Authentic EthioAfrican

During the pandemic, most restaurants switched from full service to takeout. At Authentic EthioAfrican on McDowell Road, the team did just the opposite. During the downtime, the restaurant transformed from a takeout-only spot into a sit-down destination complete with wooden furniture and decor brought directly from Ethiopia, a new cocktail list and a traditional coffee […]

Autumn Court Chinese Restaurant

Same food, different location from the old-school-cool space in a former IHOP on Central Avenue that evoked Roman Polanski’s Chinatown in decor and comestibles. Alas, the kitchen at the Central Avenue locale fell victim to a fire in late ’05, closing the place for the next year. The new spot looks more like a Swiss […]

Avanti Restaurant of Distinction

Local cuisine and our knowledge of Italian desserts have grown over the past 40 years thanks in part to Avanti, which opened in 1974. The owner is likely to stop by your table to chat about what you ordered or to boast about the interior, all black-and-white offset by blood red walls and zebra-striped fabrics. […]

Awesome Cookie Company

With a name like Awesome Cookie Company, you’d expect nothing short of, well, awesome from a cookie. Luckily, the cookies deliver on the name, even though there are only two flavors available. The most popular option, the cranberry oatmeal, kind of tastes like a really fancy enlarged Cookie Crisp, which is baffling because it isn’t […]

AZ BBQ Company

Mark Nichols thinks about flavor. The chef and pitmaster opened Arizona BBQ Company with his wife, Colette, in Gilbert in 2017. Mark has a classical culinary training from Le Cordon Bleu. Nichols applies his training to the process of cooking meat. The result is that European technique and American cuisine merge.