Zach Fowle

Beer: Conflux No.1 - Collage
Brewery: Deschutes Brewery, Hair of the Dog Brewing Co.
Style: American Strong Ale
ABV: 11.6 percent

If you've never heard of Hair of the Dog Brewing Company, don't feel too bad about it. Although the Portland-based brewery has been around since 1995, annual production of its acclaimed ales hovers at around 15,000 barrels. I called the brewery a few years ago to set up a tour, and with his dog barking madly in the background, founder and head brewer Alan Sprints replied, "Nah, I'm not really feeling up to giving tours today." You can do that when you're tiny.

Deschutes Brewery, however, is not tiny. At a production rate of 220,000 barrels a year, the Bend, Oregon-based beer maker was recently ranked the fifth-largest craft brewery in America based on 2011 sales. But just because you're different sizes doesn't mean you still can't work well together, and by their powers combined, we get Collage.

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After almost five years, Aiello's, the Italian restaurant at 5202 North Central Avenue owned by husband-and-wife team and ex-Manhattanites Joe and Myrah Aiello, has been shuttered.

A neighborhood favorite, Aiello's was known for affordable Italian dishes such as lasagna, with its sausage-studded sauce, as well as delicate gnocchi and melt-in-your-mouth veal saltimbocca alla Romana. It also was known for its endearing customer service.

A phone message from Joe and a corresponding Facebook post read as follows:

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Tara Anderson at http://thepinkcouch.blogspot.com.

Promising to be more gastronomically satisfying than the song "Milkshake" by Kelis (hey, that song isn't about milkshakes!), five chefs throughout the Valley are bringing their custom creations to select restaurants throughout the month of June.

As part of The Dairy Council of Arizona's first "Moo-ving Milkshake Shop," chef Ehren Litzenberger started the event with his featured vanilla chai latte and strawberry banana milkshakes at his Chandler restaurant, BLD, last weekend. Now, four more chefs will keep the gourmet milkshakes moving with flavors like s'mores from Justin Beckett of Beckett's Table and Arizona sweet corn with blueberry crunch from Blue Hound Kitchen's Stephen Jones.

Read on for the full, slurp-worthy schedule.

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http://www.etsy.com/people/TickleAndFinch

"What's in a cocktail?" was the question posed in this 1962 book.

There was a day when a bartender was a bartender. Period. The end. But in recent years, more and more bartenders have begun calling themselves mixologists, a term with a distinctly academic ring to it.

You don't have to be a semanticist to imagine how that sits with some people, particularly old-school barkeeps who were slinging booze before these whippersnappers were even born. To old-timers (and to customers, as well), calling a bartender a mixologist sounds as pretentious as calling a janitor a sanitation engineer.

I get it, but I beg to differ.

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Get This: Nana's Pie

When a new spot opens in town, we can't wait to check it out -- and let you know our initial impressions, share a few photos, and dish about some menu items. First Taste, as the name implies, is not a full-blown review, but instead a peek inside restaurants that have just opened, sampling a few items, and satisfying curiosities (yours and ours).

Restaurant: Isa's Pizza
Location: 777 East Thunderbird Road
Open: Almost three months.
Eats: Pizza
Price Point: $11 to $30

Nearly three months ago, Myrah and Joe Aiello, owners of Aiello's, the East Coast Italian restaurant in Phoenix, announced the opening of their new pizza shop, Isa's Pizza, (named after their daughter) right next door to their second restaurant, Aiello's Salumeria, a "mini Aiello's," at the southeast corner of Thunderbird and Seventh Street.

Like the pies served up at Aiello's backdoor, the takeout-only pizza business literally done from the back of Aiello's, the casual Isa's will feature signature Neapolitan and Sicilian-style creations ordered up at the counter. And at Isa's, pizzas are available as whole pies or by the slice and for dine-in or to-go.

All of which equals good news for north Phoenix pizza fans.

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This excellent pizza looks similar to the one you can get free from Pizza Patrón this Tuesday.

Odds are good that if you're a gringo, you haven't heard of Pizza Patrón. Don't be too surprised. It caters primarily to Hispanic markets, with its metro Phoenix locations concentrated in South Phoenix, Maryvale, and central Mesa. Chorizo is an available topping and jalapeños are one of the most popular toppings. Think of Pizza Patrón as a Hispanic Little Caesars. You sure as hell won't confuse it with your favorite neighborhood joint, but at $4.99 for a cheese or pepperoni pizza, you can feed an awful lot of people on the cheap.

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From now 'til we publish the 2012 edition of Best of Phoenix, New Times and Chow Bella present 100 Tastemakers -- Valley residents who make the cut in our culinary scene. Some you'll know; for others, it'll be a first introduction (but likely not the last). While you're here, check out our 100 Creatives on Jackalope Ranch.

Today: a woman who will certainly get your goat.

Tastemaker 82: Lylah Ledner

With an eye and heart for simplicity, beauty, and sustainability, Lylah Ledner says she "no longer buys designer shoes but, instead, designer seeds." About four years ago, Lylah and her husband, Michael, began using organic practices to grow fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers at their Valley home -- now known to the community as The Simple Farm. Life never stands still for this networker, entrepreneur, farmer, herdswoman, and grandmother of seven. But her real passion is to "Promote the Goat," and twice a day, she hand-milks her small herd of Nubian dairy goats. If she's not giving a tour to a group of Girl Scouts talking about seeds and goats and chickens, she's in the kitchen making mint jelly or apple butter for her weekly (Thursdays) French-inspired market at the farm.

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Family of eight = automatic gratuity. Mike Brady of The Brady Bunch ponders.

Father's Day, celebrated this year on Sunday, June 17, pays tribute to our dads, who, in one sweaty and heated moment, engaged in coitus with our moms and made us the people we are today. Yay, Dad.

But dads aren't all the same, especially when it comes to what they like to eat. So here's a handy little list that helps match the kind of dad with the kind of restaurant he might enjoy the most this Father's Day. And even if they don't match exactly, perhaps the lists will help to spark some ideas. As Dad would say, "Now that's usin' your noodle."

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Nikki Buchanan

Hebert and his Smoking Gun

Josh Hebert
Posh Improvisational Cuisine
7167 E. Rancho Vista Drive, Scottsdale
480-663-7676
www.poshscottsdale.com

How long has Josh Hebert been obsessed with food? Let's put it this way: one of his first words was "breakfast." It's an elaborate family story his mother loves to tell, he says, adding that he actually started rattling around in the kitchen at the ripe old age of 12.

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Laura Hahnefeld

Rehab Burger Fish Sandwich.

A couple swanky spots opened up in the month of May, particularly in Scottsdale. At the same time the Valley had to bid a restaurant with more than 20 years of history adieu. That's like 100 years in Phoenix restaurant years.

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