Phoenix Food Blog

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:

Lisa G Goes Out of Business on a Halloween High Note

Tweet n' Eat: Five Foodies to Follow

Battle of the Cuban Sandwiches

Recipe: Apricot Glazed Chicken from Liberty Market

Crooked Cucumber From AZ/88

​Just a quick reminder that Welcome Diner has special hours for First Friday. They'll be serving food from 6 p.m. to midnight. Specials on the menu include watermelon from Crooked Sky Farms and eggplant from Maya's Farm.

If you're down wandering around Roosevelt Row, hit up Rusty Spoke bike co-op on 5th Street for the lowdown on how to get a pedicab to the diner.

​It's a coffee Renaissance in downtown.

Just got the lowdown from the guys at Tempe's Cartel Coffee Lab that they're opening a second location in the heart of Downtown, at 1st Street and Washington (right across the street from the new CityScape development). The timing is hazy, because they have some construction to do to get the space ready, but hopefully they'll set up shop by the end of the year.

Cartel joins an ever-growing roster of hip coffee hangouts in the area -- two Royal Coffee Bars, two Fair Trade Cafes, Conspire, the soon-to-open Giant Coffee, and the also soon-to-open second location of Lola Coffee.

People, we are gonna be wired for the 21st Century.

Tags: cartel coffee lab, coffee

​Who's servin' up all of the caffeinated haterade?

Seems like people complained for years that there was nary a spot around town where good
grounds could be found. Now we have two, no less, but they're a toss apart on the main drag in our upwardly mobile central corridor.

And are the homeskillets happy? Hells, no. The twits are tweeting and the yokels are yelping about who was here first (and therefore knows the secret hipster handshake) . . . which means what, exactly?

Nothing!

Can't we have two luxurious spots around to sip the warm, yummy nectar of the goods? And locals like us should be happy that good stuff is springin' forth. We're a big ass city, now, pumpkins!

Do you hear this kind of incessant whining in Seattle or San Francisco about who poured here first? No way. People are too busy tripping over themselves to support their neighborhood spots, where killer coffee is the order of the day and there's a judicious jolt of java worth jonesing for every goddamned street corner!

Bitter whiners with iPhones and nothing better to do, your table (in Scottsdale) is waiting. We'll be here with the grown-ups who appreciate choices and Phoenix-based businesses that are buzz-inducing, and buzz-worthy.

 

USA Today recently reported that some states are pushing for higher alcohol-by-volume percentages in beer. While the average has about 4.65 percent alcohol in it, in states like Vermont and Montana, you can drink a breskie with upward of 16 percent alcohol in the drink.

​As a server at several restaurants over the course of 5 years, you learn a lot about the business. It may just seem like a casual dining restaurant, but oftentimes the hospitality business is one of the most dramatic out there and has a lot of nuances diners might not even know about. Here are 10 things to keep in mind if you're going to eat at a restaurant.

10. Give your feedback on the restaurant's website

While it's obvious you can always tell a manger in-person what you think, some restaurants also offer cash prizes for giving feedback online. That feedback goes directly to managers, too, and servers hear all about it and may be praised/punished appropriately. It also really helps the servers, who sometimes have quotas they need to meet when it comes to getting online feedback.

9. Don't ask us a billion questions then change your order five times

Part of eating out is being adventurous and trying new things. So instead of asking servers a ton of questions, just pick something and order it. While we're happy to explain the menu, most of the time your questions can be answered by simply reading the descriptions. And don't change your order after it's already been placed. Chances are, it's already started cooking, and you've killed perfectly good food. Think of the kids in Africa.

​There is a two-year anniversary party at San Felipe's Cantina and you're invited! ...Well, for part of it.

On November 10, the Tempe Marketplace Mexican eatery and bar will be hosting a party from 10 p.m. until closing that's open to the public. Before that, from 8 to 10 p.m., there is a VIP party with 2 cent drinks. But don't feel bad, because we weren't invited, either.

Whoopie pies are back! This classic dessert has resurfaced in grocery stores and restaurants across the nation, even being named a dessert trend to watch by the NY Times earlier this year. 

So what the heck is a whoopie pie? It's basically creamy white frosting sandwiched between two round, cake-like chocolate cookies. Whoopie pies began with the Pennsylvania-Dutch, likely sometime in the early 1900's. Legend has it that the sweet treat's name came from the exclamation of joy Amish kids would shout when they opened their lunch sacks to find one inside. "Whoopie!"  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joyosity/ / CC BY 2.0

Come on...you'd be filled with glee too if this was in your lunch bag.

​ ​If you ever found a Drake's Devil Dog in your Scooby Doo lunchbox as a kid, you probably had a similar experience. (If you don't know what a Devil Dog is, CLICK HERE before we start ​feeling old. And homesick for the East Coast.)

But back to whoopie pies. Since District American Kitchen is the only eatery in town we could find them at, we scoured the 'net for a recipe so you can make your own at home. We found something even better. A video of makin' whoopies! 

Like many local food fanatics, I've had mixed feelings about Yelp. And I still do.

Some of the most venomous restaurant reviews, posted by users with no prior history on the site, come across as blatant trash-talking by competitors, while some of the blow-jobbish raves also seem like thinly veiled posts by a restaurant's own employees. And even among ordinary contributors, the anonymous public forum stirs up all kinds of hater-ade.

Last week:

​The British Open Pub in Scottsdale

 

 

 

 

 

 This week:

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Hint: This downtown Phoenix spot serves up giant soft drinks and contains a whole lot of history. Leave your guesses in the comments and check back next week for the answer.