shelves on the back wall are filled with an impressive lineup of spirits, and the happy hour (not to mention reverse happy hour) doesn’t skimp on the wine list. Experienced bartenders, dim lighting, classic rock coming through the speakers, and a beautiful copper bar top are all reasons to get to The Rokerij early, pull up a stool, and stay late.

Bar food is easy to over-enjoy, because you’re most likely drinking while you’re enjoying it. But occasionally, bar food is a tier above some microwaved pizza and wings (not that those aren’t good). Enter Bao Chow, specializing in handheld Taiwanese … tacos, let’s say. It’s found in the Whiskey Lounge at the famous Yucca Tap Room music venue in Tempe. A pillowy, mildly sweet, steamed bun is wrapped around bulgogi, fried chicken, or tofu. The fried chicken is heaven-sent and deserves its own sentence, which is this one. Other Bao Chow menu items include tacos, build-your-own burgers, breakfast stuff, wings, and maybe the best basket of piping-hot tots you can imagine. Bao Chow is open to people of all ages daily until 7 p.m., and then you must be over 21 to be at the Yucca. The kitchen’s open from 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily.

Imagine not flying to France, but still dining European villa-style with a customized menu and privacy. There is a reason why Café Monarch was voted the second-most romantic restaurant in the country by TripAdvisor. Couples will receive special attention from the staff, and if it seems you’re treated like family, it may be because the restaurant is family-owned and -operated. Gustavo Lewkowicz is the chef. His wife, Sofia, is in charge of the decor, and their sons Christian and Phillip run the place. The restaurant’s farm-to-table ingredients ensure the highest quality in cuisine. In fact, the Traveler’s Choice Awards named it the third-best restaurant in the United States for fine dining. Only two New York City restaurants finished higher. This true gem is a place to linger with your love and let the romance take center stage.

Socializing can be difficult with little ones running around, especially when you want to catch up with an old friend over a cup of coffee. There’s no way anyone can carry on a conversation at a local fast-food restaurant or kid-themed pizza joint (let alone want to eat there). Don’t fret, parental units. The Teapot, located in a restored downtown house just south of Roosevelt Street, is both a cool spot and a place for the little ones to play. Created by two parents, one of whom hails from London, the menu consists of delicious British pastries, kid-friendly noshes, and handcrafted caffeinated beverages and juices. What makes The Teapot perfect for families is the expansive play place in the backyard complete with pedal cars surrounded by canopied benches. This makes The Teapot a hip yet practical hangout.

It doesn’t get any better than Welcome Diner’s patio when you’re kicked back, drink in hand, watercolor sun setting or night already late and weird. Under the green and red neon lights that sear the palm-treed sky over the Garfield District, you, me, her, them, him, they, everybody in this nook of town seems to be having a blast. The hurricanes and palomas flow like oxygen, booze sopped up by poutine and fried chicken and chorizo meatloaf. This is the kind of spot that seems to vanquish your goals and dreams of faraway places, leaving you content in the moment. It’s also the kind of small and mismatched but ideal patio that wouldn’t even need good food or drink, but has both, making Welcome a Phoenix landmark.

Grand Avenue Pizza Company doesn’t open until 4 p.m. It stays open until 3 a.m, but only five days a week (four in the summer). Do that math. Frustrating as it may be for the lunch crowd, this represents a lot of what Grand Avenue is about. It knows its vision, and it doesn’t mess with a winning formula. Using all high-quality and natural ingredients (Arizona-grown when possible) and making everything in-house, Grand Avenue doesn’t need to compensate for anything with ridiculous toppings or bougie presentation. Nothing tastes better at 1 a.m. after a Van Buren dance night than a slice of pepperoni and one of its famed PB&J cookies.

Walking into this nearly 70-year-old steakhouse feels like you’re stepping into a Martin Scorsese film. When you open the back door and step into the kitchen where steaks and chops are being broiled for the hungry customers inside, it’s another world. Once you go through the kitchen’s swinging doors, a team of tuxedo-clad waiters will cater to your needs, whether it’s a martini or a filet mignon cooked perfectly to your liking. Phoenix’s history practically oozes from the red walls. So much has been said of the establishment’s founder that you knew someone would make a movie out of Jack Durant’s life (and yes, someone did). Leave what you’ve heard or seen at the door. The truth is that when you have something to celebrate, you go someplace legendary. You eat at Durant’s.

If you live in any part of the Valley remotely west, north, or even central, driving to Handlebar Diner can start to feel like a road trip pretty quickly. But that’s almost part of the experience, a vibe the residents of Eastmark, the large-scale, master-planned community in southeast Mesa where Handlebar Diner is located, don’t get. This Valentine-style diner is small inside, but the patio, with its flatscreen TVs, picnic tables, and outdoor lighting, is where you’ll want to spend breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, or just drinks. Some suggestions include the Vietnamese-style wings, Adam’s Mac and Cheese, Highway 44 raviolis, the Eastmark Cobb, and the Keto Smothered Chicken. For those cool nights on the deck, order local, imported, or domestic beers off the menu of libations, or go for a house cocktail like the Chef’s Hurricane or Handlebar Mule.

There’s only one place in town to get something Stacy style, and that’s Stacy’s Off Da Hook BBQ and Soul Food. The casual American restaurant plates “ole fashion” barbecue, fried chicken, and chitterlings, and has Kool-Aid on tap. That crispy fried chicken comes from a secret recipe concocted by owner Stacy Phipps himself, who most likely will be in the restaurant when you visit. Pair your plate with sides like creamy mac and cheese, salty green beans, collard greens, and corn muffins. Off Da Hook also offers breakfast pairings, including catfish and grits, and chicken and waffles. The dining room is as enjoyable as the menu, so sit back and take in the classic R&B; photos of icons like Rosa Parks, Wilson Pickett, and the Obama family; and of course, the plate of soul food in front of you.

Chef Stephen Jones puts the “South” in “Southwestern,” taking Southern food to gustatory and intellectual places we haven’t seen in Phoenix. He is deservedly famous for the cauliflower he gives a Buffalo treatment, replete with smoked blue cheese and pickled celery. You see final dishes like these — hoppin’ John, Nashville-style hot chicken, radish-jeweled hoe cakes — and they impress. But what you might not expect from afar is the microscopic detail and thoughtfulness that go into their components. Jones artfully pickles corn when in season. He hoards vegetable scraps and burns them into an ash used for seasoning or garnish. He has baked parsley roots in hay. Together, these small, skillful maneuvers and Jones’ calculated creative style make his cooking some of the most interesting in town.

You can grab a pint at any number of English-themed bars in town, but maybe it’s because owner Dean Thomas grew up in Cornwall, England, that Cornish Pasty Company feels more authentic. You can make a new friend as you sit on one of the communal benches while drinking from the selection of beers on tap, including offerings from local microbreweries to the finest stouts from abroad. On some nights, you can even catch a great local band playing at one of the locations. Oh yeah, did we mention the pasties? We recommend the hearty Oggie, but there’s plenty on the menu to suit your palate.

Any bar can pour you a pint of Guinness. This Mill Avenue pub will make you wait two whole minutes for your stout. The bartenders don’t mind seeing you anxiously wait for that beer, either. They know that’s the way it’s supposed to be done, setting this bar apart from the other themed bars and eateries that serve you fast rather than right. There are a variety of sandwiches, fish and chips, and an authentic boxty with braised beef on the menu for you to enjoy while drinking your brew on the outdoor patio. Afterward, sip a warm Irish coffee and sample the restaurant’s delectable bread pudding as a Celtic band plays live for you.

Every fall, German food and drinks are thrust into the spotlight during Oktoberfest, the Bavarian festival that is now celebrated all over the world by people who enjoy beer and lederhosen. But Valley residents don’t have to wait for October to enjoy hearty German fare; they just need to make the trip to Historic Downtown Glendale and grab a table at Haus Murphy’s. You might hear a server speaking German to customers when you sit down inside the wood-paneled dining room. Start with the restaurant’s famous giant Bavarian pretzel if it’s available, then pick an entree — maybe the sauerbraten with spaetzle and red cabbage, or a hearty schnitzel platter. Desserts options include an apple strudel and a chocolate sauerkraut torte. Naturally, there’s a great lineup of German beers and wines to choose from as well. So no matter what month it is, there’s a fantastic German meal awaiting you at Haus Murphy’s.

A saying that many attribute to Leonardo da Vinci captures the essence of Tratto: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” The understanding of Italian food — which from north to south is all about simple food simply prepared — as well as just how far Chef Cassie Shortino can take you into the mountains and open fields of Italy, all seen through a Sonoran lens, is unmatched in Phoenix. Tratto shapes whole-wheat cavatelli. Cuts spaghetti alla chittara. Coats boxed pasta shells in pomodoro sauce. Foods as simple as roasted chicken or chickpea crepes seem to pulse with vibrant life, especially in your memory, at the close of a meal, when taking down arcane amari. In the Chris Bianco spirit, Tratto thrives on a low-key philosophy of sourcing the freshest ingredients possible and using craftsmanship to, by the time the cooking starts, have the guts to step aside and let them shine. The result is simple, sophisticated food alive with the seasons and true to the way things are done in the old country, even if being in Arizona makes it all fresh and new.

Try to think of a Phoenix restaurant where Frasier and Niles might dine. What would be their chez away from chez? Cue Geordie’s. The historic Wrigley Mansion’s gourmet eatery, Geordie’s Restaurant, offers kitchen space to the James Beard Award-winning Chef Christopher Gross. He and his experienced culinary team plate many European dishes, including French cooking in the form of caviar, duck confit, foie gras, and the chocolate tower loved ’round the city. Geordie’s Restaurant offers lunch, dinner, small plates, happy hour specials, and one of the most exciting brunches in town. The extensive wine list offers more than 800 bottles, many from France, and all selected by award-winning wine director Paola Embry. Wrigley Mansion also offers verandas, patios with twinkling city views, five private dining rooms, and the elegant Jamie’s Wine Bar.

Prep trays at this longtime Phoenix staple have a set capacity: 77 balls of dough. Some are destined to become frybread served beside bowls of homestyle Tohono O’odham red chile. Others will crackle in molten oil before getting finished, right out of the fryer, with melted butter and liquid chocolate, which river down through dough valleys and onto the serving paper. Frybread is a complicated food. It was born from deep tragedy. But it has sustained indigenous people for generations. For a quarter-century, the Miller family has been serving it at Fry Bread House’s shifting location. When visiting, be sure you look beyond the lacy brown disks. C’emet, the indigenous Southwestern wheat tortilla, wraps soft squash burros. Green chile, with its full-throated spice powered by Hatch chiles from late summer to fall’s end, is a visceral reminder of our desert’s harsh beauty.

Peruvian food is one of the original fusion cuisines. Italian and Asian influences are a part of Los Andes’ menu, with a number of linguine and fried-rice plate options. But the real star of this hole-in-the wall west-side restaurant is the seafood. The ceviche, with its unique blend of Peruvian spices, tastes different from other traditional ceviche. The Pescado a lo Macho is a fried fish filet covered in a mixed seafood sauce that is, trust us, quite difficult to re-create. Los Andes is a journey through hundreds of years of Peruvian cuisine brought to metro Phoenix.

Da Vang is the neighborhood spot that’s regularly been selected for Best of Phoenix because it keeps its formula consistent — good food at good prices. The authentic Vietnamese menu is quite extensive, but that just means you can keep coming back for something different each time. Most of the items are under $10, but the portion sizes are anything but small. The com tam dac biet is a dish of broken steamed rice with barbecue pork, shrimp, a fried shrimp cake, a barbecue pork meatball, a crab-egg cake, shredded pork, and a fried egg. Whether you’re in the mood for noodles, sandwiches, a big bowl of pho, or one of the other soups, Da Vang is there with fresh food and quick service.

Visit Thai-E-San and you’ll get authentic, affordable food that delivers on price and serving size, whether you dine in or out. The staff is friendly and remembers regular customers’ orders. Menu highlights include the pad see ew noodles, the Royal Curry, and the coconut soup. And vegetarian or not, the fried tofu that can be added to any dish is not to be missed. If you come for lunch during the week, choose from a curry or traditional dish with your choice of protein, plus an egg roll, wonton chips, and the soup of the day. All dishes are customizable spice-wise from a mild “1” to a super-hot “5.”

The atmosphere is electric at Drunken Tiger on a Friday or Saturday night. Large and small groups of happy diners talk and laugh over the sounds of K-pop. Servers move swiftly around the space, passing out hot platters of Korean fusion food. Drunken Tiger is the place to try some traditional Asian favorites like tteokbokki and takoyaki as well as fun takes on Korean fare like bulgogi nachos and kimchi pork fries. You can’t go wrong with the Yang Nyum Chicken (popcorn chicken tossed in a spicy Korean red sauce) or the galbi. And don’t forget to explore the drink menu; Drunken Tiger has a great list of Korean beers and soju cocktails to wash down all that great food.

Japanese food is not hard to come by in the Valley, but true Japanese food is a different story. Find Hana Japanese Eatery at Seventh and Missouri avenues, occupying a strip-mall slot and offering a lengthy sushi bar, bustling dining areas, and a BYOB policy. Patrons may bring their own sake, beer, or bottle of wine for a $5 corkage fee, and the Hana staff will keep it cold. The spot has been owned and overseen by renowned Chef Lori Hashimoto — nutrition science graduate and daughter of a local vegetable farmer — since its 2007 opening. Head to Hana for a bento box at lunchtime, or something with a little more detail, like the tai nanbanzuke (fried red snapper), at dinnertime.

The east Valley has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to incredible Asian food. Many of the restaurants have opened in the last couple of years, but our favorite place for Chinese food has been around for a bit longer. Chou’s Kitchen, which serves the cuisine of northeastern China, has a diverse menu worth exploring. We love the stir-fried eggplant with minced pork and garlic sauce, the fish filet in hot chile oil, and above all, the xiaolongbao, steamed dumplings filled with soup and pork. Travel + Leisure included Chou’s Kitchen on its list of the best Chinese restaurants in the U.S. several years ago, bringing well-deserved national attention to this local favorite.

At India’s Flame, to start, the naan has a flaky, wafery bite and gives you the same warming goodness as buttered popcorn. During lunch, well-spiced cups of chai are included with a sprawling buffet, and so are bracing glasses of mango lassi. You can pick and choose from the extensive menu or ride with the buffet. In either case, don’t miss daal maharani, a creamy slurry of lentils with a mellow curry heat. A hearty, refined curry features bone-in goat, a shade chewy but rich and satisfying. The list of standouts goes on: tandoori chicken perfectly moist inside despite oven-blackening on the surface, coconut-milk-deepened korma packed with vegetables, and a nice carrot rendition of halwa for dessert. This hidden gem does it all.

This deli-cafe-grocery’s lamb tongue sandwich gets all the love. But what makes this longtime Arizona State University and Tempe staple the best isn’t its best dishes. It’s that the simplest meals and bites of food are so satisfying. A chicken shawarma sandwich explodes with juice, and gets just the sour touch it needs from pickle spears. Its pita is soft, hot and chewy, the kind of wrapping that you could eat without what it wraps. Shawarma and other sandwiches, all unreasonably cheap, are often tightly foiled and ready almost immediately. If you are even driving by this restaurant’s modest sign in its fading strip mall, at least stop in for a bag of fresh Aleppo pepper, a brick of feta, or baklava to go. Bars of baklava are simple, crackly, hypnotically syrup-soaked, and chewy on their non-crackly lower halves, with all the goodness of pecan pie and then some. They’re even great for breakfast.

The food that owner Kwasi Nyerko and Chef Mercy Boadi serve at Jollof King is Ghanaian, Nigerian, and a hybrid of the two West African countries. At a seat in the vibrant restaurant, you can happily dig into warm spoonfuls of gelatinous okra stew or egusi, a renowned African stew made with melon seeds. Some of the standouts at this low-key spot include the lumpy banku — a ball of starchy corn with a pleasant, barnyard funk built through fermentation. Nut soups star. The chef makes two, including ground-nut soup, one of Ghana’s most beloved dishes. The crimson depths are a warming, beautiful union of tomato, smooth peanuts, and, most of all, habanero. Garlic and ginger help shape it all into something soulful, and so does the pillowy fufu dumpling plopped in the bowl if you wisely opt for one. This is one of the best soups in town.

Chompie’s isn’t necessarily the Katz’s Delicatessen of greater Phoenix, but it’s close enough. Started in 1979 by the Borenstein family from Queens, New York, Chompie’s has gone from a simple bagel shop to a restaurant chain in its 40 years in the Valley. The New York-style deli and bakery lists menu items like kishka with double-baked Jewish rye, cabbage rolls, schnitzel, and that piled-high pastrami sandwich. All this, while the bakery features East Coast-esque bagels and the ultimate treat of peace, the black-and-white cookie. Chompie’s also offers holiday menus for occasions like Christmas, Passover, St. Patrick’s Day, and Yom Kippur break-the-fast.

For people who love to eat the world, one of the most exciting openings of the last year was Café Chenar in north Phoenix. This one-room restaurant — the third eatery opened by the Uvaydov family, who also run LaBella Pizzeria and Restaurant, and Kitchen 18 — serves Bukharian food. This is the cuisine of a Jewish minority in Uzbekistan, one at the intersection of Europe and Asia and at a prominent point of the old Silk Road. Being kosher, the dining room observes the laws of kashrut, meaning there’s no dairy on the menu. Steamed manti arrive in a bamboo vessel not with the customary sour cream but a ramekin of light tomato sauce that lifts the rich noodles. This is a menu that you could close your eyes, point at, and be perfectly happy. It’s loaded with plov, Cornish hen, lamb rib kebabs, and enough dumplings to fill a book — or the stomachs of a large, hungry party. During Hanukkah, the kitchen serves sufganyiot, simple and satisfying with a cup of green tea.

Verdura takes a second to process. The tables and chairs in the large dining room are spaced apart like a well-planned neighborhood. Then there are the open kitchen, plants, lava lamps, and big framed photos of Prince, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, and Joan Jett. The counter-service, plant-based eatery has fun dish names like London Calling and the CBGB Salad, but the food is all business. The carne asada nachos, made with seitan, are in the running for best nachos in town. The I’m Just a Po’boy sandwich is a pile of flash-fried mushrooms, while London Calling is “phish” and chips. Everything is spot on, but the Goth Waffle will have you popping in for a visit at random hours. It’s a warm, black-in-color bubble waffle, made with activated charcoal and topped with tart raspberry sorbet. Verdura is not just vegan-friendly — it may be vegan-converting.

Do you want to trick your carnivore friends into abandoning their sinful, meat-eating ways by showing them how stupidly good vegetarian food can be? Then go to The Coronado and prepare to be confused: Its veggie burgers are so good you’ll forget you’re not eating meat. The goat cheese and jalapeno marmalade quesadilla is so absurdly delicious it won’t matter that your hands are crazy sticky and your mouth is on fire just a little bit. The Coronado also has brunch specials that vary from week to week, outside seating, beer on tap, games in the back, and an array of beautiful and tasty baked goods.

Here’s a common complaint about many vegan food items from one flesh-loving carnivore: A lot of it tastes like soy and old tube socks. But then, Green opened up in Phoenix and Tempe, spreading the gospel of proper vegan cuisine to the steak-obsessed masses. Chef Damon Brasch had the magical idea to blend a multitude of cooking styles, yielding tasty comfort food from vegetarian or vegan ingredients that’s both familiar and daring. There are the West Coast Fries, better than any spuds from In-N-Out; barbecue wings worthy of any sports bar; and, hands down, the best crab puffs in the entire Valley. But Green does more than simply trick the taste buds into eating better — the menu shows the true versatility of spinach, chickpeas, and cabbage when prepared with a lot of care and a dash of excitement. Were it not for actual burgers or wings, Green could make a vegan/vegetarian out of almost anyone.

Food allergies and sensitivities definitely make eating out more challenging; for those who require gluten-free food, options can be limited and not always tasty. But in Jewel’s Cafe, the gluten-sensitive among us have a place where everything on the menu is safe to eat, and it’s all delicious. Jewel’s does breakfast, brunch, and lunch; highlights include the award-winning Nashville hot chicken sandwich, the chicken and waffles, and the chorizo burrito. The baked goods here also are incredible; on any given day you might find red velvet cheesecake bars, chocolate chip scones, or peanut butter bacon brownies. What we’re saying is, Jewel’s isn’t a great gluten-free eatery — it’s a great place to eat that happens to be gluten-free.

If only there was somewhere you could buy a single-origin cappuccino, and a sunflower seed brownie, and a dehydrated chicken breast for your cat, and a new apron for your mother-in-law, all in one convenient stop. Oh, wait. There is such a place — the Uptown Farmers Market on the North Phoenix Baptist Church grounds at Central Avenue and Bethany Home Road. Uptown is home to Caffio Espresso, and Lee’s Aprons, and Practical Art, and the Flying Bakery. While you’re there, you can scoop up some locally grown kale from any number of Arizona farmers, as well as a jar of apothecary bone broth and some of the tastiest pickles in town. Uptown Farmers Market isn’t the biggest local outdoor bazaar, but it’s fast becoming the most popular place to buy quail eggs, kettle corn, and bok choy on a Saturday or Wednesday morning. Home to the Iconic Cocktail Company and tahini brownies from Blissful Bakery, Uptown is barely four years old and yet already has made USA Today‘s list of markets worth traveling to visit. Go find out why — and get there early. There’s a lot of parking, but even more savvy outdoor shoppers (and indoors on Wednesdays all summer).

Of all the many improbable, beautiful, soul-stirring sights a person can see in Phoenix, the fish case at Nelson’s might be the most consistently fantastic. When it comes to the art of sourcing marine life, Chris Nelson has powers somewhere between Harry Houdini and Pablo Escobar. Like magic, an iced rainbow of fish appears in the case every morning the shop opens. Glistening purple octopus. Halibut like vanilla ice cream. Salmon more orange than a magic marker. Oysters that glisten like living creatures in their blue shells and slide over your tongue with a hypnotic rush of brine. Scallops that hit you like a sweet sea wave. Sure, you have to fork over some serious change for the specimens that Nelson overnights to his shop from across the globe. But dropping the ocean into the desert is well worth the splurge.

It’s true that a good burger starts with fresh, high-quality beef. But for us, what makes or breaks the burger are the toppings, the extras that turn that simplest of handheld foods into a memorable dining experience. Aioli Gourmet Burgers never disappoints on that score; its lineup of options includes the New Mexico (cheddar cheese, Hatch green chile, and green chile aioli), the Fresh Prince (provolone, shaved rib-eye, pepperoncini, caramelized onion, tomato, and garlic aioli), and a rotating monthly special. We love pretty much everything else on Aioli’s menu, too, from the pretzel bites with cheese sauce to the caprese salad to the meal-capping milkshakes. Add in the bright, cheerful dining room and friendly service, and you’ve got a neighborhood eatery we come back to again and again.

“Perfect” is not a word we throw around often, so believe us when we say that Pane Bianco’s mozzarella, tomato, and basil sandwich is pretty much perfect. From the freshly baked bread and the thick slab of mozzarella to the crisp tomato slice and fragrant basil, this is a sandwich we can’t help but order over and over again, despite the fact that every sandwich on Pane Bianco’s menu is consistently good. In the event you feel like exploring more of the options, Francesca’s meatball sandwich is filling without being heavy, and we love the albacore tuna salad sandwich with red onion, celery, raisins, olives, and arugula for being a lighter, but still delicious, option.

The Seventh Avenue home of Short Leash Hotdogs & Rollover Doughnuts is housed in a building that was an Italian joint, grilled cheese shop, and well-known hamburger spot. But hopefully, now, the Melrose District address will long be home to a hot dog restaurant. And not just hot dogs, but also doughnuts, beer, and some pretty fantastic cheese curds. Why are we so crazy about hot dogs? Short Leash offers upscale dogs, if we may, ranging from special-occasion orders like The Bear to an everyday lunch dish like The Lady. Start by choosing your meat — bratwurst, regular hot dog, all-beef, spicy beer hot, chicken, or vegetarian. Then, your dog is topped with with chipotle cream cheese, sauteed onion, and fried pickle, and wrapped in naan. You’ll get a savory, textured, irresistible result.

Brined for 24 hours and sizzled in cast iron, the fried chicken at Christian Buze’s north Scottsdale soul-food restaurant can hang with the most famous version of the dish in town — that of his grandmother, Elizabeth White of Golden Rule Cafe fame. The breast is hot and juicy. Darker cuts ripple with a robust, Thanksgiving-conjuring depth. Breading has the texture and detail of a landscape, though all of its grooves and intricacies fall swiftly to your big, eager bites. The meat, too, is uncommonly well seasoned. Buze deploys an 11-spice blend, embellishing the flavor of the bird but not enough to drown out its goodness. Not long after getting your plate, you’ll be staring down at gnawed-clean bones and red-checked paper smudged with grease, thinking about your next visit.

When you see a restaurant with duck fat fries on the menu, you’re probably going to take out your smartphone to Google if Guy Fieri has ever visited the establishment. To our knowledge, the Food Network star has yet to claim Arizona Wilderness as a province of his Flavortown empire, which means he’s missing out on the best fried potatoes in the state. Flavored with rosemary, thyme, and garlic aioli, this zesty side dish almost overshadows the burgers and brews that put this pub on the map. (Rumor has it duck fat is a little healthier for you, too, but we’re not nutritionists.) In fact, you can get the fries covered with pulled pork, cheese, or bacon, and forget the entree altogether. Let’s hope Fieri never discovers the brewery, so there are more fries for the locals.

Roosevelt Row is known for cocktails, galleries, and maybe a craft beer, which is what makes Trapp Haus BBQ all the more worth a visit. The inside is welcoming, with a bar and a narrow dining room, complete with murals and painted-on barbecue lingo. Proprietor Phil “the Grill” Johnson is a seasoned barbecue master, offering a tight menu of food, beer, and cocktails. The must-try order is the Jumbo Philly Crack Wings. They can come naked or with sauce, but we recommend the sauced version. You get about half a dozen, but these are meaty, smoked wings, fringed with a little bit of crisp and crunch on the edge. These are the ultimate barbecued wings, and you’re going to appreciate that roll of paper towels on the table.

Though Scott Holmes’ Sunnyslope location may be a half-step behind his OG spot, this pound-for-pound barbecue champ reigns supreme. Sure, his fatty brisket is legendary, but other meats speak just as truly to his Jedi skills. Holmes smokes turkey. It is some of the juiciest poultry you’ll ever eat. Holmes brines and smokes pastrami for a Thursday special. One bite in, and your smile will meet behind your hair at the back of your head. Holmes cups sides of jalapeno grits. Good luck finding better grits in town. Holmes changes woods frequently, mixes a hypnotic mustard sauce, and just made a risky but triumphant foray into burritos — and still, the man lights up like a kid on his birthday whenever he talks about smoked meat. Forget the pyramids and the Great Wall, Little Miss BBQ is a wonder of the world.

Bianco? Again? Yep, until somebody catches him. In 2019, Chris Bianco, who won his James Beard Award in 2003, is at the top of his game. How is this possible? The pope of pizza is continually drilling down into all the nuances of his processes: evaluating, re-evaluating, and making them better. He and his brother Marco are continually testing new flour compositions. Chris is always sourcing from new farmers, always going the extra mile to capture the most true and beautiful flavors he can. His cheeseless marinara pie ripples with tomato flavor — swirled from tomatoes he cans. But as is the case with his pistachio-and-Parm-powered Rosa, many of Chris’s best pies don’t even use them. Instead, many cede even more spotlight to blistered house-made mozzarella, simple but orchestral ingredient unions, and the chewy, shattering mastery of his crust.

True Neapolitan pizza can be a thing of beauty, and Pomo’s version is as close as you’ll get to the truth in this town. Stefano Fabbri’s pizzerias are certified by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, the Naples-based organization that decides which pies are truly authentic. Earning this certification isn’t easy. Crust must be a certain height. Dough must be of specific proportions. Pizza must cook in 90 seconds. Fabbri checks all these boxes. The personal-size pies that emerge from his gold-tiled oven have the fantastically puffy crust (“cornicione“) and slightly soupy centers of the real deal. Toppings are spare but smart. Whether rich with porcini or heady with anchovy and Sicilian oregano, these pizzas stand out in a pizza town. And being so true to Neapolitan standards, the pizzas at Pomo are so light you might even be able to scarf two.

Are the days of the round pie in metro Phoenix numbered? Probably not, but Valley pizza veteran Justin Piazza is turning out some damn good Roman-style pies anyway. Using high-hydration dough that rises for a whopping 96 hours, Piazza blazes shelves of square pie at 650 to 700 degrees — cooler than the ovens at his Neapolitan joints around town. As in Rome, the most underrated pizza city the boot has to offer, Piazza cuts slices to order with a scissors. The thick, baked dough stays surprisingly light — delicate and airy — yet flavorful enough to stand up to toppings that Piazza rains: rich guanciale and tomato sauce; mozzarella and basil and tiny whole tomatoes; prosciutto and mushrooms. When the toppings are right, the crust stays moist but tears in your mouth like a wicker basket smashing. Here are square pies to round out our magnifico pizza scene.

This isn’t a “best of” because the two Jersey kids behind it can cook Italian noodles. This isn’t a “best of” because Racan Alhoch and Joe Cetrulo live up to their motto, “al dente or die,” plating spaghetti with bounce and rigatoni with chew. This isn’t a “best of” because the duo elevate bread crumbs with lemon rind, carefully skim off “acids” to create a luscious pomodoro sauce, or say “fuck it” and add butter to aglio e olio. This isn’t even a “best of” because the Saint Pasta kids simmer a glorious vodka sauce and have the best food Instagram in town. This is a “best of” because, in a city where looking for truly great pasta can feel like tracking a snow leopard, Alhoch and Cetrulo are finessing flawless noodles. Next up: a brick-and-mortar spot, coming soon.

You have the right to be skeptical of a falafel sandwich from so free-wheeling an establishment as WTFExp, which also offers burgers, fish and chips, Philly cheesesteaks, and sushi. Which means you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find that the spiced balls of ground chickpeas at this no-frills, down-to-earth zone are perfectly browned and lightly crisp, with just the right hint of caraway seed, balanced by a drizzle of white sauce and nestled among strips of iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. The bread is not the kind of pita that, being rough along the underside, quickly absorbs sauces or liquids and immediately becomes mushy. Rather, it is a thinner and stretchier version of naan, which keeps the sauce in and around the falafel and vegetables, and has a sturdy, structured feel to it. The portions are beyond generous, especially given the $5 price tag. Meanwhile, WTFExp lives up to its name. Unlike other falafel venues in the area, it whips up this classic Mediterranean sandwich in five minutes, making it one of the best bangs for your falafel buck close to downtown.

The more popular sushi becomes, the more perfectly serviceable sushi joints we see popping up around town. But in the hands of passionate experts, sashimi, nigri, and the rest are elevated from a simple meal to a dining experience. Sushi Nakano’s small Ahwatukee strip-mall location is our favorite place for raw fish and other Japanese dishes; Chef Leo Nakano, who learned the art under the tutelage of his father, Hiro Nakano, of Hiro Sushi, has created a spot reminiscent of small, quiet restaurants we’ve visited in Tokyo. The food is consistently wonderful, whether it’s a gyoza appetizer; simple, gorgeous nigiri; or one of the spot’s popular rolls, like the Mt. Fuji, which brings together shrimp tempura, cucumber, avocado, and spicy tuna.

This authentic Japanese ramen spot offers top-notch ramen, rice, and starters in a strip-mall setting — right by the Ross Dress for Less. When you’re ready for the good stuff, choose between ramen options like the ultra-spicy, curry, miso, soymilk, and seafood. All steaming bowls start with the Tampopo original tonkotsu ramen. Toppings include scallions, bamboo shoots, and Tampopo original spicy paste, as well as proteins like roasted pork, squid, scallops, and fried chicken. You can also add rich soup, which is extra-concentrated and flavored, as well as extra noodles, for $1. Everything is easily enjoyed in the simple and modern dining room, complete with a lengthy community table where you may unabashedly slurp.

Call us particular, but we like it when meals are crafted to our exact specifications. Poke, the popular bowl-of-fish concept, gives us a custom dining experience every time. Our favorite place to have it our way is Koi Poke, an expanding local chain. Start with white rice, brown rice, or mixed greens, then choose from a wide selection of fresh seafood, such as spicy tuna, yellowtail, salmon, octopus, and our favorite, the marinated Hawaiian tuna. Add one of Koi’s tasty sauces, and pile on toppings like cucumber, edamame, red onion, and kale, and you’ve got a healthy, delicious meal exactly the way you want it.

Forgive us, Lord, but there may be no better place in the Valley to be at 11 a.m. on a Sunday than Great Wall Cuisine, the best among a woefully small selection of dim sum spots in town. Inside this expansive west Phoenix establishment, servers cart around a seemingly endless supply of dumplings, steamed meat, and other Cantonese favorites. Steam rising from bamboo baskets and a cacophony of clanking dishes and Chinese chatter let you know you’re in for the real deal. Expect to wait for a table, depending on the size of your party, but rest assured it’ll be worth it.

“Fusion” is like a four-letter word these days, but not at Katsu in Mesa’s Asiana Market. Chef Danny Jeong spent time cooking in Italy and Los Angeles’ Koreatown; he loops the two together in some astounding pastas. Creamy, velvety, dense, and edged with bacon’s smoke and chile heat, kimchi pasta is a bowl of carbonara on vacation in Seoul. He also plates a wildly buttery and saline mentaiko pasta, a dish born in Japan, pollock roe clinging to every last strand of Italian spaghetti. Jeong plates a fine panko-sheathed katsu cutlet, a solid but mild rendition of the rice cake tteokbokki, and even a bursting bulgogi burrito. But the pasta dishes are what really kick open the door to your mind.

It seems like everyone we know these days is embracing a gluten-free or carb-free lifestyle. We support their decision, but we think baked goods are too wonderful to give up, especially the items we find at Lior the Baker. Make sure the place is open before you head to north Scottsdale to shop, because the hours are limited. But when you get there, you’ve got nothing but good options, from several varieties of challah bread to a rotating selection of desserts. If you can, pick up one of the shop’s flat Moroccan breads, heavily spiced and baked on flat river stones.

“Gluten-free baked goods” used to be an oxymoron, or at the very least, an unappetizing prospect. We’re glad that’s no longer true. Gluten-Free Creations is where we go to pick up treats that are both delicious and safe for our gluten-sensitive friends and family. There’s plenty to choose from here, from cookies, cakes, and brownies to bagels, biscuits, and sandwich bread. We like the jalapeno cheese bagels, the snickerdoodles, and the triple-chocolate marble bundt cake. Both locations also serve a limited sit-down menu Wednesday through Saturday; think bagels with cream cheese, black bean burgers, grilled cheese sandwiches, and chicken strips.

A combination gluten-free bakery/horror movie museum is not the most predictable mashup, but at Spooky’s Swirls, it works. Open since July, Spooky’s serves macabre and sci-fi-themed treats like “cereal killer” Fruity Pebbles marshmallow bars, mini mouse cheesecakes, and cupcakes topped with chocolates that look like Han Solo encased in carbonite. Before or after you order, feel free to browse the rotating selection of movie memorabilia from the Horror & SciFi Prop Preservation Association. On a recent visit, we saw a stunt machete from a Friday the 13th movie, toiletries from the Bates Motel TV show, and a Gizmo from Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Movies play on a flatscreen TV, and there are old issues of Fangoria and Starlog to peruse while you eat your gluten-free treats.

Everyone loves a good comeback story, and Nino McCurley’s tale is as good as it gets. In 2010, the Valley resident broke his back while working as a local firefighter and lost his job. Four years later, a distracted driver plowed into his motorcycle, landing him in a wheelchair for 28 weeks and requiring him to learn how to walk again. Frustrated and destitute, McCurley started hustling to survive, first by selling his paintings at local art shows. Then, his cousin showed him “crazy-ass YouTube videos” of rolled ice cream being made by street-food carts in Thailand, which inspired McCurley. “I was like, ‘I don’t know what the fuck that is, but I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna be the best at it and bring it to Phoenix,'” McCurley says. He did just that. He bought the equipment, taught himself how to make the Thai-style frozen dessert, and debuted his food cart, Nomadic Ice Cream Rolls, in 2015. It was a big hit, leading McCurley to open a brick-and-mortar location in downtown Glendale in 2017. In July 2018, he transformed the spot next door into Lemoncade, a combination lemonade stand, art space, and retro arcade. Because that’s just how he rolls.

Nathas Kraus, a baker without a bakery, sells a dazzling array of classically French pastries a few days a week at farmers markets such as Gilbert and Uptown. Though his cream-flavored “rhino” croissants and butter-saturated kouign-amann are showstopping, his simple breads are quietly excellent. If you get to his stand before everything sells out (hint: get there early and prepare to wait in line even then), be sure to walk away with La Parisienne. This long, lancing loaf is naturally leavened. It cuts into rounds or larger swaths (perfect for cheese) with a compact, crackly, almost hard shell and a light interior. This is Old World bread baked with skill and sweat, the kind of loaf that inspires trans-Atlantic trips.

Look hard enough, and a good bagel will turn up — even in Arizona, the land of bad water. Bagel-making is an art form and a really good spot comes along rarely, but Bagel Man is that spot. Found in the center of Ahwatukee near the Warner-Elliot circle, Bagel Man truly must have something in the water for its dough to turn out as tasty as it does. Plain, everything, salt — Bagel Man has it all. Order with cream cheese, and it’s generously spread edge to edge. Order with nova lox, and each bite will taste of fresh smoked salmon on a pillowy piece of dough that doesn’t need to be toasted; it’s always ready to eat. Be prepared to wait in line on the weekends and maybe even on a random morning midweek, but you won’t find anything better for miles and miles.

Almost good as this place itself was discovering it. What began as a Sunday lark for a short road trip in the northern reaches of the Valley turned into a treasure hunt we didn’t realize we were on. There we were, a carful of hungry travelers, cruising through the boulders and nice homes of Carefree and Cave Creek, when we pulled into a town square-style shopping center off Cave Creek Road for an early lunch and found the Village Coffee and Crêperie. We could tell the place was special right off from the large menu of crepes written on a blackboard. We ordered the pesto crepe, a fruit bowl, the “original” breakfast crepe (scrambled eggs, red peppers, and other good stuff), and a Bumble Bee crepe with bananas and Nutella to share, plus a couple of espresso drinks. Russian immigrant Marina Matatov runs the place, and her grandmother shared some of the crepe recipes now served at the shop. We may not try all of them, but sampling more of these crepes is well worth the travel time.

Doughnut shops are, by definition, a simple place for a simple food. That’s why it’s so exciting when a doughnut-specializing spot turns up the dial and delivers something upscale. Cue the fanciful options from The Local Donut in Scottsdale. For instance, the creme brulee doughnut: Take deep-fried dough and add a pudding-like filling, then glop on the glaze and give the whole thing a little bit of heat. The scorched top layer of this creation is dotted gently with a burnt-pink raspberry. The Local Donut also offers Nutella-flavored croissant doughnuts on the weekends, other fancy doughnuts like the peach pie or s’mores, and straight-up sprinkles.

The saying “you want what you can’t have” was created by someone who wanted to eat these tasty cinnamon delights during the week. Only sold on the weekend, these six-minute cinnamon rolls from Ingo’s Tasty Food in Arcadia “will make a nice man out of the meanest,” to quote The Lonely Island. The rolls are made to order and sell out fast, so arriving early is the best decision. The rolls are small, so don’t feel bad about eating as many as humanly possible. It’s unlikely anybody could regret the cinnamon smell mixed with the oozing frosting mashing together to make one scrumptious combination.

Ice cream is the perfect respite for Arizona’s relentless summer heat, and there’s no better place to cool off than Sweet Republic, owned by Helen Yung and Jan Wichayanuparp. Sweet Republic’s rotating array of unique ice cream flavors will keep you coming back to try as many as you can. There are top-quality takes on classic flavors, like Madagascar vanilla, salted butter caramel, and apple pie, but the menu has also featured more exotic choices, like blue-cheese ice cream with Medjool dates. There are even vegan and gluten-free options for those who really can’t resist the siren call of sweet ice cream, even when your diet would rather you did.

You can (and should) find Denae Hostetler’s bean-to-bar chocolates at places like Moon Dust Farms in Mesa and Highland Yard Vintage in Chandler. Hostetler sources only Criollo beans for the arduous process of turning them to high-end chocolate. She winnows using a machine that her dad built, grinds using stone, and roasts in a common kitchen oven. The love and intention are there, rippling through a final product that makes big-name chocolate taste like birthday candle wax. Hostetler sells truffles and cacao discs for mixing and forming into the Mexican chocolate drink with ancient Aztec roots. If you consider yourself a more-than-casual chocolate fan, tracking down these bars is a must.

Songbird Coffee & Tea House is the kind of coffee stand that turns heads. Meaning, if you’re unfamiliar, you’ll spot Songbird while driving on Third Street in downtown Phoenix and wonder what it possibly could be. The inviting yard party-style tables, the welcoming front porch, and within, the cozy coffee shop, all make this place really … sing. The historic house, built in 1904, offers classic coffee and tea choices on its tight menu. And that Espresso Spritzer will make you practically dance off the front steps. There are also house-made pastries, and breakfast sandwiches, and a staff that will learn your order, and probably your name, after a visit or two. To further solidify the community feel, coffee-lovers can also expect live music, storytelling, craft nights, and a number of other occasions happening at Songbird.

Iced coffee is a necessity in Phoenix, and its potential goes far beyond the ozone-murdering hellscape of EDM and teenage hypoglycemia that is the Dutch Bros. drive-thru. Finding your iced-coffee spot is a rite of passage, and you shouldn’t settle for a commodified mixture of machine-pulled espresso and sugar that comes with questions like (gag) “How many pumps?” Then, there’s the real grail quest: go-to cold brew. The balance between elements in a good cold brew is almost unattainable. (Think about how much money you’ve wasted on cold brew from concentrate at the grocery store, only to end up with chalky imitation mocha taste stuck to the roof of your mouth.) But where so many have tried and failed, beCoffee on Roosevelt shines with untouchable grace. Four words: spiced habanero cold brew. This stuff is incredible — all the flavor and intensity of habanero with the smoothest spiced roast you’ve ever imagined. This is the best treat in the dead of summer, especially when you think about how you never have to sit in a scorching chain coffee drive-thru again.

You’re probably used to the most ubiquitous Arnold Palmer, a.k.a. the one at Starbucks. It’s fine; it does the job. It only tastes terrible sometimes (all shade, all tea intended). You could do better though, and that’s where Urban Beans’ Arnold Palmer comes into play. There’s a lot more about Urban Beans that we could gush about, but the Arnold Palmer is a refreshing start. Here’s how you have to order it: 24 ounces, black tea, and don’t mess with the sweetener (the baristas have that under control). When you get it, make sure it’s well-mixed before you take a sip; once that’s confirmed, you’re good to go. That first sip is going to be the perfect balance of lemon and sweetness with the black tea peeking through. Keep in mind, we don’t know any of the ratios the baristas at Urban Beans use; we just know it results in magic — absolute magic. We can taste it now. Are you on your way yet? Freshness is waiting.

There’s an unexpected British surprise in Carefree — a chance to enjoy fancy English tea time. As you walk into the small British-style tea shop, it’s an explosion of everything English: hand-painted teacups, over 50 types of tea, merchandise commemorating the royal family, and of course, pictures of Queen Elizabeth, Princess Diana, and Diana’s sons, William and Harry. Owner Jo Gemmill is a native Englander and knows how tea is served in Britain. It isn’t just about the tea. There are scones with Devon cream and strawberry preserves, crumpets, and quiches, and to slide into Downton Abbey mode, you can wear hats during your proper tea time. Cheerio!

At a typical afternoon tea, you might nibble on some pastries, enjoy some scones with jam and clotted cream, and eat dainty cucumber sandwiches. At Tipsy Tea in the The Bees Knees dark-paneled bar inside The Camby, you still get the tiny crustless sandwiches, but with a bit more variety. Think a mango crab avocado slider or an Amarillo tater tot with caviar. Dessert is delivered in a cookie tin filled with colorful sprinkles and consists of delectables like pistachio cream pie and French macarons. And of course, there’s the alcohol — it is named Tipsy Tea, after all. Tea is served hot or cold infused with liquor. Each spiked pot of tea is equivalent to throwing back a few cocktails, so they’re perfect to split with a friend. If you’re not feeling the tea concoctions, a glass of Champagne will do.

Skip the line at Starbucks and head to Om Bistro for authentic chai. Don’t let the white Styrofoam cup fool you — the no-frills presentation is the only way chai should be served. The warm waft of spices somersaulting in the air indicate this chai hasn’t been rushed, but was made just as the street vendors in India do it. One drink of this deep mocha blend of ginger, cardamom, black peppercorn, sugar, and real Indian tea grounds (not a liquid squirt of processed ingredients you cannot pronounce) will transport you to Bombay. As Bollywood videos flash on the screen and you listen to the sounds of Hindi, you’ll understand why true chai-drinking isn’t meant to be rushed. Grab a table, call some friends, and explore India’s version of tea time in a strip mall in the middle of Phoenix.

Kava, a plant known in the South Pacific for its soothing qualities, caught on with New Age spiritualists many years ago, as did kratom, a stimulant native to Southeast Asia. Recently, both plants have found a new consumer base. The legal drugs are experiencing a boom among fitness junkies and young urban professionals. Enter Lacuna Kava Bar, a relatively new downtown drinking establishment where hippie-plant evangelists congregate day and night. Stop by for an afternoon study session propelled by a cool kratom prickly pear lemonade. Or, skip the bars on a Friday evening and enjoy a hangover-free “kava colada.”

Though the craft food and beverage movement has made giant leaps this century, small-scale distilling has lagged behind the pack. Not Arizona Distilling Company. This is one of the local providers of gin, vodka, and whiskey that you’ll want to seek out. To some degree, all vodkas are the same. Hit the whiskeys. With a core roster of four, some of which use grains from elite local providers, this Tempe distillery has options to go with the medals it has scored over a few years of competition. Grab a tour of the distillery. Grab a classic cocktail in the Old Walrus cocktail lounge. Kick it and sip made-right-there bourbon with enough sweetness and depth to make you think you’re in Kentucky.

Chanel Godwin-McMaken will forever be among the first wave of mixologists behind the bar at the 2019-established Little Rituals. As we’ve stated, the cocktail bar on the fourth floor of downtown’s Residence Inn/Courtyard by Marriott is a step forward for cocktails in Phoenix, and that’s in no small part because of Godwin-McMaken’s talents. Need proof? She also got first place at the 2019 Last Slinger Standing competition in February. But if you need real-world evidence, walk through the beaded curtains of Little Rituals’ entrance and see if she’s hustling behind the bar. A drink from Godwin-McMaken, especially off the imaginative custom menu, will make your eyes reflexively close. You’ll almost need to make sure you’re sitting down. And after a few more sips, you’ll need to be.

Sunrise Market is your one-stop, no-thrills-or-frills neighborhood liquor store with a bodega feel. Just leave your bike outside. Not only does Sunrise have a wider variety of adult beverages than your favorite gas station, it has your favorite Mexican candies and cleaning supplies in case your get-together gets a little messy. Oh, and its deli is now open for a late-night, next-morning snack. Back to the liquor. It has a whole shelving unit full of sake and an entire aisle of wine in case you’re feeling fancy. Feeling trashy? There’s a variety of under-$2 tallboys; you’ll find one to fit your night’s vibe. Surprisingly, the market also has a space in its fridge dedicated to ciders. Basically, Sunrise Market has it all, and no one’s going to judge you (even if you pick up some White Claw).

Hash Kitchen had a good year, and that’s because it finally saw the opening of its fourth location in the Arcadia neighborhood. And what that new location has, as do the other Hash Kitchen spots, is a 60-item, build-your-own Bloody Mary bar. It’s a like a Golden Corral, but for your one drink. It goes like this: Pick your own house-infused vodka flavor, then your scratch-made Bloody Mary mix, then your salt. Then, things get weird. Toppings include everything from pickles, olives, bacon, and vegetables to beef jerky and fried ravioli. Therefore, the best Bloody Mary in town is the one of your own making. A trip to the Bloody Mary bar is $13, or you can spring for the 32-ounce Big Hash Bloody Mary for $34.

Touting itself as Roosevelt Row’s favorite bistro, Carly’s has a list of rotating draft and bottled craft beer, wine, and signature cocktails. But the best cure for that midsummer, right-out-of-the-car feeling is the classic mojito, a mix of rum, mint, muddled lime, simple syrup, and soda water. The mint and lime hit simultaneously, making it entirely refreshing. You may also add fruit, like watermelon, strawberry, or blueberry, which is pureed and strained fresh every day. With local artwork, performers, and views of Roosevelt Street, consider it your go-to cocktail lounge as well as bistro.

There is nothing more satisfying than a perfectly chilled, filled-to-the-brim martini. Here’s a rule to remember: If the first couple of sips from your martini aren’t taken by craning your neck to the glass and sipping it, hands free, to avoid spillage, it doesn’t belong in the best-of conversation. When your martini is delivered at AZ/88, it is chilled, garnished abundantly, and brimming like an infinity pool. This is one of those places where if you don’t know to order a martini, you will be forever grateful when you find out. You will find yourself back at AZ/88, time and time again, craving what is simply one of the best classic martinis you will ever have.

Since its inception in 2013, the Whining Pig has become synonymous with “Phoenix wine bar.” That’s because there are now several locations throughout the Valley, like Arcadia, Gilbert, Ahwatukee, Desert Ridge, and downtown. But the wine is what makes customers knock off a little early to come in and hit the glass, meet friends, and maybe participate in some trivia. The Whining Pig’s signature massive chalkboard menu offers an ever-changing selection of local and international wines and craft beers. For a quick snack, grilled cheese sandwiches and a pretty impressive meat and cheese plate are at the ready. Happy hour is 1 to 8 p.m. on the daily, which includes wine by the glass and all craft beers. But Whining Pig isn’t just for post-work warriors, as every location is open late.

Avoiding the industry phrase loaded with cachet, Chris Lingua won’t call his offerings “natural wines.” He prefers similar nomenclature that gets at overlapping ideas — that very little sulfur and other additives have entered the mix, resulting in wines with room to develop groovier personalities. Lingua sources some good ones. Horizontally, they line the wall of his shipping-container nook in The Churchill, organized by price point. Offerings change daily, often considerably. He has stocked nero d’Avola and frappato blends from a progressive Sicilian vintner. Austrian zweigelt, sold in the state for the first time at his shop. Biodynamic cider from Oregon. This is the cutting edge of wine today. Locally, it lives in this tiny-but-mighty downtown shop.

Stout? In Phoenix? Stouts have a reputation for being weighty beers — not the best desert drinking. But not all stouts are overly sweet, ABV bombs, bitter, or too sharp with oak from slumbering in the barrel. Wren House’s Jomax Coffee Stout is a stout that doesn’t punish you with alcohol, instead showcasing rare finesse. A coffee flavor built from Ethiopian beans roasted by Press Coffee comes in evenly, pleasantly, about on the same level as the rounded maltiness. The coffee and malt blend seamlessly, neither dominant. This stout has a luscious, creamy mouthfeel, swishing around almost like melted ice cream. Coffee is added as beans during brewing and as cold brew at the end, making the roasty notes mellow and multidimensional, even introducing a touch of stone fruit. Hell yes, stout in Phoenix!

Arizona Wilderness fervently scratches a checkmark next to every imaginable item that might appear on a craft beer lover’s list of prerequisites. First: the beer. Ingredients specific to Arizona’s wild outdoors, and seasoned brewers with a penchant for creating trailblazing recipes, set this brewery head and shoulders above the rest. Many breweries, especially when they start out, defer the option of food and just focus on the concocting of the suds, so to speak. Fair enough, but that doesn’t cut the mustard when looking for the absolute best. The grub options at Arizona Wilderness are as decadent and inventive as the award-winning beers it produces. The final check — and this is crucial — is the overall vibe. There is nothing contrived in the air when you walk into either the original Gilbert brewpub or the new wide-open beer garden that has added a fresh burst of integrity and grit to downtown’s Roosevelt Row. There’s a sense of trust and community that you immediately feel with both the staff and fellow imbibers. Craft beer lovers can sniff out a half-hearted attempt at a brewery, but Arizona Wilderness passes with flying colors.

The Phoenix beer scene is so young that breweries with a few years of experience feel like sagacious veterans. Brian Helton of Helton Brewing Company, on the other hand, has brewed beer for a few decades. Sitting at the bar in his taproom on Indian School, you can glimpse him working through a window to the capacious brew room. Helton’s range as a brewer is vast. He crafts a luscious, malty Scotch ale that keeps things traditional. One of his signatures is pilsner, an ancient style with modest, restrained flavor. But Helton also loves to brew on the other end: huge, forward-looking beers with explosive flavor. Think rye IPA with whole-leaf hops. Think extra-brut IPA. And think his cult-classic boysenberry sour, with refreshing tartness rounded by the smooth flavor of fruit brought in from Oregon — one of the best fruited sours in town.

Josh and Jason Duren have created a cidery like no other. A communal vibe pervades the spacious tap room, which now spills out to a patio, the place having recently expanded (and added Myke’s Pizza). The brothers think way beyond the apple. They pour hazy ciders. They pour blue ciders. They pour cider with black tea, with lemon, with the flavors of oak and vanilla slowly imbued during barrel-aging. Nowhere on the menu do things get as next-level as they do with Purple Heart, a cider with an earthy, mossy sweetness. It’s made using butterfly pea flower and ingredients that emulate cascara, the typically discarded coffee cherry. When you sit down at Cider Corps, you sit down to an apple-driven adventure that takes you to new places, most of them brilliant.

This Prescott-based meadery has a Phoenix location in the works and currently distributes to some of the better bars and bottle shops in town (and it’s sold at AJ’s Fine Foods). Jeff Herbert, head mead master, has brewed hundreds of kinds of honey wine. And these aren’t the sugar bombs that most meads are, the kinds of meads that give mead its questionable reputation. Herbert ferments bright, balanced honey wines that are as finessed and drinkable as a slow-sipping saison or your favorite poolside vino. And he uses Arizona honey. Look for short pours from great craft destinations like The Wandering Tortoise, and bask in Herbert’s weirder creations. His smooth peanut-butter-and-jelly mead is a 13 percent ABV love song to your taste buds that will forever change how you think about the possibilities of fermentation.

We’ve changed our standards for judging the state’s best wines this year. The winners have to be available at retail outlets in the Phoenix area. Arizona’s wine industry is still relatively small, and most labels are only available in tasting rooms or from the wine clubs of the vintners. Case in point: The most honored white wine in the state this year was Pillsbury’s 2015 Bonnie Lee malvasia, which was the only Arizona wine to win a Best in Class at the prestigious San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition in January. But we couldn’t find the malvasia at any local outlets. That’s why we selected Pillsbury’s 2015 WildChild White, which we found for around $20 at Total Wine and AJ’s Fine Foods. The WildChild from film director Sam Pillsbury’s vineyard always has been a favorite, and it was awarded two gold medals in San Francisco. The dry varietal is a blend of chenin blanc, riesling, and viognier grapes. It paired perfectly with walleye served hot off the grill.

In this category, the judgment of the experts worked beautifully with the availability of the wine. The 2015 Aguileon totally dominated the 2018 AZCentral Arizona Wine Competition, winning both Best in Show and Best Red Wine for winemakers Todd and Kelly Bostock. It’s another blend, primarily of Spanish tempranillo and graciano grapes with a taste of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, and petite syrah tossed into the vat. We found the wine, priced around $30, at both Total Wine and AJ’s Fine Foods. We took it home and immediately tried it with a seared porterhouse, medium rare, and the bottle was empty just like that. It’s well worth the price and the accolades.