Chef Wade Moises has parted ways with his downtown restaurant PastaBAR and co-founder Nicholas Gentry. Moises opened the tiny Italian eatery a year and a half ago, after heading up Sassi in North Scottsdale (where Gentry was the sous chef), and working for Mario Batali’s New York restaurants Babbo and Lupa, as well…

After a couple of unsuccessful turns as Regions, the space at 6th Street and Mill Avenue in downtown Tempe is about to become a completely different concept, with a new owner. Restaurateur Julian Wright, who owns La Bocca Urban Pizzeria + Wine Bar a block up the street, is transforming…

Bacon, the Old Town Scottsdale breakfast joint run by the Devil’s Martini folks, is no more. A “For Lease” sign went up at the Goldwater Boulevard space over the weekend. Bacon opened in the spring of ’09, and never quite took off. Good breakfast spots are always in demand –…

Remember in early June, when I reported on the closing of Sucker Punch Sally’s? The official word at that time was that the restaurant was only temporarily closed, due to air conditioning problems, and that it would reopen in September. It struck me as odd that an almost brand-new restaurant would…

Word spread like wildfire yesterday about Hillside Spot’s fire — seems like a lot of people wanted to hit it up for Sunday breakfast — but the blaze itself was brief and well contained. Yesterday morning, a spark from the rotisserie at the Ahwatukee restaurant created a fire in the hood…

My blog posts might be a hell of a lot funnier if I wrote them as letters to myself, and then snarkily responded to them.Or not.Because this is what writer Todd Daniel does on his hysterical new diet blog, Fat or Fiction, and I promise you, the guy doesn’t need a…

Fat Cat barely had one life, let alone nine. The downtown Chandler restaurant, located in the historic San Marcos Place building that previously housed the troubled 98 South Kitchen & Wine Bar, had only been open five months. Chef Brian Ferguson, who worked for the restaurant when it was still 98 South,…

You have your neighborhood gelato shop and ice cream parlor, but boba drinks — cold, sweet beverages filled with ice and chewy balls of tapioca — are much harder to come by. I was living in New York City when the boba trend first hit. Also known as “bubble tea,”…

I love SideBar as a place to grab an excellent cocktail and hang out listening to DJs who still sling vinyl (quel throwback!), but I also adore the rotating monthly art shows there. A few months back, they had a series of killer Lalo Cota art, and now there’s a…

Yes, it’s called Beaver Choice. Blogging is taking on a surreal quality at the moment, as I write about a uniquely named new restaurant set to open soon in Tempe (1743 E. Broadway). Even more noteworthy is that it serves Scandinavian cuisine. Besides the cafeteria at IKEA, is there another local…

East Valley fans of Italian cuisine are about to get their taste of Amarone Ristorante Italiano, but that doesn’t mean that the new Gilbert location will be a clone of its older sibling in North Scottsdale. Set to open this week (perhaps as soon as Friday) at 832 S. Greenfield…

Here it is, folks: the lunch menu for chef Nobuo Fukuda’s new restaurant opening tomorrow, Nobuo at Teeter House. If you attended the final nights of Sea Saw or any of the chef’s special dinners last summer at Welcome Diner, dishes like steam pork belly buns, okonomiyaki, and soft-shell crab…

A little over a week ago, seven-year-old Basis New American succumbed to summer and a slow economy. Owner Steve Short details the rise and fall of his once-popular Moon Valley eatery on his catering company’s website; he continues to operate Atlasta Catering and Event Concepts. In addition to “modest” sales…