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Still no signs of Pinkberry in these parts, but there is a Scottsdale frozen yogurt spot that opened last week where they serve something quite similar to it, according to owner Charles Cha.

The place is called Ice Tango, and the house specialty is the kind of tangy-sweet frozen yogurt that's super popular in Southern California. It comes in regular, strawberry, peach, and blueberry flavors, with a choice of a dozen different fresh fruit toppings, as well dry add-ins, from crunchy granola to Cap'n Crunch.

Along with frozen yogurt shakes, Illy coffee, and frozen custard (coming as soon as the machine is installed, says Cha), the rest of the menu revolves around homemade crepes, both sweet and savory.

Options include "The Nutella Classic," with Nutella (surprise), banana, walnuts, nougat and whipped cream; "The Lemon Berry," with lemon curd, fresh berries, and whipped cream; "The Tango," with tomato-garlic pesto, egg, cheddar, ham, red pepper, and onion; and "The Southwestern," with chile verde pork sauce, cheddar, chorizo, red pepper, and roasted red pepper pesto.

Ice Tango is open from 7 a.m. to 9 p., and is located at 15560 N. Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd., inside the Scottsdale Town Center at the southeast corner of the 101 intersection. Call 480-767-2665 for more info.

What a random morning yesterday.

I attempted to go to Tempe, and didn't realize I should've gotten off the 202 at Priest -- Rural was closed, and McClintock basically was, too. There was some major bicycling event going on, and all cars were forced down Rio Salado and back across the bridge, toward Papago Park. All I could do was laugh about it.

So what the heck, I thought I'd switch gears and try breakfast at Mandala Tea Room. It was mellow -- awesome homemade granola, all kinds of vegetarian tofu scrambles, and a huge selection of tea. I got myself a 32 ounce pot of jasmine green tea and took my sweet old time sipping it.

But before Mandala opened (at 10 a.m.), I had a little time to kill, and ended up walking past an interesting-looking new restaurant called Cien Agaves Tacos and Tequila, on First Avenue just east of Scottsdale Road.

The menu looked tasty. I hadn't had any caffeine yet, so memory fails me somewhat, but about half the menu was tacos -- perhaps a dozen different kinds. Lobster, shrimp, carne asada, you name it. Anybody been there yet? I am curious...

I just got word that the Willow House, the popular McDowell coffeehouse hangout, will be closing on Sunday night, following a farewell bash with live music performances organized by DJentrification.

Supposedly the poor Willow House employees found out about the closing from a customer, not from the owners.

Why are they closing when the place seems busy? Who knows what the official story is, but allegedly it's because the owners weren't taking good care of the place. There are rumors that they might be reopening in a new space -- perhaps at 17th Ave and Van Buren, in a spot owned by Derek and Gina from the Paisley Violin, or maybe into a building at 6th Street and Pierce -- but don't hold your breath . . .

I mentioned this stuff in earlier blog postings, but here's a friendly reminder of two groovy goings-on this afternoon:

First, starting at 1 p.m., Chatham's Fine Chocolates hosts its official grand opening at its new Central Phoenix digs, at 114 W. Camelback. After a ribbon cutting by the mayor and two city councilmen, the shop will host a chocolate tasting. (Who needs champagne, anyway?)

Later, from 4 to 8 p.m., the Downtown Phoenix Public Market launches its first Wednesday night market, at 721 N. Central.

Good things are happening!

Does the name Jessica Florez-Lieb ring a bell?

If you follow local politics, you might remember her stint as a Phoenix City Councilwoman, back in 2003. Or, if you pay attention to publishing, you'd know her from Latino Future magazine, which she co-founded in 2001.

Although Florez-Lieb and her partner, Enrique Lopez Lira, have since sold the mag, they haven't bowed out of the magazine biz. Their newest project, AZ Taste Magazine, goes to print this Friday.

"My passion is the culinary arts," says Florez-Lieb. "I'm not a trained chef, though -- I'm more of an entertainer."

From food and wine coverage to recipes and advice on seating arrangements, AZ Taste sounds like a handy dinner party companion. Florez-Lieb says the debut November/December issue will feature Thanksgiving favorites from chef Mark Tarbell, as well as a feature on chef Patricio Sandoval, who will be collaborating with Scottsdale's Bottomline Hospitality Group on a new restaurant in the Camelback Corridor.

(According to Bottomline president Randy Smith, Sandoval has already moved to Phoenix and is currently doing a stint in Mexico City while Smith gets building permits for the as-yet-unnamed casual, upscale Mexican restaurant, to be located at 40th Street and Campbell. Smith hopes to open sometime by April 2008).

To start, AZ Taste will be a direct mail publication, with quarterly issues for 2008. As of this blog posting, www.aztastemagazine.com is not live, but Florez-Lieb expects the site to be up shortly.

Things have been crazy around here and I didn't get a chance to attend the First Press Gourmet Sessions Food Fight the other night, but I got the inside dish from an acquaintance who was there to watch the drama unfold.

In an hour-long, Iron Chef-style cookoff between chefs Aaron May (Sol y Sombra) and Matt McLinn (Methode Bistro), May won by a little more than half a point. Each chef had to come up with at least three dishes from a basket of mystery ingredients (really, it was more like a whole pantry's worth of ingredients), which included halibut and duck. They were also allowed to bring three ingredients from their own kitchens. May showed up with spiny lobster, sea urchin, and vanilla bean, while McLinn brought lavender, chorizo, and saffron.

So what was on May's winning menu? Five dishes I'd be happy to eat: roasted halibut with lobster salpicon, pan-seared halibut with sea urchin and garlic veloute, mushroom fricassee with garlic, herbs and halibut fillet, "Mar y Montana" (halibut with shallot, duck, and red wine jus), and crispy duck breast with citrus confit.

I realize I've been on a beer and wine kick lately, but obviously things are a little crazy here at New Times these days. I promise, I have been downing nothing but Tazo tea as I sit here typing away.

So I just heard from a local distributor called Little Guy Distributing, announcing all the Great American Beer Festival medals garnered by some of the breweries it distributes. (The big shindig took place last weekend in Denver.)

What are some of the local bars that serve these prize drinks? I asked Chuck Noll from Little Guy, and he told me that although most of the 14 brews are only available at local retail/specialty shops, there are a few offered up at Valley watering holes.

Among the spots serving Flying Dog are Yard House, Teakwoods, Finns Beach Food and Fun, Boney Maroney's, and Baseline Sports Bar. Steamworks is available at Yard House, Old Chicago, Indigo Joes, Red White and Brew, and Two Glass Eyes. And you can find Thunder Canyon, a Tucson product, at Bar Bianco, Red White and Brew, Original Wineburger, Finns Beach Food and Fun, and Blue Sky Coffee House.

In response to a very interesting article that ran last week in the Wall Street Journal, about bloggers writing favorable reviews in exchange for free meals, Howard Seftel of the Arizona Republic just wrote a detailed commentary about his ethical standards as a critic, and some folks' lack thereof.

All I can say is, ditto. It's just sad that anyone would need to point this stuff out in the first place. But it is necessary -- I can't tell you how many random people have asked me about my job and assumed that I'm treated like royalty, and then acted surprised that I am really a secret agent.

Anyway, I am dying to know which oh-so-classy "restaurant critics" in this town actually waltz into a restaurant and announce themselves. (I'd love to witness that -- it would be a hilarious bit of color to add to a column.) Hello, didn't these people read Garlic and Sapphires? Obviously not, and I'm sure they never took journalism 101, either.

And I completely cringe at the thought that some unscrupulous editor hopped a free trip to London, on a restaurant's dime, and put their poor food writer in a very awkward position. For shame!

It's no secret that James Beard Award-winning chef Robert McGrath has been putting a lot of time and effort into turning around Pischke's Paradise (recently renamed Pischke's Blue Ribbon), the Old Town eatery founded by his late friend, restaurateur Chris Pischke. The kitchen's been revamped, and the sprawling mish-mash of dinner offerings has been streamlined into a much tighter menu.

I hope things work out for the restaurant, but I can't hold back my disappointment in dinner there last night. Not like I had my sights set on reviewing the place, but I was definitely curious/excited/interested in checking it out. I left feeling bummed.

First off, the exuberant hostess gave me and my sweetie a choice of sitting inside or "outside on our fabulous patio." Shit, I'm down with fabulous -- let's sit outside.

Oh. Turns out, there were no other diners seated outside, and no music. It was dead quiet. And the lighting was so bright that it revealed every shab-a-delic little thing that needed to be freshened up out there. We felt like we'd been banished to no man's land.

I'll keep it short, but dinner consisted of some gratis crudites with ranch dressing (freebies are cool, although some of the veggie pieces were dry), an appetizer of sorta-bland potato and duck confit with an inexplicably tiny daub of sauce on the side, cod on a creamy bed of squash risotto (pretty good, though nothing special), and room temperature flat-iron steak topped with cold caramelized onions, served with a lukewarm side of mashed potatoes.

???

Our waitress felt bad and offered to bring some hot potatoes (my sweetie didn't feel like waiting for another steak while I was digging in to my dinner). All was fine. We finished and promptly went home, underwhelmed.

Right now I'm just venting. But I'm also wondering when (or if) I'll go back there. I know Pischke's is a local institution, and McGrath is accumulating some serious good karma by trying to keep his pal's legacy alive. Still, how long should any customer be patient before just blowing a place off?

The folks behind the First Press Weekend of Wine clearly know what suckers we are for a good smackdown. With so many gourmet-cooking-as-competitive-sport shows on TV these days (Iron Chef, The Next Iron Chef, Top Chef, Hell's Kitchen), why not play on their popularity and pit two top local chefs against each other in a grand cookoff?

Here, here. The First Press Gourmet Sessions "Food Fight" should make for a very entertaining evening, courtesy of Methode Bistro's Matt McLinn(shown, above left) and Sol y Sombra's Aaron May (above right), who'll have one hour and a basket of mystery ingredients to whip up something good enough to win over judges Robin Miller, host of Food Networks “Quick Fix Meals,” Barbara Fenzl of Les Gourmettes, and KEZ’s Marty Manning. Terri Ouellette and Chef Jon-Paul Hutchins from the Scottsdale Culinary Institute will be the evening's MCs.

Along with the cook-off, the evening will feature tastings from Methode, Sol y Sombra, and the Scottsdale Culinary Institute, as well as wine (of course) from Willamette Valley Vineyards and Valley of the Sun Fine Wines.

It sounds like a mighty good time, and the whole thing benefits public radio stations KJZZ 91.5FM, KBAQ 89.5FM and Sun Sounds.

Tickets are $65, available at the door or online. The Food Fight goes down from 6 to 9 p.m. tomorrow, Oct. 18, at the Sub-Zero/Wolf Showroom, 15570 N. 83rd Way in Scottsdale. Call(480) 774-VINO for info.

I know it's gonna be a good night when my sweetie stops at Tops or BevMo on the way home from work. He can't resist new and unusual beers, and we have so much fun sipping our way through interesting bottles. A recent shopping spree turned up a new one from Dogfish Head (new to me, at least), called Golden Era. Believe it or not, those pervy DH freaks put out a limited production version of it last year called Golden Shower. Too bad I couldn't snag a bottle of that for posterity...

Anyway, I can hardly stand pilsners these days (the mainstream American beer industry has totally hijacked them), but after trying the ass-kicking Golden Era, I'm a convert. Best pilsner ever. I also finally tried the elusive Rogue Imperial Stout -- a super-dark, slow-sippin' kind of beer.

On a related note, it seems like the East Valley is awash in beer these days. Mesa's Red White and Brew, where the drink menu includes lots of good microbrews, just opened a second location in Chandler, at 4850 S. Gilbert Rd.

Late last month, a new local microbrewery called San Tan Brewing Company opened its doors at 8 San Marcos Plaza in Chandler. Among the half-dozen kinds of housemade suds are an IPA, a hefeweisen, and a stout.

And the newest spot, which just opened last weekend, is Atomic 29 Grill, at 1910 S. Gilbert Rd. in Mesa. (Cafe Carumba in Scottsdale is run by the same folks.) The place claims to have the area's largest selection of beers on tap -- as the name suggests, there are 29 draught beers available. This Saturday, Atomic 29 will host an Oktoberfest Grand Opening party, with part of the proceeds going to the local fire department.

Wow, look out for this bug that's going around! I'm just coming off a three-day bender of DayQuil and NyQuil -- no freakin' fun.

But TGIF -- my energy and appetite are coming back right in time for the D-Backs game tonight. Somehow we managed to log on to the MLB website and get playoffs tickets the other day. I'd assumed the game would be sold out, but it wasn't. So tonight, I'm gearing up for my old standbys, an Italian sausage sandwich, some garlic fries, and one of those ginormous Sam Adams.

What's your favorite game day food? Is there something you wish they had down at Chase Field (or US Airways Center) that's not already among the offerings? (Jeez, they have McDonald's, burritos, Chinese, sushi . . . what's left?)

I'd be happy if more place served garlic fries. As far as I know, Ribbies is the only place in there that serves 'em, and service there is painfully slow, especially when I need to make a separate stop to get the other goodies I want. And whatever happened to Alaskan Amber? That was a tasty beer I'd order from time to time, and I haven't seen it since last season.

I've had this ridiculous two-month-long craving for a dish that sounds both absurdly pricey and really damn tasty: Canal's 30 Dollar Sandwich. Since I first blogged about it, it's been embellished with watercress and avocado as well.

Well, I only have to hold out one more week, because Canal, the newest eatery to bust out on the world at Fred Unger's stylish SouthBridge development, is set to open on October 16. (Yeah, you might be sick of hearing about SouthBridge by now, but get used to it -- the place is only going to get more attention over the next several months, especially in the way of restaurants.)

Chef Justin Beckett's finalized dinner menu just came out this morning, and, as usual, I'm making myself hungry just looking at it. (There will be lunch service as well, starting October 30.)

Among a dozen salads and small plates (nothing's listed as an "appetizer," mind you), look for sweet corn cakes with avocado salad, cotija cheese, arugula, and red pepper puree; duck confit-layered tostadas with peppered Georgia peach tomato salsa and chipotle jicama slaw; and grilled artichoke with Manchego, arugula, and whole-grain mustard dressing.

The list of sandwiches and entree salads includes the aforementioned 30 Dollar splurge; a Canal chop salad with romaine and butter lettuces, dried cherries, aged cheddar, and pine nuts; and a grilled cheese sandwich with aged cheddar, fontina, Manchego, crisp pancetta, and a side of tomato bisque. Main dishes look good, too. How about grilled Sonoma Valley lamb chops with minted couscous, spiced tomato jelly, and herb-infused jus, or braised pork belly with fennel-leek saute, stone fruit chutney, and maui onion black pepper reduction?

Damn, I'm an alliteration wizard today, huh? And to think, our freakin' breakroom vending machines don't even have Diet Coke right now.

So check it out -- Jenny Flake from Gilbert just competed as one of 15 finalists in Southern Living's big annual recipe contest. And although she didn't end up winning a hundred grand yesterday, she still got a nice nod for best "Party Starters," for her coconut macadamia shrimp with warm tropical salsa.

Congrats, Jenny!

Okay, well Chloe's Corner is already here, sort of. Remember The Counter, that groovy little cafe/lunch counter/hipster boutique/gourmet mini-market across from Anthropologie at Kierland Commons? I always thought it was the quirkiest, most accessible eatery among the Fox Restaurants repertoire.

It hasn't gone anywhere. Last time I stopped by, a few weeks ago, they were randomly closed in the middle of the afternoon while Kierland staff tried to exterminate a swarm of bees. Needless to say, I didn't make it in for my 25-cent cup of coffee.

Now I need to get back there asap, just to check out the makeover. The miniscule restaurant is undergoing a revamp, and will be relaunched on Monday, October 8, at Chloe's Corner.

Gone will be the uber-edited retail selection (au revoir, fancy-ass fifty-dollar tees and cute Jonathan Adler stuff!); in its place, look for lots more seating. (32 more places to plant your butt, to be exact, along with a pretty new mural to look at while you nosh.)

Breakfast, from 7 to 10:30 a.m., will be a much bigger priority, too. New offerings include Belgian waffles and egg sandwiches. Smartly, they've kept the brilliant 25-cent cup 'o joe, and the handy grab-and-go selection will remain as well.