Ana Borrajo is a free-spirited, globetrottin’ foodie. Her first foray into the local food scene was via Sapna’s Chillout Café at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market. Every Saturday lines of people four deep would wait patiently for the Grenada, Spain native’s exotic juices, Spanish regional favorites like potato and tomato…
It didn’t take long for Napa Valley Soda Co.’s marketing shtick to work on our tasters. “Look, it’s from Napa Valley, I bet it’s good,” said our art director, Peter Storch, upon seeing four bottles of the stuff, purchased from Big Lots for $2. After trying the stuff, he wasn’t…
It’s no secret that I’m a sucker for neat old buildings — especially ones that house restaurants — so imagine my delight when I discovered that somebody leased that far-out building in the middle of the Haus/Movies On Central/soon-to-be Lola Coffee strip (4700 N. Central). You know, the one with the…
Before shows like Fear Factor and Bizarre Foods triggered mainstream gag reflexes, I toyed with my own notions of pushing the edible envelope. For much of the ’90’s, for example, I worked for a guy who allowed me the latitude to turn his specials chalkboards into an outlandish culinary canvas…
Hungry for Italian eats? Look no further than this week’s Cafe column. New Times shines some light on the corner of First and Pierce and more specifically on Chef Wade Moises’ PastaBAR. Food Critic Michele Laudig on PastaBAR: The menu is streamlined, nothing tops out over $17, and portions are…
One of our classes closes with a market basket exam. You get surprise ingredients and have to cook with them. Our taste of life as a Top Chef contestant. In our version, each student begins by picking the name of a protein out of a hat. Next we are given…
“Steak and potatoes” is a phrase people often use to describe themselves. As in, “Hey, I’m a steak-and-potatoes type of guy.” But just because you happen to be “that type of guy” doesn’t mean you have to be boring. Let me back up a minute. I like to surf craigslist.com…
I doubt I’m the first person to say this, but I’m certain I won’t be the last: First Street and Pierce has become the coolest corner in downtown Phoenix. It happened in a flash. A year ago, it was a culinary no man’s land (unless you count the Pizza Hut…
This week’s Forking is about taking an every day idea and making it pop. You say your a meat and potatoes guy/gal? You’ll never look at spuds and beef the same way after you try this out:…
I have to ask myself, is there such a thing as a professional chicken wing eater? Because Native New Yorker is billing its Battle of the Bone as “Arizona’s only amateur wing eating contest.” No professionals allowed! (ha) Starting tonight at the Tempe restaurant, the contest will be held at a different Native…
If you’re familiar with The Splendid Table, which airs every Sunday on KJZZ, then host Lynne Rosetto Kasper might already be a favorite part of your weekends. With her soothing voice and encyclopedic knowledge of the culinary arts — not to mention her vivid way of describing food — she…
No one likes waiting in line for a table. While standing around aimlessly, guzzling pre-dinner drinks and staring intently at your personal homing device (a.k.a. the annoying beeper thingy they give you at certain mid-grade eateries), you can’t help but ponder the question, “why, oh why, didn’t I make reservations?” Wasteland…
At Wright on Main (on Main Street in Mesa), Maricopa County restaurant inspectors recently found something rare — at least, it hasn’t turned up in dozens of inspection reports reviewed in the last few months. Mice. And roaches. Also “excessive” droppings from both. (What would qualify as non-excessive, one wonders?) Food…
As a waiter, Manuel was a marvel. While reciting specials and fielding menu questions, he dispensed information with the rote confidence of a Rhodes Scholar. When it came to taking orders and delivering the goods, he neither wrote things down nor screwed things up. It was at a chain Mexican…
It happened as swiftly as dominoes fall. Just days after the late August closing of Katz Deli, a Phoenix institution on Central Avenue, Craig and Kris DeMarco snatched up the early ’60s building and got crackin’ on their plans to turn it into a second outpost of their popular wine bar,…
Here’s something you don’t see very often, if ever — a special event at the highly acclaimed Binkley’s. On Monday, March 23, the Cave Creek fine dining destination will be hosting a six-course winemaker dinner to showcase Frank Family Vineyards, a boutique winery in Napa Valley. AZ Wines Company’s Carefree location is also involved in…
It takes a lot to gross me out. Or so I thought. While filleting an Artic Char, one of other students decided to play bio lab and began investigating the fish’s eyeball and how it was attached. He poked, prodded, pushed and punctured. I was sneaking a glance in his…
Lola Tapas owner Daniel Wayne — who founded the ultra-hip Lux Coffeebar, then sold it and opened the tapas joint four years ago — is getting back into the coffee game. He tells me he just signed a lease on a 1200-square-foot space on Central Avenue, just south of Camelback (4700 N…
If you eat at Efes Turkish Cuisine in Tempe (in the same strip mall as Changing Hands Bookstore, southwest corner of Guadalupe and McClintock), chances are, you’ll be doing some naval gazing. The restaurant often features belly dancing. But you might be better off checking out the cooks’ fingernails. A recent…
I got word last night that Palatte, the popular downtown brunch spot known for its eclectic menu and relaxed historic-house setting, just closed yesterday. Supposedly the restaurant was still doing a bangin’ business on the weekends, when people would line up for frittatas, scrambled egg “mishmashes,” and roasted sweet potato pancakes,…
Walking in to The Great Arizona Beer Festival on Saturday, we promised ourselves that we would not stumble out like blithering idiots. Well, you know what they say about best laid plans. So once again, the Brew Review team broke free from our office shackles and breathed in the sweet…
You know an energy drink is “extreme” when more than half the label is filled with warnings in .3 font. An eight ounce bottle of Red Line Xtreme gives a litany of cautions: “Do not consume Red Line on an empty stomach,” “Do not exceed recommended serving,” “Do not use…
