Top Five Phoenix Food Stories of the Week

Every week, there's a cornucopia of Phoenix food news, features, and reviews to report here at Chow Bella. If you're like most people, you probably just don't have the time to get to all of it. So, here's a recap of some of the top stories from the week that you may have missed.

Phoenix's Coup Des Tartes Being Booted Out of Location to Make Way for Car Dealership Parking Lot

Now here's a kick in the asphalt.

Coup Des Tartes, the romantic French bistro and oldest B.Y.O.B. in Phoenix, is being forced out of its former historic farmhouse home at 4626 North 16th Street to make way for a parking lot. Check out the full story on Coup Des Tartes.

--Laura Hahnefeld

The Racist Paula Deen Deposition Transcript -- And the Backlash It Caused on Twitter

Last month, Southern chef and butter queen Paula Deen gave a videotaped deposition to a lawyer representing a former manager of Uncle Bubba's Seafood and Oyster House. The former employee, Lisa Jackson, is suing Deen and her brother, Bubba Hiers, who own the restaurant for alleged sexual harassment, racism, and sexism.

As reported first by the National Enquirer, the transcript of the deposition (filed Monday in U.S. District Court) contains quite a few unflattering quotes from Deen, including that "Yes, of course" she's used the N-word.

To put it lightly, people weren't so amused, taking almost immediately to Twitter and hijacking the hashtag #PaulasBestDishes (the name of her show on the Food Network) to mock the TV host.

Check out the full story on Paula Deen's racist comments.

--Lauren Saria

CLOSED: Big Earl's BBQ in Scottsdale

Looks like the smoke's gone out at Big Earl's BBQ. The home of "old school 'Q'" in Old Town Scottsdale has shuttered.

Opened in January 2011 in a standalone white brick building at 7213 East First Avenue (formerly Jac's Pizzeria), Big Earl's came courtesy of Scottsdale-based JABD Enterprises. The restaurant filled a niche for Scottsdalians tired of driving to Joe's Real BBQ in Gilbert or Bryan's Black Mountain Barbecue in Cave Creek to get their 'cue fix.

Here the full story on Big Earl's BBQ.

--Laura Hahnefeld

13 Favorite Cold Dishes in Metro Phoenix

Here in Phoenix, most of us take the saying "if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen" pretty literally come summer, knowing that the cooker can become the cook-ee in a matter of minutes. We can simmer in our own sweat at the stove or broil ourselves to rosy rareness at the outdoor grill . . .

Or we can wipe our feverish brows, come to our collective senses and just go out to eat, where the AC blows cold, other people do the hustling and we can leave the dirty dishes right there on the table.

Here are 13 dishes to give us cold comfort this time of year.

--Nikki Buchanan

How could any one food be more simple and perfect than the street taco? Marinated meat with some sort of veg and salsa, all wrapped up in a warm corn tortilla or two, and there you have it. Though we typically can chow down on only about three of these little babies at a time, we wish we had the space in our stomachs for every taco option served up at our favorite street taco joints, Gallo Blanco and Tacos Atoyac. However, because we don't, only one of these taco virtuosos can be the king of the streets.

See who won our taco battle here.

--Heather Hoch

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