Prior to the Eighties, the desert dining scene might best be characterized by its cheap (but delectable) chimichanga chow and its pretty (but indigestible) resort restaurant ambiance. Even as late as 1979-1/2, high-tone Valley victualizing often meant the likes of generic Veal Oscar and canned vegetables, albeit served in beautiful…
Although various people have encouraged me to partake of Japanese fast food, a real ambivalence about raw fish, skepticism about fast food in general and, yes, perhaps a little jingoistic jaundice have conspired to keep me away from speedy sushi at low, low prices. Now I must admit that I’ve…
A deceptively pretty red relish, it bears a resemblance to Mexican salsa. The waiter calls it chile paste, but that’s like using the word warm to describe a conflagration. One meltdown mouthful and you’re reaching for the pickled jalapenos for relief. Even as your saliva turns to napalm, however, secondary…
Of all the places I’ve yet reviewed for New Times, today’s establishment is the one that least requires the quibbles and qualifications inherent in the nature of criticism. Quite simply, the Arizona Biltmore’s Orangerie is a wonderful restaurant. Okay, okay, okay. I can’t yet vouch for its consistency. And a…
First off, let’s understand that this is not about hating kids. Surely and sadly the world does have its miscreants who loathe the little ones. But this is not a defense of such benighted and tragic intolerance. What this is about, in part, is an adult love of dining out,…
Louie Jones has been a force on the Phoenix fine-dining scene for what seems like forever. Previous associations with such posh and prestigious places as The Orangerie, La Champagne, La Reserve, Etienne’s, Les Jardins, and Cafe de Perouges have earned Jones a reputation as the most recognizable restaurant host in…
Angelo Ianuzzi has opened another restaurant in the Valley and this provokes a deep urge to exhume the past. Isn’t this the guy who so brazenly fingered the tastes of the locals before lighting out for the ever-so-cultured California coast? He’s back?!?! Italians have a word for this. They call…
William V. Bidwill seemed lost. The Phoenix Cardinals’ owner strolled forlornly about the shiny new press box at Sun Devil Stadium. He wore an expression of extreme melancholy. Bidwill’s press box sits so high an occasional visitor might think he was looking out the window on a flight into Sky…
Dammit, but after all these years Durant’s is once again trendy! Talk to dinner-house owners these days and they will report that among the current deities of the dining crowd are the familiar, the simple and any food subjected to the culinary process of hardwood cooking. As one New York…
Riazzi’s Italian Garden and Red Devil are practically the same restaurant, so I’m going to write about them that way. While naturally there are some distinguishing characteristics to these two unaffiliated businesses, there are just not deep-down-in-the-dente differences. The core concept of each is inexpensive Italian cuisine, and the restaurants…
Amy Johnson, the general manager of the Tony Roma’s restaurant in Scottsdale, reports that there are five major categories of customers who use the restaurant’s delivery service. In descending order of total orders generated, they are: Childless double-income couples who have worked hard all day and who just don’t want…
Delivery dining has its own code of ordering etiquette. Here are some of the experts’ insights: If at all possible, anticipate your desire for a delivered meal. Call up the restaurant as early as possible, place your order and set up a delivery time. You’ll be doing both yourself and…
If you’re the sort of person who takes dining out seriously enough to read restaurant columns (and if you’re not, what are you doing here?), you’ve probably dreamed of finding that slightly out-of-the-way, slightly undiscovered, slightly scintillating little spot that’s going to change your dining life forever. Pssst, Sorrento Restaurant…
Most modern art is wholly unintelligible unless you are privy to the critical theory behind the work. So argues Tom Wolfe in a wry essay on an abstract expressionist painting called The Painted Word. Explanations are so essential to the appreciation of this type of art, writes Wolfe, that art…
It’s a Monday night and the parking lot is jammed. This would be a noteworthy sight anywhere, but here it’s positively amazing. For this has always been one of those doomed dining spots avoided like a curse. In its last incarnation, for example, it featured Native American cuisine and called…
You know the part of you that never stops being seven years old? The part that can suck up spaghetti in lengths more appropriate to transatlantic cable? The part that can trickle-drink an entire large Coca-Cola by maneuvering a finger over the end of a plastic straw? Well, hurry that…
It takes some time but, on the way back from the powder room, my guest finally notices it. On a little shelf behind the hostess stand is a single biographical volume. As far as we can tell, it is the restaurant’s only thematic reference to its own name, Hemingway’s, and…
In this age of too little time and too much take-out, the leisurely business lunch has become an endangered species. Once in a while, associates may still manage a midday restaurant meeting. But all those things that once made noontide outings so outstanding–the three martinis, the meaty entrees, the rich…
“Isn’t the Thai trend over?” The question comes from a sincere associate, one who really enjoys a good culinary craze, and I know what she means. It is certainly true that Thai food has been part of the recherche restaurant scene for at least the past half decade. Anyone with…
The Phoenix area has a lot of Thai restaurants, at least two dozen. Isn’t this just a little strange? After all, Thailand’s not exactly one of the world’s largest or most populous nations. And it’s easily 10,000 miles away from Arizona. So what’s the connection? Do Thai restaurateurs consciously set…
H.I. Ribsters is an otherwise likable restaurant with a fatal flaw. It’s a limited-menu barbecued rib and chicken emporium that serves really mediocre ribs and chicken. This is barbecue of the blanched and baked-with-liquid-smoke variety, resulting in blah-flavored products that even reasonable tenderness and a decent smoky hot sauce cannot…
I have no political authority to do this, but I am hereby nominating the Wigwam Resort’s Arizona Kitchen to be our official state restaurant. Here is an ultimate dining experience; one that unites authenticity with artistry, pride with imagination, style with comfort, and fabulous flavors with visual panache in a…
