Central Bistro, 5202 North Central, Phoenix, 602-234-2768. Hours: Lunch and Dinner, Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Saturday, 2 to 11 p.m. Closed Sunday. Real estate experts know that certain businesses and certain locations don’t mesh. You shouldn’t put a fine chinaware…
Madera Grille, 6601 West Bethany Home, Glendale, 623-847-1847. Hours: Lunch and Dinner, Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. The west-side restaurant scene could use some help. Fine dining? You’d have better luck scouring the avenues looking for the Loch Ness monster. Meanwhile, every chain restaurant on the planet…
Seasons Rotisserie & Grill, 10050 North Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, 480-443-1300. Hours: Lunch, Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; Dinner, Sunday through Thursday, 5:30 to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 5:30 to 11 p.m. When a bunch of jocks get together and open a restaurant, you can usually count…
The man in the black fisherman’s cap reminds you at once of Timothy Leary in his later years — minus the drugs. Mind-altering substances, to be sure, do not define the life of Hans Traulsen. Rather, he marks his own 86-year-long “trip” with much more laudable escapes. The first, his…
I’m going to say something that goes against my own conscience and the warnings of the U.S. surgeon general. You single women out there: If you want to be a player in the Valley mating dance, you’d better be holding something like a Macanudo Petite between your fingers. I’ve recently…
Ten years is a long time. When I moved here from California a decade ago, I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. I was thrilled with the affordable housing. I was thrilled that my kids could walk to school unescorted. I was thrilled that my car insurance rates…
LEO the Delicatessen, 5101 North Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, 480-941-4477. Hours: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, Tuesday through Sunday, 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Call me the Deli Lama. Like my Tibetan counterpart, I’ve spent a long time in exile, far from the native foods of the Brooklyn streets of my youth…
Edward’s of Scottsdale, 9619 North Hayden (Mountain View Plaza), Scottsdale, 480-9223567. Hours: Dinner, Monday through Saturday, 5 p.m. to close. “There is no new thing under the sun,” according to Ecclesiastes. So much for unerring Biblical certainty. Obviously, the man has never been to Scottsdale. How else can you explain…
Cafe Express, 2525 East Camelback (Shops at the Esplanade), Phoenix, 602-522-9199. Hours: Lunch and Dinner, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week. Self-service restaurants have never had much of a culinary reputation. Who can think of cafeterias without recalling the dreaded high school lunch hour? Remember reluctantly pushing…
Tequila Grill, 4363 North 75th Street, Scottsdale, 480-941-1800. Hours: Lunch and Dinner, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week; bar stays open until 1 a.m. Almost 500 years ago, Spanish explorer Francisco Coronado led an expedition through the American Southwest, searching for the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola…
In New York City, there are more Jews than in Tel Aviv and more Puerto Ricans than in San Juan. Guatemalans in Los Angeles outnumber those in every Guatemalan city except the capital. Count just L.A.’s Iranians, and the city’s population would still top Baltimore’s. Only Warsaw has more Poles…
Easterners come to live in the Valley for a variety of reasons. Indeed, the metro area is beginning to split at the seams, the air to curdle and the pavement to crack under the strain of all the people from the East, and elsewhere, who found so many good reasons…
Arisoo, 3002 North Arizona Avenue, Chandler, 4806325655. Hours: Lunch and Dinner, Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 10 p.m. I’m a Seoul man. Despite the explosion of Asian ethnic restaurants in the Valley, you can still count the number of Korean restaurants here on one…
Tal’s, 13610 North Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, 480-348-0086. Hours: Dinner, Monday through Thursday, 5:30 to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 5:30 to 10 p.m.; closed Sunday. When is disappointment the keenest? The moment you realize your wildest dreams will never come true? No. People get on with their lives even though…
Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, 6333 North Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, 4805968265. Hours: Dinner, 5 to 10 p.m., seven days a week. Move over, Morton’s. Move over, Ruth’s Chris. Move over, Don & Charlie’s. Move over, Harris’. Move over, Grill at the TPC. The list of topnotch Valley steak houses…
Four Peaks Brewing Company, 1340 East Eighth Street, Tempe, 480-303-9967. Hours: Lunch and Dinner, Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.; Sunday, 1 to 11 p.m. In spring, the poet says, “a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of love.” But once spring turns to summer, just about everyone’s…
The Write Stuff: The name of the restaurant and the name of the unhappy customer don’t matter. What does matter is how the aggrieved party expressed his annoyance. And how the restaurant responded. Here is an edited version of the correspondence: Dear [Owner], I have enjoyed your establishment for years,…
Kona Grill, 7014 East Camelback (Scottsdale Fashion Square), Scottsdale, 480-429-1100. Hours: Lunch and Dinner, Monday through Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to midnight; Dinner, Sunday, 5 to 10:30 p.m. Empires don’t spring up overnight. Rome wasn’t built in a day: It took centuries of…
What’s New: Sometimes it seems like no one has had an original restaurant idea in the Valley since the Hohokam fished ahi tuna out of the Salt River and brushed on a teriyaki glaze. I don’t know what to think of Edward’s, but no one can accuse this new place…
The sun was coming up when I finished reading Thomas Harris’ Hannibal, the sequel to The Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon. The third leg of his trilogy of wildly popular psycho-thrillers featuring the supergenius, psychologist and cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter is a crazy and maddeningly uneven…
Mastro’s Steakhouse, 8852 East Pinnacle Peak Road, Scottsdale, 480-585-9500. Hours: Dinner, 5 to 10 p.m., seven days a week. Once upon a time, one of the country’s largest stockyards flourished in the heart of Phoenix. Huge herds of cattle roamed in lots just a few miles from today’s downtown. Nobody…
Out and About: This is the time of year when it seems as if I am personally keeping the Valley’s restaurants in business. That’s because I’m in the midst of my annual Best of Phoenix odyssey, which keeps me out six nights a week. Here are some random observations on…
