Chow Down: This Week In Food Blogs

September 23, 2010 | 2:25 PM | Restaurants | By Meghan Luther

Good morning, Giant Coffee single, wet macciato and Lux Coffeebar date-oat bar. Good afternoon McDonald’s Big and Tasty With Cheese. Just kidding: I meant, Cheese ‘N Stuff “Doughboy” Warmed Sandwich. Good (late) afternoon Hava Java pomegranate green iced tea. Good evening Postino bruschetta plate. Here’s a redux of the local spots keeping us lovin’ the Phoenix food scene. Wait, no. Here’s a redux of this week’s happenings on our favorite food blogs. But, seriously, try Lux’s date-oat bar tomorrow morning. And, blog about it.

As reported last week, 114 Phoenix restaurants (and 43 Tucson restaurants) are participating in Arizona Restaurant Week. This dinner-only, prix fixe event is underway and can (and should) be taken advantage of until Sunday, September 26. Thanks again, Pen & Fork!

EATERAZ: The long-awaited, Andy Warhol-inspired Dom Perignon Champagne bottles are hitting the shelves in three, short weeks. Mr. Warhol’s pop-art collection became a bubbly, Dom Perignon reality with the help of the Design Laboratory at Central St. Martin’s School of Art and Design. They are filled with vintage 2002 Champagne and should retail for about $160. Watch the brilliant promo video here. Or here.

The EAZ gang are also chowin’ down in Chandler. Or getting ready to chow down … on October 2nd, that is. Why, you might ask? David and Rick will be enjoying the fruits of TASTE Chandler’s Culinary Festival. More than 30 restaurants and food purveyors “out that way” will be dishing out their culinary masterpieces in Historic Downtown Chandler. The parties involved include AJ’s Café, Cathy’s Rum Cake, Chandler BBQ, Chino Bandino, Crave Artisan Ice Cream, DVine, El Zocalo, Pita Jungle, SanTan Brewing Company, Urban Tea Loft and Von Hansen’s Meat Market. Tickets are $45. Get ‘em here. VIP tickets include valet parking, more food and chef demos by Executive Chefs at Le Cordon Bleu, Heidi Lee from Into the Soup and Chino Bandido’s Eve Collins. Those tickets are $75.

Skillet Doux (“Now Serving In The Phoenix Area”) is still sending us outrageously thorough updates from Top Chef, but Mr. Armato (pictured above) is also dabbling in a bit of menu planning! But, not for quiet dinners at home; he’s menu planning for a Chef For A Day “date” with Posh Restaurant. We love Mr. Armato’s journaling: “So what to serve when you have a crack at a full-fledged restaurant kitchen? Play it safe with things I’ve known and done forever? Treat the access to the equipment as an opportunity to try out things that are difficult to do at home? What’s appropriate for a restaurant like Posh? My first thought was that I really, really don’t want to screw this up. (Like he could). Maybe I should do what I know best. But then I thought that it’d be a shame to do simple pasta and such for an evening at one of the more creative restaurants in town. Which is about the time it hit me. On more than a few occasions, I’ve hammered people for making a mess of contemporary Italian. But I’m also of the belief that it can be done. So why not do it myself? I can put myself out there by making the cuisine that’s always felt like home to me, while at the same time doing something that feels appropriate to a place that stresses creativity with a healthy dose of MG techniques. So after kicking around a bunch of ideas, here’s the plan for a three course prix fixe with amuse, very, very subject to change.” He had us at sausage tortelli.

Eric: Hey baby, we hear you’ve been eating out! We’re so glad! This week, the elusive Eric S. of EricEatsOut (and one of our favorite DLT contributors) tells us of Glendale’s Le Chalet. First of all, they need to dim their goddamn lights. “The only way I can describe it is this:  imagine that you’re on a movie set on a soundstage.  The set is so convincing that you think you’ve been transported to another place.  Then, suddenly, they turn on all the lights.  It’s like that.  Baissez les lumieres! The charm is gone.” Secondly, the fondue was blah, but Eric is “certainly happier to give my fondue business to Le Chalet than to The Melting Pot.” Thirdly, an “odd presentation of 10 ounces of beef tenderloin” called ”La Potence.” The verdict? Fussy and complicated. Check out the revelatory photograph below, courtesy of EricEatsOut. Last but not least, the dessert. Two crepes:  Nutella and Salted Caramel with Chocolate.  The Nutella was Eric’s favorite; he had us salivating over the crepe’s perfect texture, “light and ever-so-slightly chewy.” All in all, Eric gives La Chalet a thumbs up. But, they really do need to sort out that florescent, burn-your-retinas lighting problem … Or, we’ll be bringing the Ray Bans to dinner tonight.

    

1 Comment

Continuing the Discussion

  1. Tweets that mention Chow Down | Phoenix Food | Phoenix Restaurants -- Topsy.com

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Brow&Beauty Boutique, Desert Living Today. Desert Living Today said: It's here! Chow Down: This Week in Food Blogs http://bit.ly/b6ZiJs @chefgwen @EATERAZ @skilletdoux (lovely pic) @ericeatsout [...]

    September 24, 20106:01 PM
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