In honor of Mother’s Day, here’s lunch with the ultimate TV Mom. It’s not June Cleaver, not Carol Brady, not the tortured alpha female from Malcolm in the Middle — no, the honor has to go to the hip, bus-driving, back-up-singing, ostensibly keyboard-tickling matriarch of The Partridge Family.Not that this…
Most restaurateurs follow the adage that the customer is always right. Even if the diner is nuts, the savvy eatery entrepreneur realizes the value in word-of-mouth.Unless you’re Gary Horowitz, owner of the Italian Grotto — a long-standing restaurant in Old Town Scottsdale. In that case, any customer with a complaint…
The headlines scream that the Diamondbacks aren’t making money. Attendance is down, and the baseball team is struggling. All eyes are on Jerry Colangelo to fix things.I’ve got a suggestion: Rather than pump more cash into hotshot player salaries, give the fans something palatable to munch on while cheering for…
Not everyone can be Julia Child. Some are destined to be hopeless in the kitchen, broiling when they should be braising, sautéing when they should be simmering.Cooking classes aren’t always the answer. Many seminars now are taught by celebrity chefs who want students to whip together such intimidating delicacies as…
So what does Deedee Wood do all day in Cave Creek — when she’s not having lunch, that is? “My friends in L.A. ask me that,” says Wood as we wait for sandwiches. “They say, ‘What do you do out there?'” The answer isn’t complex. “I have a big house…
Several people say the same thing when I tell them I’m having lunch with Jim Rose: “I’d be afraid to have lunch with him. I’d be afraid he’d . . . do something.” Something, they mean, like eating one of his drinking glasses, or sticking one of his utensils through…
Since the beginning of time, or at least harking back to the days when the earliest life forms washed ashore gasping for coffee, we have answered the call of caffeine.Since we are no longer content to merely brew the stuff ourselves at home, coffee houses have become the hangout of…
There’s something in the water, people say — that special fluid that flows from New York City’s municipal taps. The crystal liquid is so revered that it’s been marketed on a retail level. Tim Zagat, publisher of the Zagat Surveys, says he’d rather have New York City water than the…
Franco Fazzuoli has had enough. After 45 years in the restaurant business, the chef-owner of Franco’s Trattoria in Scottsdale is calling it quits. The last day of service at the 14-year-old, award-winning Italian restaurant is Saturday, April 14.Shortly thereafter, the location will reopen as Gregory’s Grill. Fazzuoli finally decided that…
War. What is it good for? For Americans, at least, strife in other countries can lead to greater dining variety. As immigrants land on our shores, escaping the constant upheaval of their homelands, they bring with them intriguing new foods, exotic recipes and a taste of the globe many of…
Au Petit Four It was her diet that did it. Not many people would dare consume such a steady stream of ultra-rich foods like chicken pâté, roast duck and Yule log, plus several glasses of wine every day. Really, ingesting that much fat and alcohol, how could French citizen Jeanne…
Christie’s Cabaret claims to have “the most amazing lunch in town,” and the fact is, it probably does. Topnotch sandwiches. Chicken wings that are nothing short of perfect. The best blue cheese dressing you’ll find anywhere.And lots of made-up, stripped-down girls who, for $10, will straddle your legs and let…
Answering to a higher power shouldn’t lead to lower profits. But for one Valley kosher bakery, observing Orthodox Jewish rules has proved too costly.After a six-month “experiment,” Karsh’s Bakery has reopened for business on Saturdays. Karsh’s, a 40-year-old Valley fixture for kosher foods, decided last September to close on the…
At the moment, Gordon Jump really does look like the Maytag Repairman. It isn’t just that he’s wearing the outfit — the blue jacket, the cap, the bow tie. He’s also sitting, all by his lonesome, surrounded by Maytag appliances, with nothing much to do.He’s been embodying this particular icon…
Michael Hoobler has to be thrilled. The star chef, now running the kitchen of Phoenix’s new Restaurant Arcadia, has successfully escaped the confines of corporate America. Last fall, Tom and Chrysa Kaufman, owners of Scottsdale’s highly popular Rancho Pinot Grill, presented Hoobler with the opportunity to open his own restaurant…
And the winners are . . .We don’t know yet. The 2001 James Beard Award nominees have been released, but victors won’t be announced until April 30. That leaves a couple of local chefs waiting eagerly, since a food pro receiving a James Beard Award is akin to an aspiring…
“This is Mark Moorhead from New Times, right?” A publicist asked me this a few weeks ago, when I called to inquire about a screening. Sure it is, I told her, puzzled. I had often talked to her; I was pretty sure she knew which publication I wrote for by…
Last May, the National Restaurant Association asked Americans which ethnic cuisines they preferred. Not surprisingly, Italian, Mexican, Japanese, Thai and Middle Eastern were the most popular. Unexpectedly, however, Caribbean rounded out the list of winners. Pretty interesting for a food that traditionally has barely made a blip on most diners’…
There are only three certain things in this world: death, taxes and Nick Ligidakis’ ability to open another restaurant. Since he debuted his first store in 1984, Ligidakis has opened and closed five eateries, all with great drama and remarkable trails of debt. His most recent operation, Cafe Nikos, sank…
At first glance, you think that the mercado (marketplace) in Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, is just like any other in Mexico, with rows of colorful fruits and vegetables, cheese purveyors and one food stall after another. Then you are captured by the array of brightly dressed women. One in particular catches my…
Jaime Bergman is telling me her life story. “I’m from Salt Lake City, grew up there,” she says. “Normal kid. Did ballet, did jazz, cheerleading, soccer, baseball. And then I moved to Los Angeles about three years ago.”There’s a small silence, and she smiles at me, as if to indicate…
It’s a drizzly winter evening, the kind that often brings on melancholy. But not for us. Tonight, we’re lounging like emperors at Café Blue, reigning over booths of sleek platinum cloth as we exchange witty repartee on politics, fashion and friends we don’t like so well. The rain spits and…
