Jill Cohn isn’t what I expected, on the basis of several years of listening to her music on CD. Demonstrating the same sort of naiveté that leads housewives to believe that the guy on their soap opera really is a cad, or Charlton Heston to believe that Ice-T really kills…
It’s the end of an era, with the closing of the historic John Gardiner’s Tennis Ranch. It’s a new dawn for Valley hospitality, with the unveiling of the Zen-inspired resort and spa taking Gardiner’s place — Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain. The resort won’t open until October, but its flagship restaurant…
It’s late May, and there are 52 home games remaining in the Arizona Diamondbacks season at Bank One Ballpark. That’s a lot of baseball. That’s also potentially a lot of hours spent driving in circles and a lot of money wasted for sports fans unfamiliar with the best way to…
It’s so nice to have a slave — um, a server — to cater to our whims as we watch the Philadelphia Phillies kick the Diamondbacks’ butts on a Friday night. In-seat food and beverage service is just one of the amenities of scoring a Clubhouse ticket, the $70-per-seat grouping…
It takes about an hour to braid most horses, including their tails, Angelica Romero tells me. And that’s if a SWAT team doesn’t barge in looking for escaped convicts, which has happened to her. “Two years in a row at Tucson, early in my career, there was me and maybe…
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…
Journalists sometimes forget how important their readers are. Yet their missives often arrive in our mailboxes packed with helpful comments, and the constructive criticism that offers us the opportunity to better our craft as communicators.Consider this compelling note from a curious gentleman wanting to chat about my recent, unfavorable review…
I’m toying with the idea of planting corn in my backyard, then infecting it with the fungus Ustilago maydis. If all goes well, the kernels will be coated with a greenish-white covering, then turn silver-gray before rupturing to reveal huitlacoche, a black corn fungus that is a delicacy in Mexican…
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…
This town isn’t big enough for two Arcadias.Arcadia Farms Cafe has filed a civil lawsuit against Restaurant Arcadia, claiming trademark infringement and requesting that the restaurant change its name. Arcadia Farms is an award-winning eatery at First Avenue and Goldwater in Scottsdale. It’s been a Valley favorite for its creative…
In honor of Mother’s Day, here’s lunch with the ultimate TV Mom. It’s not June Cleaver, not Carol Brady, not the tortured alpha female from Malcolm in the Middle — no, the honor has to go to the hip, bus-driving, back-up-singing, ostensibly keyboard-tickling matriarch of The Partridge Family.Not that this…
Most restaurateurs follow the adage that the customer is always right. Even if the diner is nuts, the savvy eatery entrepreneur realizes the value in word-of-mouth.Unless you’re Gary Horowitz, owner of the Italian Grotto — a long-standing restaurant in Old Town Scottsdale. In that case, any customer with a complaint…
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…
Not everyone can be Julia Child. Some are destined to be hopeless in the kitchen, broiling when they should be braising, sautéing when they should be simmering.Cooking classes aren’t always the answer. Many seminars now are taught by celebrity chefs who want students to whip together such intimidating delicacies as…
So what does Deedee Wood do all day in Cave Creek — when she’s not having lunch, that is? “My friends in L.A. ask me that,” says Wood as we wait for sandwiches. “They say, ‘What do you do out there?'” The answer isn’t complex. “I have a big house…
Several people say the same thing when I tell them I’m having lunch with Jim Rose: “I’d be afraid to have lunch with him. I’d be afraid he’d . . . do something.” Something, they mean, like eating one of his drinking glasses, or sticking one of his utensils through…
Since the beginning of time, or at least harking back to the days when the earliest life forms washed ashore gasping for coffee, we have answered the call of caffeine.Since we are no longer content to merely brew the stuff ourselves at home, coffee houses have become the hangout of…
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…
Franco Fazzuoli has had enough. After 45 years in the restaurant business, the chef-owner of Franco’s Trattoria in Scottsdale is calling it quits. The last day of service at the 14-year-old, award-winning Italian restaurant is Saturday, April 14.Shortly thereafter, the location will reopen as Gregory’s Grill. Fazzuoli finally decided that…
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…
Christie’s Cabaret claims to have “the most amazing lunch in town,” and the fact is, it probably does. Topnotch sandwiches. Chicken wings that are nothing short of perfect. The best blue cheese dressing you’ll find anywhere.And lots of made-up, stripped-down girls who, for $10, will straddle your legs and let…
