When you’re a first-time restaurant owner, it doesn’t hurt to have a sense of humor. And for Chaka Chaka’s Charlie Blonkenfeld, a banana will do nicely. “I was experimenting with my jerk chicken sandwich, and my roommate wanted to put cheese on it,” Blonkenfeld says. “I told him, ‘Screw that…
Read: all of Zach Fowle’s battles in “Feasts of Fury.” We begin with a burger. A foot tall it stands, each of its nine third-pound patties thick and glistening with gristle, cheese spilling out from every layer like molten gold. Hefty slices of tomato, pickles, onions, and lettuce sit softy…
Despite what the supermarket aisle may lead you to believe, there’s more to an animal than neatly wrapped styrofoam trays of meat. From tongue to tail, offal (pronounced awful) encompasses all those taboo edibles that don’t make the cut at your local grocer. Just Offal is here to explore these…
Oh, Payton Curry, you rocked my taste buds last night. The Caffe Boa chef didn’t know I was joining a friend for an off-menu culinary stealth mission at the Tempe eatery, but he nevertheless got creative and it showed, both in presentation and flavor. Dinner started off with luscious mangalitsa head cheese, tender…
UNCORK THE ISSUE: How should I serve wine? What’s the proper pouring etiquette?
SPILL THE JUICE: The Sassy Sommelier Lizbeth Congiusti gives us her step-by-step table tips on serving wine: Cut the foil, smell the glass, serve the ladies first, and never EVER pour too much. Just call her Emily Post, with a sassy twist.
Forget about New Kids on the Block. My obsession as an eighth grader was Andy Warhol. His art, the fashionable people in his world, Nico, Edie, the Velvets, Interview Magazine . . . it was all impossibly glamorous to little me, an image of New York City life and the art…
There’s a reason why Food Network’s Man vs. Food and our own Zack Fowle’s Feasts of Fury are so popular. People love BIG food. We’re amazed by dishes so large that one order could feed Bill Paxton’s Big Love family or provide a starving college student with leftovers for two weeks. For this week’s Battle of the Dishes, we dared…
I love it when this happens. I wish for something long enough, and then it comes true. So far, I haven’t made it to Spain, and nobody’s come to my door with a million-dollar check from Publisher’s Clearinghouse, but at least there’s a brand-new Vietnamese restaurant in Downtown — the…
What We Ate: Amy’s Country Cheddar Bowl Organic Pasta and Vegetables in Cheddar Cheese Sauce The Facts: 430 calories, 21g fat (6g saturated fat), 690g sodium and not mention 45g of carbs Why This One: We were starting to feel a bit “processed” and decided to splurge for something organic and natural…
With Thanksgiving upon us — and knowing that some people are already pie’d out — we figured that making some cookies for your guests to snack on post dinner would be a good idea. Sticking with the pilgrims, these cutie cookies serve the sweet tooth and the theme. They are…
Mother-and-son restaurateur team Pat and Dustin Christofolo are proof that cooking ability is genetic (and don’t believe the hype about it skipping a generation, either). The Christofolos opened their family’s first third-generation restaurant this October: The House at Secret Garden.
Congratulations Arizona, you are now the 15th state to legalize marijuana for, um, medicinal use. Not only will you now be able to cure your chronic and debilitating pain with some medical-grade cannibus, you also get to stuff your faces with junk food because you totally have the munchies. Before…
Hungry for your early morning serving of food news, with no preservatives or additives?Wine, Snacks, and ShoppingTonight, get a jump start on your Holiday shopping while tasting a variety of wine and beer from local vineyards and breweries. Starting at 5:30 p.m., Sphinx Date Ranch & Southwest Market will be…
The Spot: La Bocca, 699 S. Mill Ave., Tempe, 480-967-5244 http://www.laboccapizzeria.com/ The Hours: La Bocca relaxes their pricing from open until 6:30 pm, every day of the week. The Details: Half-priced glasses of wine, draft beer and mixed drinks. Unfortunately, there are no discounts on food during happy hour, but…
Football meets the footlong? Yeah, it’s a bit of a stretch, especially when it’s a Tex-Mex Footlong. But if Friday Night Lights has taught me anything, it’s that Texas loves its football and 30-year-old actors who play teenagers. Sonic’s new Tex-Mex Footlong Quarter Pound Coney, available for a limited time,…
Just got off the phone with famed Chef Chris Bianco, who confirmed that Chef Claudio Urciuoli, who announced his departure from Prado last week, will be working for his team in an as yet undetermined capacity. Stay tuned for more details on Chow Bella…
A couple weeks ago, I got the news that darling Camelback sandwich and pastry shop Chestnut Lane would be closing its doors on November 20. Indeed, that’s still the case, so it’s not too late to get in for a last-minute lobster cobb salad. As a little nugget of thanks…
Taberna Mexicana, a new upscale Mexican eatery from Legacy Restaurant Group (the folks behind Houston-based Ninfa’s, which has a location in Glendale), just opened its doors a week ago in the former Roy’s location at the Scottsdale Seville (7001 N. Scottsdale Rd.). Executive chef Alex Padilla, former executive sous chef of chef Nancy Oakes’…
With so much pie excitement on Roosevelt Row this weekend, we had to check out the nearby options for more substantial sustenance. We landed at Tammie Coe Cakes for lunch, where every entrée is $6.75, leaving enough change leftover to snag a cupcake without breaking $10.
Chef Dustin Christofolo is a natural-born restaurateur, even if he didn’t fully embrace it until his early 20s. His mom, Pat Christofolo, is the owner of Santa Barbara Catering and The Farm Kitchen at The Farm at South Mountain, as well as the entrepreneurial spirit behind the Farm’s Morning Glory Café and Quiessence (the latter two she’s since entrusted to Chef Greg LaPrad).Now the mother-and-son pair are taking their relationship with food and each other to a whole new level: They’re business partners running The House at Secret Garden, another South Phoenix restaurant aiming to inject some life and culture into the area.
At what point does one elevate from merely drinking beer to being a full-on beer snob? Answer: when you feel compelled to tell other people what to drink. And the inevitable result of this peculiar ailment is the beer argument. In the spirit of all great beer-related discussions, we present…
Right in time to feed the holiday cookie exchange frenzy, Brady Breese of Urban Cookies shares his Cocomint cookie recipe. Lucky for us we found Shaun, Brady’s wife and business partner, handing out cookie samples Saturday, at The Local First Fall Festival. We tasted chocolatey-minty goodness, a perfect holiday combo!…
