The Strand

As a mixed-use project occupying two full city blocks, CityScape might be thought of as having many different strands that are woven together in an attempt to offer a little something for everyone. There’s Mexican food, sushi, chain sandwich shops, a contemporary American restaurant, and, not surprisingly, an Italian restaurant. Appropriately enough, it’s called “The Strand,” and it’s marketed as “Urban Italian.” That doesn’t mean the food of Rome or Milan per se, but instead familiar “red sauce” Italian-American food offered in a downtown Phoenix setting. Continue reading “The Strand” →

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Pane Bianco

For a quarter century, Chris Bianco’s namesake pizzeria has garnered national acclaim, but Pizzeria Bianco ceased long ago to be his only venture. Another enterprise, Pane Bianco, has been around for over a decade-and-a-half. Pane Bianco began as a sandwich shop with just a handful of items available for takeout or consumption on picnic tables outside. Since then, it has gone through several transformations, trying on new identities but never losing sight of its core mission of serving minimalistic preparations of fresh, high-quality ingredients on fresh bread. Continue reading “Pane Bianco” →

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Freak Brothers Pizza

The path from food truck to fixed location is not always a clear one. Some establishments have made a successful transition to a permanent address that has served them well for many years. Others have had to retrench, change ownership, or even close entirely after a difficult transition from a mobile operation to a full-fledged restaurant. One food truck, Freak Brothers Pizza, has chosen to make the transition a gradual one by not opening its own standalone restaurant, but instead operating inside the Churchill, the shipping container project near Roosevelt Row. Continue reading “Freak Brothers Pizza” →

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Melt

With our warm climate and enthusiasm for spicy food, Phoenix should have dozens of good ice cream shops. Unfortunately, these stores are scarcer than they should be. Maybe because it’s sometimes just too much trouble to travel to yet another destination for dessert. It’s therefore fitting that when independent ice cream outposts flourish, it’s often in walkable areas that allow effortless combination of a meal at one place with a stop for a cold treat a block or two away. Melt, a cart parked outside of the Jobot coffee house on Roosevelt Row, fits that description. Continue reading “Melt” →

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Monroe’s Hot Chicken

When summer temperatures soar in Phoenix, there are always complaints about the urban heat island effect. The closer to the center of the city one gets, the more it seems the heat lingers after dark. Wherever there are high temperatures, there is often an appreciation for spicy food, so it’s no surprise that the Nashville hot chicken trend has caught on here. Monroe’s Hot Chicken, located at just about the most urban local address imaginable, the Luhrs City Center on Jefferson Street, creates its own heat island right in the heart of downtown Phoenix. Continue reading “Monroe’s Hot Chicken” →

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State 48 Brewery

There are two explanations for how Surprise, Arizona, got its name. One is that the burgeoning exurb was named for the village of Surprise, Nebraska. Another is that the founder said she’d be surprised if the community ever amounted to anything. Given the growth of Surprise, the city has amounted to something, but it’s only in the last few years that Surprise-based businesses have garnered a reputation elsewhere in the metropolitan area. One of those, State 48 Brewery, has made a journey of over 20 miles via Grand Avenue to open in downtown Phoenix. Continue reading “State 48 Brewery” →

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Churn

The word “churn” doesn’t always have the best connotation. In contemporary usage, it’s  often associated with the rate at which a business loses customers or a workplace sheds employees, with resulting impacts on profitability. There’s a more classic meaning of churn, though, and it’s far more favorable. The classic churn is the device used to agitate milk or cream in creating butter, and a slightly more recent derivative is the process of continuous stirring used to make ice cream. In this spirit, an ice cream shop in Uptown Phoenix proudly bears the name Churn. Continue reading “Churn” →

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Windsor

The intersection of Central Avenue and Camelback Road is an unusual crossroads. The immediate area is undermined by a big vacant lot on the southwest corner and the congestion-causing Dutch Bros. drive-thru on the northwest. Across the street, it’s a little better an an office building is converted to residential and new merchants fill the few remaining spaces at the recently renovated Uptown Plaza. Still, some of Uptown’s most attractive elements are found not right where Central and Camelback meet, but instead a few blocks in each direction. Continue reading “Windsor” →

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Paradise Hawaiian BBQ

Every March, the Arizona Aloha Festival at Tempe Beach Park celebrates the little-known fact that the Phoenix Metropolitan Area is home to one of the largest populations of Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders on the United States mainland. Amid the dance performances, exhibitor booths, and outrigger canoes, there are dozens of food vendors selling plate lunches, the popular and hearty meals of Hawaii. All the plate lunch purveyors at the festival are worth trying, but one of the longest lines always belongs to the booth operated by Paradise Hawaiian BBQ. Continue reading “Paradise Hawaiian BBQ” →

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