Go get seconds of Pierino Jermonti’s luscious caramel cheesecake creme brulee while you still can. T. Cook’s executive pastry chef, who’s been at the restaurant since 1996, is on his way out. Today marks his last day on the property. According to the Republic, Jermonti’s headed to Terranea, a Southern California…
To me, coming home, thrashed, at the end of a long day and finding a new mag in the mailbox is one of life’s simple pleasures. Better still is to flip it open and find something familiar in its shiny pages. This time, I expected there’d be some kind of Phoenix…
Ed Hardy might have tried to corner the rockabilly and hot rod market with his own designer energy drinks, but he’s got some tough competition in Sucker Punch, a new drink made by old school motorcycle and chopper company Sucker Punch Sally’s. Looks like: A vintage soda, with a retro…
There’s nothing quite like the taste of butter, but sautéing with it is virtually impossible. The milk solids just can’t take the heat; they burn at too low a temperature. For years, I adding a little oil to melted butter in an attempt to cook food at a higher temperature…
Arizona Capitol Times just announced the winners of its annual “Best of Capitol” survey a few days ago, and it’s interesting to see the restaurant picks of our local political movers and shakers. Not surprisingly, Cheuvront’s gets props (owner Ken Cheuvront is a state senator), while Durant’s seems to be…
For Mill Avenue, pretentious can be a good thing…. Enter Caffé Boa, a Mill spot that says “wine bar” where other area businesses say “smelly dive”. Caffé Boa’s Italian-inspired dinner menu might not be in your price range, but the happy hour deals are impressive. From 4 to 7 p.m…
A Februrary 23 inspection of the restaurant at the San Carlos Hotel in downtown Phoenix revealed, among other things, “white sauce containing cooked chicken and vegetables…date marked 2/11/09.” The manager discarded the mystery sauce. Good. We figure most things that are white have a much shorter shelf life. Speaking of…
This week’s dish is adapted from Mark Bittman’s Curried Chicken Salad recipe in his cooking bible, “How to Cook Everything.” We have deep respect for Bittman, who writes the Minimalist cooking column in the New York Times, and it feels quasi-sacrilegious to alter Bittman’s recipe in any way. But it’s…
Ultra-chic and tech-savvy hotel Aloft celebrated its grand opening last night with a packed house of trendy thirty-somethings lounging on the outdoor patio.Of course no opening is complete without some delicious eats and drinks. Aloft has no in house restaurant, but that didn’t stop it from catering the event with…
We remember when Hob Nobs, a coffee shop at McDowell Road and 3rd Avenue in Phoenix, used to be Willow House. Not a particularly clean joint. But we hear good things about the new place, which is why we were dismayed to see that Hob Nobs failed its recent county…
Another week has come and gone leaving us to ponder the upcoming events that will shape our lives and, more importantly, our dinners out. But before we move on, let’s have one last look at the blog posts from this week: Postino Central Now Open TequilaAZ Brings Agave Goodness to…
When it opens sometime in the next six months, what might you expect to eat at Tapino chef James Porter’s upcoming bistro, Petite Maison? Roasted heritage chicken from Willcox. Braised shortribs. A nice Nicoise salad with grilled fish. Some cheese, some charcuterie, and maybe a hot little souffle. “Nothing super fancy,” he…
“Life is like a sandwich. The more you add to it, the better it becomes.” I have no idea what genius offered that pearl — Shakespeare? Thoreau? Charles Schulz? — and, frankly, I don’t care to take the time to look it up, because I’m too busy planning my next…
Pablo Perez makes the kind of hot dogs people dream about. For the last seven years, he’s been introducing Phoenicians to the magic of the Sonoran Style Hot Dog, served out of a cheerful hot dog stand called Nogales Hot Dog #2. You’ll find Perez and his assistant seven nights…
Is Phoenix the last major city to have a sushi restaurant in its downtown? Until now, the sushi boom has happened elsewhere in the Valley, especially in Scottsdale. So tomorrow night is kind of historic, isn’t it? That’s when Moira Sushi (215 E. McKinley) opens its doors at 5 p.m. (Friday, March 27),…
The hot trend of featured chefs at farmers’ markets just keeps gathering momentum. Beginning this Saturday, March 28, Tapino Kitchen & Wine Bar’s award-winning James Porter will appear at the brand-new Seacat Gardens stall at Scottsdale’s Old Town Farmers’ Market, preparing a dish based on seasonal produce for shoppers to…
There are many questions we like to be presented with when entering an eatery. Of these, deciding among coffee, pastry and sandwiches is the question we like best. Why you ask? Because our knee-jerk answer is “all three.” That’s why we’re so excited about the focus of this week’s Cafe…
There’s been talk for quite a long time that chef Matt Carter of Zinc Bistro and The Mission has had his eye on downtown — particularly around Roosevelt Row. Well, he finally made his move. Carter’s in Uruguay right now, says Brian Raab at The Mission, but before he left, he…
Who needs a calendar? These days, I pretty much measure the passage of time by the reoccurrence of NOCA’s fried chicken night. The monthly special always happens on the fourth Sunday, so the place is inevitably packed with people chowing down on some of the tastiest bird ever (not to…
My ice cube trays recently came out of retirement. They were delegated to the back of the cabinet when my youngest daughter stopped eating homemade baby food, but they’ve been recycled and turns out they are used more frequently than ever before. What for? Stock. Making your own stock is…
It’s finally that time of year in the desert when we aren’t in a not-so-hot season! Spring is in the air (at least for a week or two) and everyone I know is flocking to outside grills for parties and eats. I just attended such a shindig in a multimillion-dollar…
These days, if “real estate” and “restaurants” are in the same sentence, it’s probably not an optimistic one. All around the Valley, the limping economy has amounted to closures, canceled projects, and indefinitely postponed openings. But not all the casualties came about because of the real estate crash. Some of…
