It’s taken a while, but the Slow Food organization has finally come to metro Phoenix.Chrysa Kaufman, chef-owner of Scottsdale’s Rancho Pinot Grill, has formed a convivium (an Italian word meaning chapter) to promote the international group’s philosophy here in the Valley. What is Slow Food? The Italian-based organization’s manifesto reads…
Imagine you and a few of your friends — say, 3,000 of them — are looking for a good place to grab dinner out. Where would you go? If you live in Anthem, the decision is simple: Persimmon Bar & Grille at Anthem Golf and Country Club. There’s practically no…
When you walk into the Arizona Bread Company at Scottsdale Road and Shea, you’ll most likely be yelled at. Loudly. But don’t flinch — it’s just the Soup Doctor reminding you to “eat more soup!” The Soup Doctor, you see, has the cure for whatever ails you, in the guise…
I feel so ashamed. I’ve just read an interview with Peter Benchley, author of that ’70s sea shocker, Jaws. It seems he’s done a 180 on his view of great white sharks recently, discovering over the past decade that they are actually shy, scaredy-pants fish that only attack people they…
It had been too many years since I’d indulged in fondue — that fun and fatty composition of cheese, oil, broth, wine or chocolate heated to bubbling in a tabletop cauldron, then plunged with any variety of breads, fruit, vegetables, meats and cakes. So when my dining companion suggested a…
If I hear about one more “for the Soul” book, I think I’m going to scream. Not only is there that instigator of all the madness, Chicken Soup for the Soul, there’s now the baffling Chicken Soup for the Dental Soul and the completely inexcusable Chicken Soup for the Backstreet…
Won’t some caring chef please come to Tony Makridis’ rescue and take over his long-awaited Cafestia coffee house, pastry shop and bar? The owner of Phoenix’s much-loved Greekfest has been teasing us for more than five years about the “any day now” opening of his Cafestia offshoot next door, but…
Tee Pee Tap Room, 602 East Lincoln Street, Phoenix, 602-340-8787. Hours: Lunch and dinner, daily, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. On game nights, restaurant remains open one hour after game ends. Downtown Phoenix dining hasn’t gotten much respect, historically. Not only has the restaurant quality traditionally been pretty weak, but…
Where do hospitality employees go for good food when they’re done with work? Many restaurants close at 11 p.m. on weekends. Nightclubs don’t kick patrons out until 1 a.m. And resorts never shut their doors. What’s a starving late-shift staffer to do? Keegan’s used to be the “in” spot for…
Some pretty funky history is happening in downtown Scottsdale these days. Since the opening of The Velvet Room in late March, the Old Town neighborhood has been jettisoned back to the 1940s and the “Golden Age of Jazz.” The supper-club concept has been reincarnated here, pairing the evening meal with…
Given perfect hindsight, most of us would have been a whole lot smarter when we were 12 years old. To this day, I dearly wish I had been. At this tender time of my life, I was living in Japan, land of gorgeous gardens, show-stopping fashion and some of the…
Chef Gregory Casale of Scottsdale’s Gregory’s Grill has corked his bring-your-own-wine policy. The three-year-old restaurant will be closed the month of July as Casale tours Napa Valley wineries and meets with local purveyors to select what he calls “an exclusive collection of world wines.” Gregory’s will reopen August 1 with…
Since the Arizona Center opened in 1990, Valley diners have been poised, fork and knife grasped firmly in hand, waiting to pounce on the many culinary wonders promised by downtown’s then-developers and politicos. Coupled with the Mercado, the center was to attract celebrated restaurants and breathe new culture into the…
If you’ve ever toured the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland, you’ll feel right at home at Monti’s La Casa Vieja in Tempe. Picture hunkering wooden walls, patch-painted but inescapably old. Imagine yawning galleries hung with portraits of ancient, macabre and deceased former residents. Visualize mismatched furniture, creaking doors, alarming discrepancies in…
One of my best resources for reviews of one-of-a-kind, out-of-the-way restaurants is word of mouth. Usually, these places don’t have the funds for elaborate marketing or benefit from having a big-name chef backing them. So when a friend mentions Mangos Mexican Cafe to me, I perk up at her description…
It’s been several months since the hugely popular Pizzeria Bianco stopped offering lunch, yet my phone still rings with hungry diners’ lamentations — and speculations. Perhaps chef-owner Chris Bianco has gotten too big for his pizza pans, callers propose, and doesn’t want to serve the common lunchtime diner. It might…
I grew up in a condiment-free household. It’s sad, but true. Our house was in a salad-dressing-free zone. Sauces were used only if they were imperative to the construction of a dish, and even then, sometimes not. Mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, barbecue sauce or salsa on our food? Never. Even spices…
TV Dinner: There’s no question that sizzle sells, but when is a menu recommendation just so much bravado? I applaud when a good restaurant earns media recognition, but I’m not sure that being told by a server to order a dish simply “because it has been on TV” is enough…
This past weekend was the 81st annual National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant & Hotel-Motel Show in Chicago, the largest industry gathering of the year. More than 2,000 exhibitors pitched their products in almost 900 restaurant-related categories, and I think I saw every single display. But truth be told, rather than showcasing…
Most of the people who showed up at a recent sake tasting hosted by the Japan America Society of Phoenix knew what many Americans apparently don’t: Good sake should never be served hot.”The only place in the world you’ll get hot sake is here in the U.S.,” American sake maker…
My dining companion is messing with my head, or, should I say, my palate. He swears there’s lemon in the complimentary pre-dinner plate of iced watermelon we’re enjoying at the Green Leaf Cafe.I pluck another chunk of fruit, but there’s no lemon flavor here. I even dip my fingers in…
By the time you read this, chef Erasmo “Razz” Kamnitzer will be packing up his pots and pans and getting ready to shutter his eponymous Razz’s restaurant as he does every summer. From May 20 to September 1, the popular eatery goes dark as Kamnitzer and his family take some…
