Happy New Year: Did you make a killing in derivatives in 1994? Spill hot McDonald’s coffee on your lap and collect a cool half-million? Vote Republican? If so, you’ll enjoy celebrating at these gourmet Valley resort restaurants. Arizona Kitchen, Wigwam Resort, 300 East Indian School, Litchfield Park. An exceptionally imaginative…
Lakeshore Restaurant, 14011 North Bush Highway, at Saguaro Lake, 984-5311. Hours: Breakfast and Lunch, Monday and Tuesday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, Wednesday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Weekends aren’t what they used to be. Once,…
Tip Talk: For some reason, tipping arouses violent emotions in some people. They resent it with a passion, and, in a way, I can understand their feelings. After all, the reasoning runs, we already have to throw in an extra 7 percent of the bill to pay the tax. Why…
Palm Grove Food Court, Dial Corporate Center, 1850 North Central, Phoenix, 207-7107. Hours: Breakfast and Lunch, Monday through Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Eating out hasn’t always been my occupation. In my former life, in fact, eating out was how I escaped from the rigors of work. I always…
Inn Season: At this time of year, most Valley residents need a flashing “No Vacancy” sign to put in front of their homes. That’s because the relatives you purposely moved thousands of miles to get away from somehow manage to track you down for a visit. My usual technique for…
Marque Bar and Grill, 8700 East Pinnacle Peak Road, Scottsdale, 994-8700. Hours: Dinner, 5 to 10 p.m., seven days a week. I don’t have too many hang-ups about a restaurant’s setting. Once I sit down and get the menu in my hands, I’m pretty well focused on the food. Unless…
Euro Blast: Bodies at rest tend to remain at rest, and mine is no exception. So whenever I get the urge to drive beyond the Broadway curve to Mesa, I generally lie down until the feeling passes. But a trip to Euro Cafe made me glad I fought through inertia…
L’Ecole, Scottsdale Culinary Institute, 8100 East Camelback, Scottsdale, 990-7639. Hours: Lunch, Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Dinner, Monday through Friday, reservations from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Giving students hands-on experience in real-world situations sounds like a useful training technique. Unless, of course, the victim the students happen…
Reading, Writing and Halibut: L’Ecole and the Culinary Arts Dining Room are not the only places in town to chase down gourmet eats prepared by student-chefs. Believe it or not, there’s a Phoenix vocational high school, Metro Tech, with a culinary arts department. And it offers one of the better…
Saigon Healthy Cuisine, 820 South Mill, Tempe, 967-4199. Hours: Lunch and Dinner, Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Everyone except Middle Eastern potentates sitting on large oil reserves gets strapped for cash once in a while. Recently, not through choice, I was forced to ponder the problem of…
Krabby Appleton: Does anyone else remember this cartoon villain from the early days of television? As I recall, the hero, Tom Terrific, called him “rotten to the core.” He was unredeemably mean and nasty. That’s how I feel about a food “product” that I seem to run into every week:…
Kampai, 2945 East Bell Road, Phoenix, 482-3260. Hours: Lunch, Tuesday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Dinner, Tuesday through Saturday, 5 to 10 p.m.; Sunday, 5 to 9 p.m. Japanese food, I think, is never going to be as wildly popular with Americans as other ethnic fare. Unlike, say,…
Where’s Franco?: That’s Franco Fazzuoli, proprietor of Franco’s Trattoria, one of the best Italian restaurants in the Valley. He’s been looking for larger digs ever since his old lease expired and he closed up shop last April. After months of searching, Franco’s Trattoria has found a new home at 8120…
Justin’s Ragin’ Cajun, 13416 North Cave Creek Road, Phoenix, 404-2900. Hours: Lunch, Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Dinner, Tuesday through Thursday, 6 to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 6 to 10:30 p.m. You can’t live in the Valley very long without becoming aware of a local affliction:…
Cola Wars: Can there be more worthless beverages in the world than Coke and Pepsi? They don’t quench your thirst. And they’re nutritionally empty, except if you require ten teaspoons of sugar (or the equivalent amount of corn syrup) in every 12 ounces of liquid. My adult hostility toward carbonated…
Buddy Ryan’s Bar & Grill, 122 East Washington, Phoenix, 258-4646. Lunch and Dinner, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. Earlier this year, a large, round man swaggered into the Valley. He assured us that our years of wandering in the…
Eat Your Vegetables: What’s the question I am asked most often? No question about it: What’s a good vegetarian restaurant? I got that question, but with a different twist, a few weeks ago. A guy called and explained that his wife was a strict vegetarian, but that he himself had…
Taste of the Southwest: Aside from Coyote Grill, I can think of two other Valley restaurants at which judicious ordering can get you a topnotch Southwestern dinner and a dollar or two change from a twenty. One is Z’Tejas Grill at Fashion Square, Scottsdale and Camelback roads in Scottsdale. But…
Coyote Grill, 3202 East Greenway Road, Phoenix, 404-8966. Hours: Lunch and Dinner, Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Years ago, as a Peace Corps volunteer, I spent a few days in a dirt-poor, mud-hut African village–no electricity, no plumbing, no…
I’ve long considered Sonoran-style Mexican food as snoozingly dull, a deadly collection of belly-busting burros, tamales, enchiladas, tacos, chimichangas. But visits to several combination-plate parlors have begun to work away at my south-of-the-border cynicism. In fact, El Bravo has almost turned me into a fan. Without question, this is some…
Moving, Shaking and Baking: The proprietors of the excellent Rancho Pinot Grill have moved out of Town & Country Shopping Center and headed for new digs in Scottsdale. They hope to open in their new location at 6208 North Scottsdale Road sometime in mid-October. There won’t be many changes. The…
Porking Out: Over the past couple of years, I’ve sampled enough smokehouse barbecue to be declared the country’s first ambulatory toxic waste site. After a week like this one, my friends can smell me coming before they actually see me. Here are my choices if you’re looking to eat high…
