A few weeks ago I had the great pleasure of attending the Draft Magazine Microbrew Festival at Turf Paradise. It was a fairly great time marred by one great disappointment. I ran into Louis Dolgoff, Arizona’s Dogfish Head sales manager who explained to me that he was in possession of Sah’tea, a…
Tempe residents will soon have a new watering hold to consider when attempting to decide how to spend those precious drinking hours between leaving work hitting the snooze button.The good folks at Tops Liquor on University are opening a wine and beer bar called “Taste of Tops” right next door…
There are 57 vodkas, two shelves of tequila and 50 different kinds of beers taking up the limited shelf space of SideBar in downtown Phoenix. For a bar that’s about the size of a college dorm room, that’s not too shabby. OK, a college suite. With house-made flavors and fresh-squeezed…
Josh Parry is serious about drinks. He will not allow his bartenders to free-pour the sweet and sour in one of their signature cocktails, a Cucumint Martini. It must be measured with a jigger. “It’s that exact,” he says. “If you pour it perfectly, it will taste perfect.” He insists…
We’re beginning to count the weeks in lagers instead of days. But worry not, fellow drinkers! We shall press on in our quest to find the tastiest of Summer brews. This week: Coney Island Lager. We met up with the folks at Shmaltz Brewing to try their line of freaky…
Today I write to you a changed man. No, I have not found a beer so good that I’ve felt the touch of God. Rather, I’ve found a beer-drinking mecca. I can only apologize that it’s taken me this long to discover Sun Devil Liquor in Mesa; though I have…
A Moscow Mule was one of the first cocktails in American history. It was vodka mixed with ginger beer, served in a copper mug. Complete with a culturally insensitive reference (to the Russian-imported liquor) and a convenient alliteration, the drink was a sensation. For the first time in this country,…
Steve Douds remembers when his bar was a line of identical men in suits. Brick-sized cell phones and gin and tonics sat in front of them in a neat row. “Scottsdale used to be a town of conspicuous consumption,” he says. “It was big glasses of vodka and little old…
Another week, another stab at finding the most delicious beer built for Summer in the Valley. This week we jaunted over to Turf in Downtown Phoenix to see what Ireland has to offer in beers appropriate for the hottest months of the year. See what we thought about the selection…
Irish beer. Is there anything else so delicious? I decided to find out by taking a visit to Turf, a semi-new Irish pub in Downtown Phoenix. As you might expect, Turf is stocked with well-knowns including Guinness, Harp and Smithwick’s but I wondered if there was a selection off the…
Mike Bunker’s concoctions at The Mission in Old Town are often sweet, often strong, and almost always delivered with a touch of flair. “I feel like I have a good palate for cocktails,” he says. “And I like to drink, so it just fits.” The self-proclaimed mixologist and well-seasoned bartender…
When a girl came up to Mike Bunker, asking the question he most dreads when he’s behind the bar, he gave her a drink he called “A Punch in the Head.” Funny, from a bartender who minored in Religious Studies in college. The girl told him: “Make me whatever you…
Hit print on this one, people. Or at least cut and paste. Here’s your guide to good happy hour deals across the Valley, with food and drink from around the world, at all levels of sophistication. Happy Monday. 1.Rosie McCaffrey’s 906 E. Camelback Rd., Phoenix 602-241-1916 Good Irish pubs are…
This week we checked out the beers on tap at Santan Brewing in Downtown Chandler. Yup! We ventured far into the depths of Chandler to bring you this week’s update. At last weekend’s Craft Brewing Festival we ran into some Santan Brewers keen on their Strawberry Wit. To see what…
It turns out you can’t please everyone. I think we can agree one a few things, thought. For example: I scream. You scream. We all scream for ice cream. We also scream and shout and salivate at the thought of great beer. What if I told you that I combined…
“It’s not just about vodka and Red Bull” any more, according to Dave Johnson, sommelier at Sol y Sombra. The emergent cocktail culture that’s dominating the bar scene today, he says, goes back beyond Prohibition, to the Gilded and Edwardian Ages (the “flowering zenith” of the Cocktail Age, as he…
In case you were wondering: Gin was the first flavored vodka; the word “sommelier” originally meant “keeper of pack animals;” and organic spirits will be the next big wave in designer drinks. Oh, and Grey Goose is not any better than any other vodka — it’s all marketing. That is…
Choosing the right horse requires a lot of luck and a certain willingness to watch your already mentally-spent earnings fail to materialize. That’s why I took a different gamble at Turf Paradise Race Track this weekend and thought I’d try my luck with a bunch of micro brew enthusiasts instead…
This week we checked out the beers on tap at The Roosevelt in Downtown Phoenix. How does the house ale stack up to the other Summer beers we’ve tried this month? Check out the slide show to find out. Check out the updated slide show to cast your vote via…
Bow your heads, gents. It’s once again time to pay tribute to the sweet nectar of the heavens we call “beer.” Why the religious overtone? I’m reviewing a brew named for a Saint. St. Peter’s Old-Style Porter comes from “Britain’s finest small brewery” situated in the St. Peter’s Hall in…
As per @deonadee’s request, I checked out Sonora Brewhouse this week to find their best Summer beer selections. My discoveries: Armadillo Red Ale, Hefeweizen, and Stinger Pale Ale. Check out the updated slide show to cast your vote via e-mail or twitter…
This Summer Beer Quest is taking a toll on me. Don’t think for a minute that I’m complaining about writing and (in this case) photographing beer around our fair city. Far from it. It’s the subsequent eating that’s such a drag later on. Take the Sonora Brewhouse for example. Sun…
