Michael & Christi’s Heavenly Soul Food Soul food is so simple, it’s easy to overlook as a cuisine in its own right. Yet embracing good old gritty calories, heavy batters, fatty meats, thick gravies and sugars like molasses — what’s not to celebrate? It’s high time that diners salute this…
Crisdee’s Chef Razz Kamnitzer grumbles that chain restaurants use glittery marketing instead of good food to lure customers in the door. What bothers him the most is not that he doesn’t have an advertising budget equal to that of the Olive Garden, but that the public believes the packaged puffery…
The headlines scream that the Diamondbacks aren’t making money. Attendance is down, and the baseball team is struggling. All eyes are on Jerry Colangelo to fix things.I’ve got a suggestion: Rather than pump more cash into hotshot player salaries, give the fans something palatable to munch on while cheering for…
There’s something in the water, people say — that special fluid that flows from New York City’s municipal taps. The crystal liquid is so revered that it’s been marketed on a retail level. Tim Zagat, publisher of the Zagat Surveys, says he’d rather have New York City water than the…
War. What is it good for? For Americans, at least, strife in other countries can lead to greater dining variety. As immigrants land on our shores, escaping the constant upheaval of their homelands, they bring with them intriguing new foods, exotic recipes and a taste of the globe many of…
Au Petit Four It was her diet that did it. Not many people would dare consume such a steady stream of ultra-rich foods like chicken pâté, roast duck and Yule log, plus several glasses of wine every day. Really, ingesting that much fat and alcohol, how could French citizen Jeanne…
Michael Hoobler has to be thrilled. The star chef, now running the kitchen of Phoenix’s new Restaurant Arcadia, has successfully escaped the confines of corporate America. Last fall, Tom and Chrysa Kaufman, owners of Scottsdale’s highly popular Rancho Pinot Grill, presented Hoobler with the opportunity to open his own restaurant…
Last May, the National Restaurant Association asked Americans which ethnic cuisines they preferred. Not surprisingly, Italian, Mexican, Japanese, Thai and Middle Eastern were the most popular. Unexpectedly, however, Caribbean rounded out the list of winners. Pretty interesting for a food that traditionally has barely made a blip on most diners’…
It’s a drizzly winter evening, the kind that often brings on melancholy. But not for us. Tonight, we’re lounging like emperors at Café Blue, reigning over booths of sleek platinum cloth as we exchange witty repartee on politics, fashion and friends we don’t like so well. The rain spits and…
Miracle Mile Deli When Jack Grodzinsky died in September 1998 at the age of 78, more than 650 people attended his funeral. It was a touching tribute to a respected businessman, an active participant in many Valley charities and a cornerstone of Phoenix’s Jewish community. While the sentiment was sincere,…
I’m going to go out on a limb and say this: Cheating is good for us. When it comes to primal urges, human beings aren’t designed to be monogamous. Even Charles Darwin, after discovering female barnacles that kept a tiny male partner in each of two little pockets inside their…
Local businessman Danny Hendon found his success in soapsuds, as owner of the 13 Danny’s Family Carousel Carwashes across the Valley. Now, the entrepreneur has trained his sights on a spiffy new upscale supper club in the East Valley. If it sounds like an odd pairing, it is. The resulting…
The Valley is home to a wide range of exotic cuisines, with everything from Ethiopian to Afghan and Pakistani restaurants at the ready to feed wanna-be global gourmets. For a city our size, though, we’ve traditionally been pretty short on French food. We can recite the big players without breaking…
Lady Luck has opened a kitchen just east of Scottsdale. The new Casino Arizona on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community is home to Cholla, an upscale restaurant, and Salt River Cafe, a casual eatery. While there’s no guarantee of a payoff with the casino’s slots, cards, off-track betting, keno…
What would a casino experience be without that must-have, the all-you-can-eat buffet? This isn’t typical food in trough, however — Casino Arizona caters to higher tastes with Eagle’s Nest. Put this place on your list of where to eat well, eat a lot, and eat cheap. There’s no mistaking we’re…
Who goes to an airport to eat unless they have to? Apparently, more people than we realize. There’s a national trend brewing of airports supplementing hot dogs with stuff we actually want, including a new Wolfgang Puck eatery at Chicago’s O’Hare, Sylvia’s Soul Food of Harlem at JFK International Airport,…
There’s a lot to detest about The Breakfast Club, that 1985 movie about the group of high school kids who, forced to serve a day’s detention together, come to realize that despite their apparent differences, they’re all just people. Awww. The film introduced us to Judd Nelson, an actor skilled…
Arizona’s dining scene is exploding at record levels, bringing unheard of variety and competition to every corner of the Valley. Last year, in fact, Arizona experienced the nation’s third-largest increase in restaurant revenues, and is projected to be among the country’s top three again in 2001. With more than 8,300…
Western Pizza In most circles, any person venturing out of the house after midnight invites suspicion. Little good can come from folks rambling about at this dark hour. Late-night frolickers are getting drunk, they’re cruising the opposite sex with purely physical intent, or they’re looking to pick a fight. How…
Harry, our waiter at George & Son’s Asian Cuisine, is explaining why no chopsticks are included with the cutlery on the tables of this new restaurant. Too many patrons in the upscale north Scottsdale neighborhood have confessed they’re unable to control the slippery sticks, he says, so management decided that…
In-N-Out Burger, 7467 East Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard, Scottsdale, unpublished phone number. Also 1525 Dysart Road, Avondale. Hours: Lunch and dinner, Sunday through Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 1 a.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. The Sony PlayStation2 has been packed away, the thrill evaporated just a few…
A recent survey, conducted extensively among people on my speed-dial list, has uncovered a startling finding. The entire state of New Mexico is nothing without its chiles.A half-dozen people answering the phone can’t be wrong. When asked what the cuisine of New Mexico is comprised of, all my study subjects…
