You may not be signed up to compete in this Sunday’s PF Chang’s Rock ‘n Roll Marathon — billed by PF’s PR people as the largest-ever marathon/half-marathon — but that doesn’t mean you can’t pig out at the Health & Fitness Expo at the Phoenix Convention Center, free and open…
Last night at dinner, discussion came up about whether it’s a good idea to go back to school during a recession. Of course it is! You’re going to be toughing it out on a student budget whether the economy’s good or bad, so you may as well bide your time,…
For the last three and a half years, Rhonda McDonald and Kathy VanDerworp have been working as coffee vendors at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market, but they’ve recently taken the leap into full-time coffee shop ownership. Coffee & Tea Express (5835 W. Palmaire Ave., Ste. E, in Glendale) has been open since…
Things are starting to perk up downtown. Randall Denton, who managed the Willow House for three years, has a two-month-old coffee roasting business called Xanadu Coffee Co., located behind the former “new” Willow House space on Van Buren (call 480-220-8779 for info). His clients include the Hotel San Carlos, Paisley…
Among our New Year’s food resolutions (yours, too, most likely): Cook more. And eat more healthfully. Trader Joe’s keeps both promises with a fresh, pre-packaged, pre-washed and cut mix of several Southern greens — mustard, turnip, collard, and spinach — all for $2.49. Greens get points from nutritionists as a…
Svetlana and Abram Sulaymanov opened Russian Market over a decade ago in a dusty strip mall on the corner of 19th Avenue and Northern. Since then, they’ve been bringing the best dishes from the homeland to a hungry, and often homesick, community of ex-pats, immigrants, and globetrotting foodies. From beers,…
I’ve had it. This week I’ve read menus from three different fancy restaurants, all pimping their “kurobota” or “korubuta” or some other misspelling of kurobuta, a word you shouldn’t use unless you expect at least half of your diners to know what the hell it is in the first place…
The man and his oven (photo courtesy of vincentsoncamelback.com) One of the Valley’s superstar chefs, Vincent Guerithault, has a relatively new addition to his benevolent empire: pizza. Vincent’s Back Door opened last summer with Friday-night-only service behind his Vincent Market Bistro, next to his Vincent’s on Camelback, near the corner…
After six months with the lights off, the freestanding building that formerly housed Dish — part of the Shops at Gainey Village, at the southeast corner of Scottsdale and Doubletree Ranch Roads — is about to get a second wind. A new company out of Sacramento plans to open The Kitchen By Good Eats…
When it comes to playing hooky from work, you’d better be on your game – particularly if you work in a busy restaurant. Where my own exploits are concerned, experience has proven the best teacher. Susceptible to bouts of Cactus League-triggered spring fever, I’ve called in sick one day and…
What I’m trying to do is guide you through a series of date possibilities — all related to food. This week, we’ll venture out of the kitchen. I always take a first date out for buffalo wings. Yes, chicken wings! You can tell a lot about a person by how…
Years ago, I loved to wander deep into New York’s Chinatown — as far as my feet would take me, until none of the signs were in English anymore — always knowing that I’d find some kind of satisfaction. If I was lonely, people-watching and random conversations with shopkeepers cheered…
See a man who truly loves wings in this week’s Spooning slide show.C.M. Redding likes it hot, as he reports in this week’s Forking column. Here’s a list of our Wing Man’s favorite places to get ’em: Long Wong’s (for more locations, go to www.longwongs.net) The Native New Yorker Gym Grill…
From beauty parlor to pizza parlor — that’ll be the transformation of the old Salon de Venus building at 20th Street and Camelback into a stylish, affordable new eatery called The Parlor. Set to open in late February, it’s the vision of owner Aric Mei, whose parents own the Nello’s…
That old mantra about real estate — location, location, location! — is not lost on Luis Mata. The chef-owner of Plaza Grill, the fantastic Mexican restaurant in North Phoenix that I reviewed a few months back, blames an out-of-the-way location for the mid-December demise of his year-old eatery. It was…
It’s official, according to the just-released HealthSaver Caffeinated Cities Survey: Phoenix is the 10th most-caffeinated place in the country. Tampa ranks number one, followed by Seattle, Chicago, New York, L.A., Baltimore, Miami, Boston, and Houston. The same national survey found that Phoenix respondents are the second-most likely to eat chocolate…
One of my dear friends freaked out when she somehow misplaced a Christmas gift she’d gotten for me months ago. I knew she was really disappointed by the way she told me about it. But honestly, it was the thought that counted for me, so what a surprise to get a…
Better make sure you’re hungry before ordering Eden’s Grill’s Vegetarian Dish. This isn’t exactly a shocking revelation, but you can’t always believe what you read on the Internet sometimes. Like, say, if you were doing some online reconnoitering of Eden’s Grill (13843 North Tatum Boulevard, 602-996-5149) before making the trek…
That Guy Fieri is one busy dude. It seems like he has a lot on his plate hosting Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives (a Chow Bella fave for all the local indie restaurants it’s featured), which takes him all around the country, and Guy’s Big Bite. But he’s also hosting Ultimate…
There’s no denying it. Charles Barkley’s a character. He proselytizes. He womanizes. And his traffic stop after supposedly chasing a fellatio artist through the streets of Scottsdale two weeks ago will undoubtedly further his reputation. But before we burn Sir Charles at the stake (and let he who is without…
You thought the time for bubbly came and went with New Year’s Eve? Not at Vincent’s on Camelback. Chef Vincent Guerithault is kicking off his 2009 wine dinner series with the tenth annual “Extraordinary Champagne Affair” on Friday, January 23. For $55 a head, guests will nibble on Guerithault’s fabulous…
The just-released second edition of Jane Butel’s “passionate cookbook” Chili Madness features more than 130 new recipes from the New Mexico-based author and cooking school owner, and tonight, Butel herself will be at Changing Hands for a special tasting and booksigning at 7 p.m. Besides recipes for all kinds of chili, from…
