Your “Seven-Layer Neapolitan, Reese’s Pieces, and Tangerine Slices” dessert creation may currently be a family favorite, but how ’bout seeing it on a restaurant menu for one year — with your name — plus score some scratch to boot? It could happen. Flancer’s Cafe, the sandwich and pizzeria joint with…
Mohair-upholstered ceilings, a 3,000-bottle wine cellar, two pianos — with the opening of Dominick’s Steakhouse today in the Scottsdale Quarter, it’s like the slumping economy ISN’T EVEN HAPPENING! Courtesy of the Mastro group, the 10,500 square foot, 350-seat, two-level luxury dining destination, hopes to “fill a void in the market…
Not to be outdone by “The Undead” and “Brain Dead,” two Halloween hooches offered up by Hula’s Modern Tiki in Central Phoenix, the Spotted Donkey Cantina at el Pedregal, the North Scottsdale spot of Southwest-Mexican cuisine, has created a scary cocktail of their own, and they’re calling it, “The Cauldron.”…
Dishes are pretty at Poblano. So pretty that even as you are deciding from the menu, your server may direct your attention to the wall, where photographs feature larger-than life images of poblano chiles dripping with cheese, and just-so arrangements of parrillada meats. “They will look like that,” your server…
Because it is what we in the business call a slow news day, I dropped by the “Gratitude Tour,” a one-day expo of new food and drink vending machines in Glendale, and, boy, folks were crabby with a capital C-R-A-B. “How much does this machine cost?” I asked the representative…
Until restaurants became popular in the 1800’s, a printed menu, unless it was a special occasion, was as rare a sight as eating with your hat on. Since then, menu design has become more and more important as a branding tool, an excuse to sit back and peruse an establishment’s…
After months of patiently waiting (okay, not so patiently), the second location of Green, Damon Brasch’s funky vegan bistro, in downtown Phoenix is now open. Green’s location, a house at 2022 North 7th Street, was formally Brasch’s sandwich shop called That’s a Wrap before he sold it to longtime manager…
To describe chef Cullen Campbell, owner and chef of the Italian-inspired Crudo, as restless would be an understatement. Still working on securing a new home for Crudo (rumored to be in Arcadia) since being kicked out of his Scottsdale location in July, Cullen has kept busy with pop-ups at Posh…
On Sunday, local food blogger Seth Chadwick, who started Feasting in Phoenix, the blog he labeled as, “When Zagat meets Sex and the City. . .,” posted his last entry. Started in 2005, Feasting in Phoenix featured Chadwick’s reviews from eateries around the Valley and, occasionally, the country, treating readers…
In what’s sure to be torpedo-sized news in the world of submarine sandwich chains, Jersey Mike’s, a franchise with more than 500 stores nationwide, will continue its quest for world domination (and the freshest baked bread, meats and cheeses) by opening ten more locations in Arizona. (Currently, there are seven…
Now here’s a birthday bash we can sink our teeth into: Joshua Hebert, sweetbreads guru and owner and chef of Posh, the contemporary American restaurant tucked into the Optima Camelview condos, is celebrating his 35th birthday from 6 to 8:30 p.m., tomorrow night, Tuesday, October 4, with a “My Favorite…
The Mint, the swanky restaurant and ultra-lounge in Scottsdale, might have gleaned its name from its former bank location, but at its Paint it Pink benefit for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the former financial institution is going the giving route. Starting at 3 p.m., this Thursday, October 6,…
You can’t tie down this toffee. So says Donna Gabrilson and Stacey Barnes, the mother-daughter team behind GoodyTwos Toffee Company, the sweet shop of small batch toffee creations like the Sweet and Salty and the Cinnfully Hazelicious. Today, the two made the announcement that GoodyTwos has outgrown its current space…
As part of the ongoing parade of new food trucks driving their way into the Valley, last week, the folks at Superstition Farm & Udder Delights announced their food truck had officially become part of the Phoenix Street Food Coalition. Called the SuperFarm SuperTruck and most frequently seen at the…
Damon Brasch, owner of Green, the funky vegan bistro in Tempe, thinks so much of the Tsoynami, his organic ice cream treat featuring Blizzard-like flavors, the name for his new vegan ice cream, coffee, and pastry shop in downtown Phoenix was inspired by it. Located at 2014 North 7th Street,…
The cardiovascular system of the Valley’s locally-produced food world recently experienced an increase in heart rate when Shannon Dufresne, owner of Crave Artisan Ice Cream, announced she was calling it quits. “My decision is by choice, not circumstance,” Dufresne tells me. “After three years of only making ice cream, I…
It’s been just over a month since Oaxaca Restaurant and Cantina, the downtown Phoenix eatery and 30-year-plus landmark near the state Capitol, closed and its former owners, the Verdugo family, forced to go through a trustee sale. But starting at 10 a.m. on Monday, Jose Martinez, Vice President of Chicanos…
Looks like Essence Bakery, the sunny spot of upscale comfort food in Tempe, has its sights set on a second location in Central Phoenix. “We’re cautiously optimistic,” says Gilles Combes, co-owner and husband of chef and owner Eugenia Theodosopoulos. “The building has to go through rezoning.” The location, next to…
Heinrich Stasiuk, owner of Brick, the gourmet pizzeria that opened last year in the Arizona Center in downtown Phoenix, says Timo, his new restaurant opening next week in Sunnyslope, will take wine bars to the next level. “We’re going to have a selection of over 30 wines by the glass,”…
Wow. We’re full. Today ends our second year of 100 Favorite Dishes, the one hundred day countdown to our Best of Phoenix issue where, based on the gems we know of and your suggestions, we ate our way through goodies like the gollo burro from Casa Reynoso, foie gras creme…
To say that Beaver Choice is an unusual restaurant is an understatement. Simply uttering the name can elicit furrowed brows, stifled laughter, or both. The logo, a clothed cartoon beaver brandishing a knife and fork, could easily be a public service announcement telling kids to brush their teeth after a…
First Taste, as the name implies, is not a full-blown review, but instead a peek inside restaurants that have just opened, sampling a few items, and satisfying curiosities (yours and ours). Firehouse Subs, the fast food franchise with more than 440 locations founded in Jacksonville, Florida, by former firefighting brothers Chris and Robin…
