Rula Bula managing partner Steven Goumas hasn’t had the easiest go of it in getting his Irish pub and restaurant ready for business. Opened in late July inside Tempe’s historic Andre building, the Gaelic eatery debuted more than a year late, thanks to a fire that gutted its structure last…
Homebuilders everywhere have their boxers in a bunch over Proposition 202, a pending initiative that will severely limit urban sprawl across Arizona. They say turning off their bulldozers will destroy the economy. Supporters of 202, on the other hand, see the initiative as a way to limit subdivisions that are…
Tomaso’s — the elegant Italian restaurant that’s charmed Valley diners for almost two decades in its original 32nd Street and Camelback location — has set up a sister shop in the East Valley. That brings to three the number of Tomaso’s in the metro-Phoenix area, all sporting the exact same…
Imagine what the horrible result would be if Denny’s switched its all-American concept to contemporary Mexican cuisine. Just try to visualize the culinary disaster assured if Furr’s doctored its menu to include $15 plates of prickly pear barbecue cactus shrimp. And what, God forbid, would diners be in for if…
The complaint I hear is all too frequent: There are no good, family-owned American restaurants in the West Valley. Mexican food, maybe, and national chains of all types, for sure. But where can a hungry diner find a delicious meat-and-potatoes meal, cooked with real love, after crossing into the Avenues?The…
Eating healthful food lets us live longer. That’s something everybody agrees on. But what exactly is healthful? Scientists can’t agree on which kind of fat will kill us. We hear that alcohol is bad for us, and then nutritionists tell us to drink one or two glasses of wine each…
Bistro 24 executive chef John Johnstone has been one busy fellow lately. Over the past several months, he’s packed up his pots and pans, relocated from New York’s Tavern on the Green, dismantled and rebuilt the Phoenix Ritz-Carlton’s kitchen, brought in a new staff and introduced new lunch and dinner…
Lately it seems like there’s a Chinese restaurant on every street corner in the Valley. Even a recent National Restaurant Association study concludes that Chinese cuisine is so prevalent “it’s no longer considered ethnic.”Every neighborhood seems to have its own favorite Chinese gathering spot, pleasing its regulars with sweet-and-sour this…
I’m glad I brought my press materials on Ice Restaurant and Bar to dinner tonight. Otherwise, I might wonder why in the world I had decided this would be a nice place for a sophisticated meal. What made me think that Ice — a loud, obnoxious nightclub serving food one…
Ever since visiting Aloha Kitchen, the Valley’s only Hawaiian-theme restaurant, something has been puzzling me. Who in the world invented Kalua pig? And how much free time did he have? Consider this: A recipe from the Maui tourism board gives me no fewer than 36 steps to prepare this popular…
For most businesses, as the adage goes, location is everything. If a shop isn’t easy to find, customers won’t bother to track it down. Unless the business is a restaurant, with really wonderful food. In that case, having a location that’s off the beaten path can actually be a plus…
ZakeE’s chef-owner Sal Alqardahji is pleased that I’m making a complete pig of myself at lunch. I suppose there aren’t that many customers who order two appetizers, three or four entrees, salads and dessert for a noon repast, but my dining companion and I are really hungry, I tell him,…
Imagine you and a few of your friends — say, 3,000 of them — are looking for a good place to grab dinner out. Where would you go? If you live in Anthem, the decision is simple: Persimmon Bar & Grille at Anthem Golf and Country Club. There’s practically no…
I feel so ashamed. I’ve just read an interview with Peter Benchley, author of that ’70s sea shocker, Jaws. It seems he’s done a 180 on his view of great white sharks recently, discovering over the past decade that they are actually shy, scaredy-pants fish that only attack people they…
If I hear about one more “for the Soul” book, I think I’m going to scream. Not only is there that instigator of all the madness, Chicken Soup for the Soul, there’s now the baffling Chicken Soup for the Dental Soul and the completely inexcusable Chicken Soup for the Backstreet…
Tee Pee Tap Room, 602 East Lincoln Street, Phoenix, 602-340-8787. Hours: Lunch and dinner, daily, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. On game nights, restaurant remains open one hour after game ends. Downtown Phoenix dining hasn’t gotten much respect, historically. Not only has the restaurant quality traditionally been pretty weak, but…
Some pretty funky history is happening in downtown Scottsdale these days. Since the opening of The Velvet Room in late March, the Old Town neighborhood has been jettisoned back to the 1940s and the “Golden Age of Jazz.” The supper-club concept has been reincarnated here, pairing the evening meal with…
Given perfect hindsight, most of us would have been a whole lot smarter when we were 12 years old. To this day, I dearly wish I had been. At this tender time of my life, I was living in Japan, land of gorgeous gardens, show-stopping fashion and some of the…
If you’ve ever toured the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland, you’ll feel right at home at Monti’s La Casa Vieja in Tempe. Picture hunkering wooden walls, patch-painted but inescapably old. Imagine yawning galleries hung with portraits of ancient, macabre and deceased former residents. Visualize mismatched furniture, creaking doors, alarming discrepancies in…
One of my best resources for reviews of one-of-a-kind, out-of-the-way restaurants is word of mouth. Usually, these places don’t have the funds for elaborate marketing or benefit from having a big-name chef backing them. So when a friend mentions Mangos Mexican Cafe to me, I perk up at her description…
I grew up in a condiment-free household. It’s sad, but true. Our house was in a salad-dressing-free zone. Sauces were used only if they were imperative to the construction of a dish, and even then, sometimes not. Mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, barbecue sauce or salsa on our food? Never. Even spices…
My dining companion is messing with my head, or, should I say, my palate. He swears there’s lemon in the complimentary pre-dinner plate of iced watermelon we’re enjoying at the Green Leaf Cafe.I pluck another chunk of fruit, but there’s no lemon flavor here. I even dip my fingers in…
