Obama Cookie Makes a Comeback at Tammie Coe

Before the election, the stretch of Roosevelt around 6th Street seemed unusually busy, no doubt due to the Obama campaign headquarters located in an old house, amid the art galleries and shops. Brilliantly, pastry guru Tammie Coe — whose shop is right across the street — came up with Obama logo…

Arizona Flag Cake: Show Your State Spirit

The Arizona Cardinals headed to the Super Bowl, and unless you’re prepared to brave rowdy crowds at a hellishly over-packed sports bar, you’re probably going to be headed to someone’s house to watch the game. If you’re looking for something fun to bring, try making a fruit-topped Arizona flag cake…

Tomorrow: Half-Price Humble Pie

How nice of them. The folks at Humble Pie are celebrating their own one-year anniversary by giving us the deal: half-price pizzas, available all day long, on Tuesday, January 20. That way, if you’re undecided about whether to get the one with Schreiner’s sausage, roasted fennel, mozzarella, and tomato sauce,…

Caffiend: 5-Hour Energy

The makers claim that a 2-ounce shot of 5 Hour Energy contains “350% the energy” of a Red Bull, but they don’t disclose the actual caffeine content. We estimate it to be about 80 mg, or the equivalent of a Red Bull. The shots also contain 40 mg of vitamin B6 and 500 mcg of B12.

Quiessence Unveils Daily Menus on New Website

These days, restaurant competition is so tough that chefs can’t just write a menu, keep it static, and ride the wave. The good ones know you need to stay on top of what’s fresh and in season, and find a way to work as much of it into the rotation as…

Monday Night Martha: Alinea’s Liquefied Caramel Popcorn

The new cookbook from Alinea certainly topped a lot of Christmas lists, and some of us were lucky enough to get it. For those not completely obsessed with molecular gastronomy, Alinea is the hoity-toity Chicago restaurant that’s famous for its ueberly deconstructed food. The twenty-five course menus include oddball delectables such…

Brew Review: Ommegang’s Rare Vos

If there is one way in which beer falls flat to its grape-based partner in alcoholic frivolity, wine, it is in its lack of ceremony. Popping a cork, smelling, swirling, these are all things enjoyed by wine connoisseurs with the regularity of a religious ritual. Beer is about drinking. It…

Cardinals Cupcakes for Game Day

What better way to show your support for the Arizona Cardinals than to eat an edible version of their mascot? It’s sort of like how ingesting certain animals is believed to give you the power of that animal in Asian cultures. But instead of eating monkey brains to be smarter,…

Saturday: Arizona Culinary Institute Hosts Open House

Last night at dinner, discussion came up about whether it’s a good idea to go back to school during a recession. Of course it is! You’re going to be toughing it out on a student budget whether the economy’s good or bad, so you may as well bide your time,…

More Coffee News: Coffee & Tea Express’s Grand Opening

For the last three and a half years, Rhonda McDonald and Kathy VanDerworp have been working as coffee vendors at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market, but they’ve recently taken the leap into full-time coffee shop ownership. Coffee & Tea Express (5835 W. Palmaire Ave., Ste. E, in Glendale) has been open since…

New Downtown Coffee Projects

Things are starting to perk up downtown. Randall Denton, who managed the Willow House for three years, has a two-month-old coffee roasting business called Xanadu Coffee Co., located behind the former “new” Willow House space on Van Buren (call 480-220-8779 for info). His clients include the Hotel San Carlos, Paisley…

Eat Your Greens

Among our New Year’s food resolutions (yours, too, most likely): Cook more. And eat more healthfully. Trader Joe’s keeps both promises with a fresh, pre-packaged, pre-washed and cut mix of several Southern greens — mustard, turnip, collard, and spinach — all for $2.49. Greens get points from nutritionists as a…

Today’s Bitchfest: Kurobuta

I’ve had it. This week I’ve read menus from three different fancy restaurants, all pimping their “kurobota” or “korubuta” or some other misspelling of kurobuta, a word you shouldn’t use unless you expect at least half of your diners to know what the hell it is in the first place…

Budget Beat: Vincent’s Back Door

The man and his oven (photo courtesy of vincentsoncamelback.com) One of the Valley’s superstar chefs, Vincent Guerithault, has a relatively new addition to his benevolent empire: pizza. Vincent’s Back Door opened last summer with Friday-night-only service behind his Vincent Market Bistro, next to his Vincent’s on Camelback, near the corner…

Coming Soon: The Kitchen By Good Eats Grocer

After six months with the lights off, the freestanding building that formerly housed Dish — part of the Shops at Gainey Village, at the southeast corner of Scottsdale and Doubletree Ranch Roads — is about to get a second wind. A new company out of Sacramento plans to open The Kitchen By Good Eats…

Waiter Confidential: You’re Now Free to Roam About the Classifieds

When it comes to playing hooky from work, you’d better be on your game – particularly if you work in a busy restaurant. Where my own exploits are concerned, experience has proven the best teacher. Susceptible to bouts of Cactus League-triggered spring fever, I’ve called in sick one day and…

First Dates Go Better with Buffalo Wings and Blue Cheese

What I’m trying to do is guide you through a series of date possibilities — all related to food. This week, we’ll venture out of the kitchen. I always take a first date out for buffalo wings. Yes, chicken wings! You can tell a lot about a person by how…

Forking: Hot Wings

See a man who truly loves wings in this week’s Spooning slide show.C.M. Redding likes it hot, as he reports in this week’s Forking column. Here’s a list of our Wing Man’s favorite places to get ’em: Long Wong’s (for more locations, go to www.longwongs.net) The Native New Yorker  Gym Grill…

Coming Soon: The Parlor

From beauty parlor to pizza parlor — that’ll be the transformation of the old Salon de Venus building at 20th Street and Camelback into a stylish, affordable new eatery called The Parlor. Set to open in late February, it’s the vision of owner Aric Mei, whose parents own the Nello’s…