10 Reasons Hiring Restaurant Staff Is Harder Than Ever

Staffing a restaurant (and keeping it staffed) is one of the most difficult and time-consuming tasks owners and chefs face. And turnover? The industry’s nearly famous for it. Although the hiring of both back- and front-of-the-house positions has always been a challenge, is hiring restaurant staff today harder than it’s…

Taco Bell Introduces Questionably Named Grilled Stuft Nacho

The Guilty Pleasure: Grilled Stuft Nacho Where To Get It: Taco Bell, locations everywhere Price: $1.29, are you out of your mind? What It Really Costs: You’re learning a new word today. I have to hand it to the R&D people at Taco Bell. It seems they have a nearly…

Chef Johnny Chu Opening Two New Restaurants in Phoenix

The new year is already shaping up to be a busy one for Johnny Chu. The Hong Kong-born chef, along with wife, partner, and general manager Linda Q, are planning to open not one, but two Asian-themed restaurants in midtown Phoenix by the end of February. The couple currently operates…

California Pizza Kitchen Reintroduces Gluten-Free Pizza

In 2011, my mother took us all to California Pizza Kitchen to celebrate Veterans Day. She spoke at a Scottsdale celebration, telling the audience about her service as a nurse in Desert Storm. Her unit’s mobile hospital set up on the Kuwait/Iraq border and treated more than 100 wounded people…

The Market by Jennifer’s in Arcadia Opens Tomorrow

Arcadia’s Gaslight Square, at Indian School Road and 36th Street and home to restaurants like Nook and Cullen Campbell’s Crudo, will see the opening of its newest tenant at 11 a.m., this Saturday, January 11: The Market by Jennifer’s. Owned by chef Jennifer Russo-Fitzgerald of Jennifer’s Catering, The Market by…

CLOSED: Searsucker Scottsdale

After just over a year, Searsucker Scottsdale, the nightclub meets restaurant at Camelback Road and Goldwater Boulevard, has shuttered. Co-owned by chef Brian Malarkey, a finalist on Bravo’s Top Chef Miami in 2009, Searsucker Scottsdale, which opened in October 2012, was the second location of the San Diego-based gastropub (there…

Nook: Arcadia’s Trattoria Speakeasy

Nook is an improbably low-profile restaurant. It sits between chef-driven spots Beckett’s Table from Justin Beckett and Cullen Campbell’s Crudo in Arcadia’s Gaslight Square. It’s blocks away from establishments of Valley tastemakers Vincent Guerithault and Mark Tarbell (not to mention the new headquarters of Fox Restaurant Concepts). And, as the…

Top 5 Things to Eat and Drink This Weekend in Metro Phoenix

‘Flights of Fancy’ Beer Samping Party with Ska Brewing Saturday, January 11 Cruise on over to Mill Avenue’s bike-friendly brew spot Handlebar Tempe to enjoy a beer-sampling party with Ska Brewing from 2 to 4 p.m. For $10 in advance or $12 at the door, you’ll get a flight of…

5 Favorite Farm-to-Table Goods and Dishes in Metro Phoenix

Starting eating right this year. And by right, we mean “only the best local stuff.” There’s a wide variety of great farm-to-table products and menu items, what follows is just a smattering of local goodness. If there’s something on this list you haven’t had, it’s time to try or take…

10 Kinds of Restaurants Chefs Wish Existed in the Valley

Welcome to Chow Bella’s Bites & Dishes, where Valley chefs and restaurateurs respond to a question New Times food critic Laura Hahnefeld has on her mind. Have a question you’d like to ask? E-mail laura.hahnefeld@newtimes.com. Although several new restaurants are scheduled to meet up with thousands of existing ones in…