Heather Hoch

Happy hour with Asian flair at SoChu House.

The Spot: SoChu House
2801 North Central Avenue, Phoenix
602-340-9777
www.sochuhouse.com

See Also:
- Pig & Pickle in Scottsdale: Happy Hour Report Card
- Tastemakers 2012: Johnny Chu
- Miu's Cuisine: Sichuan Food That's Anything but Familiar

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JK Grence

A study in beige. It tastes like it looks.

The Guilty Pleasure Food: Original Recipe Boneless Chicken
Where to Get It: KFC, locations Valleywide
Price: $5 for a two-piece meal
What It Really Costs: Sodium bloat and shame.

See also:
- 9 Favorite Spots for Fried Chicken in Metro Phoenix

Advertising executives have a harder time than ever catching the public's eye. Come up with something with just the right edge, and it takes off like wildfire; Kmart's "Ship My Pants" YouTube ad is a perfect example. A less-than-perfect example is KFC's attempt to sell its new Original Recipe Boneless Chicken.

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Amy's Baking Company

Samy and Amy Bouzaglo

Editor's note: After the insanity of the last two weeks, we decided that the Amy's Baking Company saga desperately needed some context. New Times food critic Laura Hahnefeld graciously complied.

A tall, thin man with long, gray hair and a pair of saggy but expensive jeans shakes the handles of two doors of a restaurant. Behind him is a handful of onlookers. His wife, in shorts with hands on hips, leans in and reads the restaurant's hours posted on the window aloud: 5 to 10 p.m. They smile at each other.

"They look like they're set up for business," the man says to her, almost too loudly, his hands still gripping the door. "But they're closed. Amy's Baking Company is closed!"

The man chuckles, and he and his wife, shaking their heads, turn to leave. Some bystanders take his place, cupping their hands over their faces to peer into the restaurant. Others linger on the outdoor patio and look over the menu. Some take pictures.

"Curiosity seekers," I think to myself, nearly rolling my eyes. Yet, here I am.

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Village Voice

Mamoun's has been a favorite cheap meal of New Yorkers for more than 40 years.

Arizona has an up-and-coming food scene, and there's a lot to be proud of, for sure. But when Chow Bella published a list of things that make Phoenix a better food town than New York City, I just had to laugh. The difference in size alone makes the two incomparable. Since moving back to New York six months ago, I've come to miss the food at Phoenix haunts like Short Leash Hot Dogs, La Tolteca, St. Francis, and -- quite obviously -- dessert at top restaurants like Cowboy Ciao. But, by comparison, I still miss a lot more from the food scene in Portland, Oregon, where I lived for four years. So for me, Phoenix is small potatoes, but to give the Valley something to shoot for, here are 10 food favorites New Yorkers take for granted that Phoenix will likely never see.

See also:
- 9 Things That Make Phoenix a Better Food (and Drink) Town than New York City
- Cobbler on Quack at Cowboy Ciao

Cheap Food After Midnight (that's not greasy Mexican fare)
When I first lived in NYC in 2004, this was one of the attributes that hooked me on the city. If you want off-hours food in Phoenix, you'd better be in the mood for a burrito, quesadilla, or a few tacos. The salsa bars at these late-night hubs for greasy Mexican food can be surprisingly good, but overall, the options in the Valley are really lacking after regular dinner hours. Not so in New York. Near Washington Square Park, the original Mamoun's -- first opened in 1971 -- sells $3 falafel and $6 shawarma until 5 a.m., a college kid's dream come true. Even where I live now, in a residential part of Bushwick, there's a cheap restaurant on the corner, OMG Pizza, selling staples like falafel, salads, and burgers until 3 a.m.

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Buchanan

Kelly Fletcher at the garden gate

This is part two of my interview with Kelly Fletcher, executive chef at House of Tricks in Tempe. If you missed part one, where Fletcher praised his favorite local chefs, told us about the best food he's had this year and predicted what will be the next big thing, read it here.

See also:
-- Chris Bianco Opens Full-Blown Pizzeria Bianco at Town & Country; Italian Restaurant Moves to Back Dining Room and Morphs to Trattoria Bianco
-- Ankimo, the Foie Gras of Japan, Gets a Modern Tweak at Hana

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The city of Scottsdale takes another punch to the restaurant-scene gut today -- and this one's a doozy: Davanti Enoteca has shuttered after just nine months.

See also:
- CLOSED: Indulge Burgers & More in Scottsdale
- CLOSED: Cask 63 in North Scottsdale

The fourth location of the Italian restaurant from Chicago-based Francesca's Restaurants Group, headed up by chef Peter DeRuvo (Sassi, Prado, Cuoco Pazzo), moved into the former Quilted Bear space at 6316 North Scottsdale Road last August.

Francesca's Restaurants Group also owns the Italian restaurant chain Mia Francesca, which closed the doors to its DC Ranch location last week after being open for only 15 months.

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http://thelifeyouandineverknew.blogspot.com/

An elver, or glass, eel

This season, fishermen in the U.K. have been able to pull extremely high numbers of elver eels out of Britian's River Severn. The baby eels, sometimes called glass eels, used to be a cheap regional treat but high demand boosted prices in the '70s and '80s, making the little worm-like fish too pricey for most.

See also:
- Extreme Honeybee Losses Could Threaten U.S. Food Supply

Recently, however, there's been a surge of baby eels. As a result, prices are down and the delicacy is reappearing on local restaurant menus for the first time in decades.

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YouTube

Amy and Samy Bouzaglo

As part of the shit-show gift that keeps on giving, Rose+Moser+Allyn Public & Online Relations, the Scottsdale-based PR firm helmed by Jason Rose, has announced it has ended its relationship with Amy's Baking Company -- if you could even call it a relationship. The Scottsdale-based company picked up the controversial restaurant (and its high-strung owners Amy and Samy Bouzaglo) as clients less than a week ago.

How's that for a publicity stunt for a publicity company's sake? Looks like Amy and Samy just got "hated on" again.

See also:
- Amy's Baking Company: Top 5 Most-Read Stories
- Seven Amy's Baking Company Parodies in Video, Gifs, Memes and a Song (NSFW)

But that's not all. Oh, heavens no. That's just half the story.

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Claire Lawton

The judge was hip to our hipster guide to farm animals.

Chow Bella writers were honored at the Arizona Press Club's annual awards banquet, held Saturday night at the Duce in downtown Phoenix.

Chow Bella was named Best Metro Feature Blog. In addition, New Times' food blog also took home second place in the feature blog category and a third-place award for Opinion Blog. Critic Laura Hahnefeld placed third in arts criticism.

See also:
- Chow Bella Wins Best Opinion Blog from Arizona Press Club

The first place feature blog entry included the following posts:

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Are you excited for the "grand re-opening" of Amy's Baking Company? We're thinking it could go one of three ways: anti-climactic, shit show, or surprisingly well.

While we're waiting anxiously for tomorrow's events, check out our most-read Amy's Baking Company stories from last week. If you're one of the lucky people who got in to eat at the restaurant tomorrow, let us know about your experience by emailing us, posting in the comments section, or tagging us on Twitter @phoenixnewtimes.

See Also:
Amy's Baking Company - A History of Kitchen Nightmares

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