“It was dirt floors six months ago. As abandoned as it gets,” says Brandon Casey, heading to the corner seat of what’s being billed as the first craft cocktail bar in Chandler, where he’d rest his elbow for a photograph. This is the best vantage point to see the new…
Each week we venture to a new restaurant to check out what the spot has to offer during our favorite time of day — happy hour. Whether it’s affordable appetizers, delicious drinks, jaw-dropping deals, or none of the above, we’ll check out the situation and report back. The Spot: Okra…
The Beer: McFate’s Irish Red The Brewery: Fate Brewing Company South ABV: 5.4% IBU: 18 Owner Steve McFate has developed quite a following at his original Fate brewpub founded in 2012 and located on East Shea Boulevard in Scottsdale. He developed so much of a following, in fact, that he’s…
Each week we venture to a new restaurant to check out what the spot has to offer during our favorite time of day — happy hour. Whether it’s affordable appetizers, delicious drinks, jaw-dropping deals, or none of the above, we’ll check out the situation and report back. The Spot: House…
What do you get when you round up nearly 50 local and national breweries in the middle of downtown Phoenix in November? You get New Times’ second annual NovemBEER Festival, that’s what. The event will take place on Saturday, November 21 at Arizona Center in downtown Phoenix and will offer beer,…
The Beer: The Maharaja (Release No. 26) The Brewery: Avery Brewing Company Location: Boulder, Colorado Style: Imperial India Pale Ale Stats: 10.2% ABV, 102 IBU The Maharaja is part of Avery Brewing Company’s Dictator Series, and according to the brewery’s website, “The Avery Dictators Series was born of an inexorable…
Something huge has landed in the Phoenix cocktail scene. In fact, it may be the biggest cocktail around. Part of it sat in the Beefeater Gin distillery in London for close to two months simply due to shipping complications. “I don’t think anyone else in America has these bathtubs,” says…
It takes guts to call your book a Bible, but Karen MacNeil’s nearly 1,000-page tome The Wine Bible is more than worthy. The second edition of The Wine Bible, released earlier this year, is an approachable and entertaining compendium of wine knowledge, spanning topics such as “How Is Wine Made” and detailing the…
Beer: Pumpking Brewery: Southern Tier Brewing Company Location: Lakewood, New York ABV: 8.6 percent Ever had pumpkin pie? How about pumpkin pie in a glass? Actually, that may actually be underselling it because this beer is superior to pumpkin pie — and it comes in a glass. More specifically, Pumpking is the…
On November 7th Counter Intuitive, the Old Town Scottsdale cocktail bar with a revolving theme, will say goodbye to sultry Havana nights and set their thematic sails to stir up “Big Trouble in Little China Towns.” The cocktail gang will be channeling the historic underground social drinking clubs of Chinese…
Each week we venture to a new restaurant to check out what the spot has to offer during our favorite time of day — happy hour. Whether it’s affordable appetizers, delicious drinks, jaw-dropping deals, or none of the above, we’ll check out the situation and report back. The Spot: Wildfish…
The Beer: Refuge IPA The Brewery: Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co. Location: Gilbert Stats: 7.2% ABV, 75 IBU In the Valley of the Sun, there are few things more refreshing than a crisp, clean beer with a nice dry finish. And that’s exactly what you get in Arizona Wilderness’ Refuge IPA, an artfully crafted…
Each week we venture to a new restaurant to check out what the spot has to offer during our favorite time of day — happy hour. Whether it’s affordable appetizers, delicious drinks, jaw-dropping deals, or none of the above, we’ll check out the situation and report back. The Spot: Duck…
The Parlor’s bar manager Michael Allmandinger sat down with us a few weeks ago, he did so with a list titled “Amaro 101: An Introduction to Italian Amari.” It includes 18 bitter, Italian apertifs and digestifs. But that’s not all. “Currently we have….” he trails off, twisting around in his…
The Beer: Humphrey’s Hefe The Brewery: Lumberyard Brewing Co. Location: Flagstaff, AZ Style: Hefeweizen Beer Style: The beer style hefeweizen literally translates to “yeast wheat” and is a style of beer made with, according to German brewing law, at least 50 percent wheat malt and produced with the yeast still…
It’s been said that the mint julep is perfect when temperatures are between 70 and 100 degrees. That’s when it does its job best — the job of cooling, soothing, and satisfying. “And it’s pretty much always between 70 and 100 in Phoenix,” says Micah Olson, co-owner at Okra, Central…
The Beer: Shake The Brewer: Boulder Beer Company Location: Boulder, Colorado Did someone say “chocolate” and “shake” in the same sentence? About beer? Shake is a chocolate porter created by the Boulder Beer Company of Colorado. This beer starts out with aromas of rich chocolate, or more specifically, pleasantly bitter cacao. Background…
The Spot: The Montauk 4360 North Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale 480-994-1888 www.themontaukaz.com The Hours: Happy hour is from 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Perfect For: When your wanderlust shouts, “Take me to the Hamptons!” but your bank account replies, “Best I can do is Scottsdale!” The Interior: When East…
At one point toward the middle of our interview with Joshua James — he was leaning against a stool, arms crossed, calmly answering question after question about the specs on this or that ingredient — we went in for a sip of Clever Koi’s House Dirty Martini. Crisp, briny, evoking…
The Beer: Devil’s Ale The Brewery: SanTan Brewing Company Location: Chandler, Arizona Football season is in full swing and, of course, football means tailgating. If you’re going to tailgate, you might as well do so with a well-balanced, easy-drinking ale made right here in town. SanTan Brewing Company’s Devil’s Ale is a logical…
The Spot: Twisted Grove 8220 North Hayden Road, Scottsdale (480) 699-0811 www.twistedgrove.com The Hours: Happy hour is from 3 to 6 p.m. daily, and offered throughout the restaurant. Perfect For: Getting together with your parents, particularly if you prefer to do that with a stiff drink in your hand. The…
Imagine a 3,000-mile bartending tour across the United States that favors Riverside over Los Angeles, stops in Santa Fe instead of Austin, and chooses Jackson, Boise, and Salt Lake City over Seattle, New Orleans, and the Big Apple. Imagine it’s thrown by reputable cocktail personality and barman Erick Castro of…
