Today is Christmas. I’m no Scrooge. Instead of putting some poor restaurant through the ringer today, I thought I’d share with you some of the “gifts” I’ve received–in the form of new restaurants–in 1991. Here, then, in no particular order, are my 12 days of Christmas, my memorable finds of…
When you contemplate eating at a French restaurant, do you fret about what to wear? Do you fear some snooty waiter will allow you to unintentionally order brains for dinner? Do you suffer from “which fork” anxiety? If stress seems a natural prelude to ordering a portion of pate, I…
For someone who doesn’t live in Scottsdale, I spend a lot of time eating there. This is not due to some covert community preference on my part. It is simply because new restaurants of note continue to pop up in that affluent area of the Valley. Some, including the two…
The sawdust has been swept from the floor, the menu refined, the necktie scissors stored away. Just as country music reinvented itself with a new breed of younger, hipper artist–Lyle Lovett, Dwight Yoakam, k.d. lang, et al.–the cowboy steak house has also been revamped and updated. The new look is…
For retailers, the day after Thanksgiving is, quite simply, the biggest day of the year. The frenzied climax of a season of preparation. A dreaded and dreamed-about day when more shoppers descend upon this nation’s malls than any other–except, of course, for the day after Christmas, when shoppers bring everything…
Blame it on Wolfgang Puck. The California restaurateur is the one responsible for creating America’s voracious appetite for fancy pizza. After all, we common folk can only be expected to watch so many installments of Warren, Madonna and Jack snarfing pizza exotica at Spago on Entertainment Tonight before we, too,…
Is Southwestern cuisine passe? Are pine nuts, jicama and black beans yesterday’s ingredients? Do those of us who live here even care? In the mid-Eighties, renewed national interest in the look and flavors of Arizona and New Mexico spawned hard-to-ignore trends in restaurants and decorating. But “hot” eventually cools. “In”…
In other cities, it is not unusual for East-Indian restaurants to cluster together. In New York, for instance, good, inexpensive Indian food is easily obtained on East Sixth Street, where Indian restaurants compete side-by-side for dinner dollars. Some pull you in with offers of free spice tea, others with smells…
When cowboy-movie star Tom Mix “bought the farm” in a fatal 1940 car accident, he also left a farm behind–thousands of acres of grazing land south of Phoenix and a white adobe house. A half-century later, the “old Tom Mix house,” as it is still called, is the newest branch…
For years I’ve been hearing about Sedona. The red rocks. The vortexes. The shopping. And, yes, the restaurants. Cozy L’Auberge de Sedona has long been touted as a most romantic spot for dinner. And Canyon Rose at Los Abrigados has garnered kudos for chef Todd Hall, including an invitation to…
You are J. Fife Symington III, a man for whom the ninth-floor governor’s office is quickly turning into a scofflaw’s tower cell. Down below, another embarrassment surfaces almost every working day. If you, Fife Symington, had your way, the doors of the ninth floor would be sealed to muffle the…
In honor of Columbus Day, a holiday that has been appropriated by Italian Americans, I thought I’d investigate a couple of spaghetti houses with strong word of mouth. One turns out to be good; one, not so good. Way up in North Scottsdale, a group of thirtysomething couples enters Mamma…
The party’s over–Oktoberfest, that is. So where does one go to score sauerkraut and bratwurst once the street vendors have disappeared? Where can a lover of schnitzels and German beer go to celebrate any old time? German Corner Restaurant & Bar is one suggestion. This new, east Phoenix restaurant is…
Michael Josephson knows all there is to know about ethics. He talks on interminably. Squat, intense and bespectacled, he keeps it up . . . talking . . . moving . . . gesturing. With a great need to be heard, Josephson holds a mic close to his mouth. Unfortunately,…
As much as I like Gabriel’s, it is a restaurant that raises a few small, niggling questions. Who is Gabriel, for instance? Why is its menu shaped like a painter’s palette? And, continuing this line of questioning, why are some of the offerings named after well-known paintings and painters? Easy…
Here’s a concept that signals the beginning of a new decade. A Vietnamese restaurant that is a) part of an international chain, b) pleasant and attractive, c) authentic. Pho Bang Restaurant, for those of you who haven’t yet tried it, is all of the above. It is sparkling clean. It…
As I write this, I am noshing on half of an obscenely huge sandwich, leftovers from “research” conducted earlier in the day. This has been the pattern all week. For me, eating in a Jewish delicatessen is a multimeal proposition. There is no way I can consume everything in one…
Phoenix is not Chicago. Nor is it Buffalo or Minneapolis or Milwaukee. We just don’t have the large communities of Eastern Europeans that our cold urban cousins along the Great Lakes do. This explains why we have such a dearth of Czechoslovakian, Hungarian and Polish restaurants–not to mention Lithuanian, Ukrainian,…
The question I’m most frequently asked–after “What’s your favorite restaurant?”–is “Where’s the best place to eat Thai food in Phoenix?” Until recently, my answer was “Nowhere.” After a couple of visits to Siamese Kitchen, however, I have a new, more positive response. Two of my biggest complaints about Thai food…
I’m happy. I have found two restaurants I like. Both are Italian. Both are trattorias. Both are places to inscribe in your Rolodexes pronto. Preferably with indelible ink. But first, some of you may wish to know, what is a trattoria? Is it any different than a “regular” Italian restaurant?…
For those of you who have already tossed out that freebie Hallmark calendar you pocketed last December, August 8 is Grandparents’ Day. Which raises an important question: How does one commemorate Grandparents’ Day? With a card? With a gift? With a trip to Tom Tate’s? Heck if I know. When…
In the center of the buffet table, water drips from an ice sculpture reading “BIO 2.” Behind the chafing dishes and metal trays, staff members stand at the ready in starched whites and toques. Tonight’s buffet in the Sundance Cafe at the Sheraton Tucson El Conquistador Golf and Tennis resort…
