If You Love Cartel’s Coffee, Wait Until You Try The Beer

When a new spot opens in town, we can’t wait to check it out and let you know our initial impressions. First Taste, as the name implies, is not a full-blown review, but instead a peek inside restaurants that have just opened, sampling a few items, and satisfying curiosities (yours…

Giant 20-Inch Artisan Pizzas Coming to North Scottsdale

Where do North Scottsdale folks go for artisan pizza when they’re really hungry? Starting Sunday, March 10, it may be Giant Rustic Pizza. See also: – 11 Best Pizza Spots in Metro Phoenix – Federal Pizza: Empire-Building on Central Avenue The new takeout and delivery restaurant, 14626 Frank Lloyd Wright…

Chanpen Is Back in the USA. Lucky Us.

If Chanpen seems like the only Thai restaurant in South Phoenix, it’s probably because it is. Of course, that’s assuming you find it first. The small beige building, which sits on a barren stretch of East Broadway Road between 24th and 32nd streets, is easy to miss. Even Alan Ramonaitis,…

Salty Sow in Phoenix Could Use Some Spice

When a new spot opens in town, we can’t wait to check it out and let you know our initial impressions. First Taste, as the name implies, is not a full-blown review, but instead a peek inside restaurants that have just opened, sampling a few items, and satisfying curiosities (yours…

What Are Three Cooking Skills Everyone Should Know?

Even if you consider yourself a good cook, turn on nearly any TV food show these days and chances are someone will be showing you something new, turning you on to a different cooking technique, or flatly declaring you “don’t belong in the kitchen” unless you know how to perform…

Herb Box’s LaDawn Driscoll: Caramelpalooza Candymakers 2013

As the chefs competing in Smeeks and Chow Bella’s fourth annual Caramelpalooza — coming 7 p.m. Friday, April 5, at UNION — get out the candy thermometers, we’ve got our pens ready to introduce you to the faces behind the caramel. LaDawn Driscoll might be a newcomer to the Caramelpalooza…

Processing Chickens in Arcadia with Caroline Van Slyke

It was a beautiful Saturday morning in Phoenix, the kind of morning when posh couples with Suri-like children sip espresso at La Grande Orange and the fit triathletes of Phoenix have been up for hours enjoying the weather and getting in their weekly miles. I was at Boho Farm and…

Churn’s Monica Castillo: Caramelpalooza Candymakers 2013

As the chefs competing in Smeeks and Chow Bella’s fourth annual Caramelpalooza — coming 7 p.m. Friday, April 5, at UNION — get out the candy thermometers, we’ve got our pens ready to introduce you to the faces behind the caramel. For someone so sweet, you might be surprised to…

Sunnyslope’s Spoke & Wheel Off to a Wobbly Start

When a new spot opens in town, we can’t wait to check it out and let you know our initial impressions. First Taste, as the name implies, is not a full-blown review, but instead a peek inside restaurants that have just opened, sampling a few items, and satisfying curiosities (yours…

Like a Kid in a Mexican Candy Store

There are 23 reasons I avoid the Mexican grocery store when my inner pig-tailed child is having a craving: $23 of tangy, chile-spiked, salty and only occasionally sweet Mexican candy overflowing from my shopping basket as my inner child does a twirl in her patent leather Mary Janes. Let’s just…

February Restaurant Openings and Closings in Metro Phoenix

February saw at least one shocking closure as Old Town Whiskey shuttered rather abruptly to make room for me event space in The Saguro hotel. It also saw a number of new faces, including a bakery that sells sweet hand pies and the timely arrival of a Chicago mainstay. See…

CLOSED: Chick Rotisserie & Wine Bar in Arcadia

Looks like Chick has lost what was left of its pluck — permanently. See also: – Jose Garces’ Old Town Whiskey in Scottsdale Shutters to Become Hotel Event Space – Distrito Gets Neutered: From Colorful and Lively to Brown and Boring, This Makeover Ain’t Makin’ Sense The second concept from…

11 Best Pizza Spots in Metro Phoenix

As a restaurant town, Phoenix still gets a bum rap: too many chains, too few ethnic, no restaurant-rich urban core, and no famous equivalent to Philly’s cheesesteak or Chicago’s hot dog to call our own. But there’s one thing we do have in abundance, and it’s great pizza. Seriously, we…