Stepping into Jenny Kuller’s 1950s-inspired kitchen is like traveling straight back in time. The pink walls, patterned curtains, and stacks of colorful tablecloths make the small room a vintage sanctuary. Everything from the authentic food packages and containers (retro Jell-O, anyone?) to the shelves of salt-and-pepper shakers and figurines transforms…
Oh, horchata, the hottie of cold drinks. Its sixth-grade-joke-inspiring name is oh so fitting. It’s zesty and delicious, but those aren’t the only features this drink has to offer — it often si subtly diverse, made unique by the creators who serve up glasses loaded with your chilly, dreamy-creamy goodness…
The event season starts off hot this weekend with Roosevelt Row’s second annual Chile Pepper Festival, and if that doesn’t strike your fancy, know that Oktoberfest celebrations are in full swing. There’s still enough time for one last summer road trip though, and we’ve got a few good reasons to…
In June, when we last left Karl and Christine Boerner, the Swiss-trained father-daughter pastry chef team behind Karl’s Quality Bakery and the next-door Baker’s Daughter, they were making Kronuts (their version of the Cronut) and suing their landlord. The first effort worked out well; the second, not so much. The…
Renegade by MOD is the daring new restaurant from chef Michael O’Dowd, whose decade at Kai earned the restaurant AAA five-diamond and Forbes Travel Guide five-star acclaim. Breaking free of his corporate chains last fall, O’Dowd is now a first-time restaurateur as well as a celebrated chef. And at his…
It’s that time of year again. After months of planning, research, and collecting the gems of our city, the Best of Phoenix 2013 issue has hit the stands. This year, we take a journey into Phoenix’s past to unearth the vintage beauty of our city…
What does the Valley’s biggest risk-taker of a restaurant look like at the moment? Its cuisine takes a familiar dish and plugs it into a culinary electric socket, invigorating it with inspirations from countries like Japan, Italy, and China, and presenting it in ways that make necks crane at nearby…
Once a week, my son comes by to go to a movie or out to dinner with us, a time to touch base, to hear about his college classes, to hug him and kiss him and know that he’s OK. Picking a place to eat is always dicey; both he…
When a new spot opens in town, we can’t wait to check it out — and let you know our initial impressions, share a few photos, and dish about some menu items. First Taste, as the name implies, is not a full-blown review, but instead a peek inside restaurants that…
Welcome to Chow Bella’s Bites & Dishes, where Valley chefs and restaurateurs respond to a question New Times food critic Laura Hahnefeld has on her mind. Have a question you’d like to ask? E-mail laura.hahnefeld@newtimes.com. Requests from diners are nothing new. Perhaps they have to do with omitting a certain…
Here’s the thing. When it comes to gardening in Arizona, our climate differs so much from the rest of the country you can’t rely on advice from someone in Ohio. You might find that your favorite seed catalog just doesn’t offer what can be grown here in the fall during…
After not quite a year at Top Chef Brian Malarkey’s Searsucker in Scottsdale, Steven “Chops” Smith has left as its executive chef. Smith — whose résumé also includes gigs at Kelly’s at SouthBridge (consulting), Different Pointe of View, Noca, St. Francis, Olive & Ivy, and the defunct Furio and Luc’s…
Welcome to “Schaefer,” in which Eric Schaefer — a local guy with a big (but discerning) appetite and a sense of humor to match — takes on the Phoenix food scene. Cooler weather is upon us! October is the month during which I check the five different weather apps on…
Years ago, the signs of autumn’s arrival were geese flying south, leaves changing color, and a chill in the air. If you were a foodie, all you had to look forward to was the release of that year’s Beaujolais Nouveau a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving. None of these came…
This is part two of our interview with chef Andrew Nienke of Café Monarch in Scottsdale. Yesterday he dished about his belief in “no bullshit” food and today we discuss what will change and what will stay the same at the restaurant this year. Cafe Monarch will re-open for the…
Ahem, “spoiler alert.” If you’re not caught up on Breaking Bad, you might want to get that way before reading further. There’s no way around it, Breaking Bad fans: It’s almost over. On Sunday, September 29, AMC will air the final episode of the acclaimed drama, drawing to a close…
It’s been tough going for the Mexican truffle here in the U.S. It seems that neither time nor efforts by the James Beard Foundation to increase popularity have been able to make people understand that corn smut, or huitlacoche, is a truly tasty delicacy that’s really no funkier than your…
Beers: Triple Goddess Ginger, Triple Goddess Raspberry, Bourbon Peach, and Kombucha Pale Ale Brewery: Unity Vibration Styles: American Wild Ale (?) Ever been wandering around your local Whole Foods and stumbled upon a selection of teas that appear to have been loogied in? That stuff is called kombucha, and apparently…
With the scent of Best of Phoenix in the air (our biggest issue of the year final hits newsstands — and the Internet — later this week) we set out this summer to ask some of our favorite food folks to list their “Personal Bests.” We came up with everything…
When Lindsey Magee, a baker for three years at Lux on Central Avenue, was working on ideas for her first restaurant, inspiration came by way of New York City, through memories of a sandwich shop called Cafe Clementine in Tribeca. “I was working in the film industry then,” says Magee,…
If the dwindling wait times for a Cronut at Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York are a sign that the half-doughnut, half-croissant pastry trend is waning, then Safeway is making sure it picks up whatever crumbs are left. Recently, the grocery store chain has been selling its own version of…
Andrew Nienke Chef Café Monarch www.facebook.com/pages/Cafe-Monarch/305334640321 On Friday, October 4, Scottsdale’s Café Monarch will re-open for the fall — but this time without chef Christopher Van Arsdale. In his place will be a team of Van Arsdale fans looking to carry on the traditional of simple food done well and…
