Triumph of the Grill: Last year, a few months after Rancho Pinot Grill opened, I gave it a rave review. The place hardly needed it. Foodies found out about it quickly enough, and the swamped restaurant soon outgrew its tiny Town & Country Shopping Center storefront. About six months ago,…
Duke’s Place, 7210 East First Avenue, Scottsdale, 970-4484. Hours: Lunch, Tuesday through Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Dinner, Tuesday through Sunday, 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Remember the movie The Crying Game? It was basically a formula flick: Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl. But the…
Brunch Tips: The Valley’s high number of world-class resorts makes this one of the country’s great brunch sites. If Etienne’s is booked for Mother’s Day, here are some first-rate alternatives that combine magnificent settings with magnificent fare: Terrace Dining Room (Phoenician resort, 941-8200): Maybe the Valley’s most lavish spread, and…
Etienne’s Different Pointe of View, Pointe Hilton at Tapatio Cliffs, 11111 North Seventh Street, Phoenix, 863-0912. Brunch hours: Sunday, 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. For flower shops, it’s Valentine’s Day. For airlines, it’s the day before Thanksgiving. For department stores, it’s the day after Christmas. And for restaurants, it’s Mother’s…
Flying Crane, 730 East Brown, Mesa, 835-6073. Hours: Lunch, Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Dinner, Monday through Thursday, 5 to 8 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 5 to 8:30 p.m. For a guy who used to believe that onion rings, jelly doughnuts, pizza and corned beef made up…
Let Sleeping Dogs Lie: A friend of mine recounted this weird tale of a recent Saturday-night meal at a lively north central Southwestern-food hot spot. Between the appetizer and entree courses, a dazed dog wandered in from the street, staggered over to my friend’s group’s table and collapsed by its…
Cafe Brazil, 3239 East Indian School, Phoenix, 955-0060. Hours: Lunch, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Dinner, Monday through Wednesday, 5 to 9 p.m.; Thursday, 5 to 9:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 5 to 10:30 p.m. Phoenix certainly has no shortage of south-of-the-border restaurants. Most of them, though,…
Food for Thought: It sounds like a good idea, doesn’t it? Restaurant News, an industry trade paper, reports that a New York hunger-relief agency has opened up the city’s first, and only, full-service restaurant that accepts food stamps. One City Cafe, a nonprofit venture operated by the Food and Hunger…
Harvest Restaurant, Harrah’s Ak-Chin Casino, 17 miles west of I-10, exit 162A, Maricopa Road, 1-800-427-7247. Hours: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week. Five hundred years ago, the European invaders came and stole their land. Then, the white men drove them from their ancestral…
Hap’s Real Pit BBQ, 101 South 24th Street, Phoenix, 267-0181. Hours: Lunch and Dinner, Monday through Friday, 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; closed Sunday. American pork producers have spent a fortune promoting their product as “the other white meat.” If you believe the advertising,…
The Triumph of the Grill: It looks like barbecue fans are in for a mighty swine time this week. The Great Arizona Rib Roundup kicks off Thursday and runs through Sunday. Rib houses from around the country are displaying their bones downtown at Civic Plaza, between Second and Third streets…
ACG (Arizona Cafe and Grill), 3113 East Lincoln, Phoenix, 957-0777. Hours: Lunch and Dinner, Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Over the past couple of months, the Valley’s restaurant buzz has been swirling around two new, flashy, instantly trendy spots. Both ACG…
Whatever Nola Wants: Looks like it’s time to delete permanently the lukewarm review of Nola’s Cocina Mexicana that’s been molding in my computer system. The casually upscale Mexican restaurant has been doing less than stupendous business since it opened last year in glitzy Biltmore Fashion Park’s restaurant row, between high-profile…
R.J.’s Osborn Restaurant, 2333 East Osborn, Phoenix, 956-4420. Hours: Lunch and Dinner, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. What makes the words “home cooking” so appealing? They conjure up such gauzy, nostalgic visions: Mom working over the stove, lovingly putting together tasty, fresh-baked, steamy-hot, good-for-you meals that fill…
Single Serving: It’s hard being a person with gourmet tastes and no one to share them with. Enjoying great food is a lot like sex: It’s usually better when you have company. A new-to-Phoenix group doesn’t promise to do anything for your libido, but it may make mealtimes more fun…
Royal Taj, 1845 East Broadway, Tempe, 967-5234. Hours: Lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., seven days a week; Dinner, 5 to 10 p.m., seven days a week. Five questions I get all the time: 1. “Do restaurants know who you are?” (No.) 2. “Where can I find a good vegetarian…
Eire Apparent: Almost 1,600 years ago, Saint Patrick converted Irish heathens to Christianity and drove all the snakes out of Ireland. On Friday, we celebrate that happy event by dressing in green and consuming enormous quantities of alcohol. It doesn’t exactly make sense, but it’s fun. Now, the words “Irish”…
Steak-Out: One of the Valley’s hottest restaurant rumors concerns Morton’s, the upscale Chicago steak house that has been opening branches all over the country the past few years. Phoenix is on the new site list, so I thought I’d get a preview by checking out the fare at Morton’s Las…
Whale and Ale, 1401 East Bell Road, Phoenix, 942-0644. Hours: Lunch, Monday through Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Dinner, 5 to 10 p.m., seven days a week; Sunday brunch, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Even though our ancestors crawled out of the primordial ooze eons ago, a lust for…
Pastrami’s, 5930 West Greenway Road, Glendale, 938-5900. Hours: Breakfast and Lunch, Sunday and Monday, 9 a.m to 2 p.m.; Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. For all the sophistication and variety on the Valley eating scene, there is still one huge, gaping hole in…
Yanqui, Come Here: What’s pressure for a restaurant critic? It’s having to choose a dinner spot for fussy out-of-town friends. One of my group, having gone through Weight Watchers’ assertiveness training, is notoriously hard to please. Watching her calories on a trip, she once pulled into McDonald’s and ordered a…
Munch a Bagel, 5114 North Seventh Street, Phoenix, 264-1975. Hours: Breakfast and Lunch, Tuesday through Sunday, 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Are you one of those morning people who wake up at full speed and leap out of bed hungry and rarin’ to go? Do you race to the kitchen…
