Get This: Devil's Gulch Pork Shank, Kamut, Brussels Sprouts

​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, 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: Italian Restaurant
Location: 4743 North 20th Street (Town and Country Shopping Center)
Open: Just over three weeks
Eats: Italian
Price point: $31-$60

​Last October, rumors were flying, then were confirmed, that legendary pizza master Chris Bianco was planning to open a trattoria in Central Phoenix. And on January 16, he did just that.

His much-buzzed-about new restaurant, called Italian Restaurant, is in Town and Country Shopping Center (Camelback Road and 20th Street), the same shopping center that, in 1994, was the original home of Pizzeria Bianco before it landed two years later at 623 East Adams Street in downtown's Heritage Square.

Featuring traditional Italian favorites as well as Italian-American creations on a small menu that changes daily and is fueled by top-notch ingredients, Bianco's got chef Claudio Urciuoli (the former Prado chef hired in 2010 by Bianco) at the helm, as well as Bianco's mother, Francesca, who occasionally lends a hand and makes the desserts.

Let's go in and have a bite, shall we?

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Erica O'Neil

Will Taco Bell's "First Meal" leave you filled with regret or tasty, tasty burrito bits?

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Breakfast burritos from Taco Bell?

​Last week the R& D department at Taco Bell grew tired of spinning the wheel-o-ingredients for zany breakfast products (French toast sandwiches? Denver stuffed hashbrowns?), and rolled out their new "First Meal" concept across 10 lucky states. "First Meal" is what we can only assume is the hangover-killing meal you eat following a late night bender that concluded with "Fourth Meal."

We were surprised to see big name brands like Johnsonville sausage, Cinnabon, and Tropicana orange juice. It gave us hope. Even though we were eating Taco Bell at 8 in the morning, we were reassured by the hope that brands like that wouldn't allow their reputations to be tainted by terrible food.

Then we remembered that nothing good ever comes from eating Taco Bell at 8 in the morning. Still, couldn't all be bad. Could it?

Let's count down the menu offerings from best to absolute worst:

Taco Bell's coffee ain't all bad.

​7. Seattle's Best Coffee If the line at Starbucks is too long, you could do a lot worse than Taco Bell's coffee. Granted they haven't sunk as many dollars into their brew as McD's, but it's hot, full of caffeine, and cheap. If you're feeling fancy, they have vanilla and mocha iced lattes too.

With coffee being the best thing on Taco Bell's new "First Meal" menu, abandon hope all ye who enter here...

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Photo by William Westfall

Twin Peaks in Scottsdale opened on Wednesday.

​I am a man, and as a fairly typical representative of my gender I enjoy certain things. A large glass of beer. Sports games on high definition TVs. And, of course, breasts, both of the edible chicken and ogle-worthy human variety.

That said, I've never been a frequent visitor to breastaurants, the establishments that cater to these basest of desires. This is for a couple reasons. First, anyone who's lived in the Valley for a while has never wanted for views of scantily-clad ladies, so to mix arousal with a meal always seemed excessive.
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Get This: Penne Alla Vodka

​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, 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: The Strand
Location: 2 East Jefferson Street (CityScape)
Open: Since December 12.
Eats: Italian
Price Point: $11-$30

In December, The Strand Urban Italian, a lunch and dinner (and coming soon: breakfast) concept of fast casual Italian for folks on the go, opened at CityScape in downtown Phoenix, joining neighbors like Fox Restaurant Concepts' The Arrogant Butcher, Lucky Strike Bowling Lanes, and Aaron May's Vitamin T.

From Tempe-based Maven Hospitality Group, who also plan to open a pan-Asian restaurant at Central Avenue and Jefferson Street called Silk Sushi and whose partner is Jimmy Carlin, owner of Pearl Sushi Lounge in Scottsdale, The Strand offers affordable Italian dishes -- think personal pizzas, soups, salads, sandwiches, and pasta -- along with beer, wine, and cocktails ordered up counter-service style then brought to customers in, according to restaurant, within 10 minutes of ordering.

Let's take a bite, shall we?

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Get this: Margherita slice.

​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, 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: Downtown Pizza Lounge
Location: 144 East Washington Street
Open: Just over a week
Eats: Pizza by the slice, salad
Price Point: Under $10

There's a new place to grab a slice in downtown Phoenix thanks to "Downtown Dan" Majerle, the ex-player, current assistant coach for the Phoenix Suns, and owner of four locations of the sports grill that bears his name.

Right next door to his location on Washington Street (Northwest corner of Washington and 2nd Street) and in the former location of Brooklyn NYC Pizza (which moved across the street into the Collier Center) is the new Downtown Pizza Lounge -- a quick stop for a slice, some sports, and, in the future, a brewski or two.

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Soy-ginger flank steak with quinoa-garbanzo salad and house slaw.

​Last Saturday, CenPho's That's a Wrap!, the lunch spot specializing in good-for-you wraps, salads, and rice bowls, announced it would be soft launching a new dinner menu sans the tortilla coverings.

Aptly titled "Unwrapped," the new dinner menu starts after 5 p.m. and will focus on six healthy-themed plates between $8.25 and $11.25 (the new dishes will be introduced one or two at a time, so all may not be available.)

Read on for the full unwrapped dinner menu and my first impressions.

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Sizzing Mesquite Combo with Enchilada Suiza

​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, 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).

With the exception of the TVs, the interior hasn't changed.

​Restaurant: Fiesta Grill
Location: 1602 East Roosevelt Street
Open: Three weeks
Eats: Mexican, Mexican-Korean fusion
Price Point: $11-$30

Vacant since January 2011, the space attached to the Mexican superstore Pro's Ranch Market in Phoenix and former home of Tradiciones, the Mexican restaurant whose popularity waned over several years until its demise, is the new home of Fiesta Grill.

Billing itself as a sports bar and banquet hall, Fiesta Grill features a menu of familiar Mexican cuisine, mesquite flame-grilled burgers, and a few Korean fusion eats -- which, according to the Arizona Republic, owners Sirion (Sam) Lee, a developer in California, and Angel Martinez, who previously worked for El Torito, a chain of Mexican restaurants in California, added from Lee's native Korea.

A sports bar, a Mexican restaurant, Mexican-Korean fusion -- there's a lot going on at the new Fiesta Grill. Unfortunately, none of it gets done very well.

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Get This: Ric's Burger

​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, 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).

Ric's fast-casual interior.

​Restaurant: Ric's Smokehouse BBQ & Grill
Location: 1930 West Pinnacle Peak Road
Open: Since October
Eats: Barbecue
Price Point: $11-$30

Recently, on a drive out to North Phoenix, I happened to stumble upon Ric's Smokehouse BBQ & Grill, a barbecue spot located in a strip mall next to a Hilton Garden Inn. Turns out the restaurant, the strip-mall building, and the hotel are all owned by Ric Fisher who, an employee of the Smokehouse told me, has big plans to bring his fast-casual 'cue concept to additional Valley locations over the next few years.

Can Ric's 'cue stand up to the competition? Maybe. But there's work to be done.

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Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony at Ethiopian Famous Restaurant & Coffee

​When a new spot opens in town, I can't wait to check it out and to let you know my initial impressions. As the name implies, First Taste is not a full-blown review, but a peek inside restaurants that have just opened, sampling a few items, sharing a few photos, and satisfying a few curiosities (yours and mine). Here are five of my favorites for 2011. ​ More >>

After months of work, the tiny lounge above Citizen Public House, Citizen R + D, is now open to the public -- if you can actually get in.  More >>