With the holidays comes the anxiety on what to get your loved ones as gifts. Sure, you probably have the perfect idea for some people, but what about those who you haven’t a clue? Perhaps you should give them a gift from some of the Valley’s best restaurants, Fox Restaurant Concepts.

Including Olive and Ivy, Modern Steak, NoRth, True Food Kitchen, and more, a Fox Restaurant Concepts gift card is the way to go. When you purchase a $100 gift card or more, you receive an additional $20 for free. You can save it for yourself or give it to someone you love, either way it’s free money.

To purchase the gift cards, head into any FRC restaurant.

Yes, that’s right. Free burgers and onion rings at Zinburger. Tuesday, September 11 is the date where you can indulge in these sinfully delicious treats.  From 3 to 4 p.m., Zinburger will be offering you their four new burger creations for free, along with the debut of their sizzling onion rings. Of course, rules apply. One free burger or side per person.

Zinburger is doing some interesting things with their new burgers. Combining breakfast with dinner, the Breakfast Burger features Nueske’s Apple wood smoked bacon, avocado and fried egg. The Ringer and El Diablo burgers will spice up your mouth. El Diablo’s fire roasted jalapenos, grilled onions, Pepper Jack cheese and chipotle mayo sounds delicious. The Ringer’s Pepper Jack cheese, Nueske’s Apple wood smoked bacon and house-made onion rings are smothered in Frank’s Red Hot (mmm…) all atop a macho meat patty. Don’t forget about their all new onion rings, the perfect compliment to delicious burgers.

For the nearest Zinburger location, click here.

Fox Restaurant Concepts wants to help you cool down the rest of the summer. The people who brought you Arrogant Butcher, Olive and Ivy, Culinary Dropout, and Sauce (among many more great places) will be providing you with great drink specials through September 11.

Daily happy hour specials, brunches, community dinners, live performances and more, at all Phoenix and Tucson locations of Fox Restaurant Concepts will be the places to be this summer. Let’s take a look at some of the great deals that are available.

The Arrogant Butcher- Appetizer and Drink Specials: $2-$8, Mon.-Sat., 3-6 p.m.

Blanco Tacos + Tequila, Phoenix- Summer Drinks & Summer Eats: Sangria, $6 glass/$16 pitcher; Tall Boy Beers, $6 single/$20 Bucket of 4; and Small Plates, $3 Tostadas & $3 Tacos. Happy Hour specials: half-off starters, specialty margaritas, draft beers and well drinks, Mon.-Fri., 4-6 p.m.

Blanco Tacos + Tequila, Tucson- Summer Drinks & Summer Eats: Sangria, $6 glass/$16 pitcher; Tall Boy Beers, $6 single/$20 Bucket of 4; and Small Plates, $3 Tostadas & $3 Tacos. Happy Hour specials: half-off starters, specialty margaritas and Mexican beers, daily 4-6 p.m.

Culinary Dropout- Double Blind Happy Hour: Paper Bag Beer and Shot for $6 and Reverse Happy Hour specials, Sun.-Thurs., 9:30 p.m. to close. Party like a rock star with kick-ass bands on Friday and Saturday nights throughout the summer.

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Correction: The following nominees were incorrectly reported (perhaps an early vote of confidence!) as winners in the first run of the article. The following are in fact, nomiees. Winners announced March 19.

Wouldn’t you like to pull up a chair, pour yourself a glass of wine and chat with all seven of the James Beard Foundation nominees from Arizona at once? Well, we would. So we did. And luckily, our virtual table allows us to skirt around the awkward “party talk” and get straight to the facts on this impressive group. Find out more about the nominees, their awards and where you can pull up a seat to any one of their tables below:

 Janos, Tucson. Award: Outstanding Chef, Janos Wilder. Facts: Wilder got his start cooking at a local pizza parlor as a teenager. He has three restaurants, Downtown Kitchen & Cocktails (a Southwestern-French fusion), J Bar, a Latin grill, and Janos, a luxurious desert restaurant of local flavors and many accolades.

ShinBay, Scottsdale. Award: Best New Restaurant. Facts: Chef Shinji Kurita pays great attention to detail, from creating a tranquil, traditional Japanese setting to crafting authentic Japanese gourmet with established techniques and a modern aesthetic.

Vincent’s on Camelback, Phoenix. Award: Outstanding Restaurant. Facts: Owner and chef Vincent Guerithault brought a deep knowledge of French cooking to the Southwest in the mid-1980’s, blending the two cuisines to create a very unique, upscale synthesis of flavors.

Fox Restaurant Concepts. Award: Outstanding Restaurateur, Sam Fox. Facts: Fox Restaurant Concepts began as a way to combine innovative cuisine with meticulously designed, modern settings. Today, Fox has twelve flourishing boutique restaurants and continues to grow.

John Sharpe of The Turquoise Room at La Posada Hotel & Gardens, Winslow; Kevin Binkley of Binkley’s Restaurant, Cave Creek; Silvana Salcido Esparza of Barrio Café, Phoenix. Awards: Best Chef Southwest. Facts: John Sharpe not only grows heirloom vegetables and herbs for the restaurant, but he encourages local farmers to grow food to use as well and is involved with the Slow Food movement and the Chef’s Collaborative. Kevin Binkley, who also strives to use local ingredients at his eatery – which has been compared to the finest restaurants in New York and Paris – is known for crafting very original, imaginative dishes like the Golden King Crab salad, which is stuffed into a blood orange crepe with water chestnuts, radishes, arugula and red onion marmalade. Salcido Esparazais also known for her ground-breaking cuisine, which is highly authentic Mexican fare blended with fun, unexpected ingredients, like guacamole with pomegranate seeds.

Janos and J Bar | 3770 East Sunrise Drive | Tucson, AZ | 85718

Downtown Kitchen & Cocktails | 135 South 6th Avenue | Tucson, AZ | 85701

ShinBay | 7001 North Scottsdale Road | Scottsdale, AZ | 85253

The Turquoise Room | 305 East 2nd Street | Winslow, AZ | 86047

Binkley’s Restaurant | 6920 East Cave Creek Road | Cave Creek, AZ | 85331

Barrio Café | 2814 North 16th Street | Phoenix, AZ | 85006

Vincent’s on Camelback | 3930 East Camelback Road, Suite 202 | Phoenix AZ | 85018

On the off-chance that your Valentine’s Day dinner plans have gone awry or perhaps just maybe you have forgotten to reserve any, DLT has you covered yet again. From fun-du specials at The Melting Pot to a blissfully romantic Italian meal at NoRTH, we have rounded up ten Valentine’s Day dining ideas around the Valley to help make this Sweetheart Day your best one yet…or at least top last year’s celebration in front of Valentine’s Day the movie on TiVO.

Click after the jump to see what made our list:

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We’re just days away from Christmas and the stress of gift-giving is starting to creep up the back of our throats. Sure we love giving, but getting a little something in return kinda eases the stressful sting of finding a suitable gift this late in the game. The following restaurants are giving you a little in return when you get a little something for that someone on your list:

The Keg Steakhouse & Bar: Get a $100 gift card, get $25 bonus card.
Bonus cards must be used January 1 – February 5, 2012. Order online and check your gift card balance here or pick up at any of the four Valley locations. Click here for locations.

Fox Restaurant Concepts:  Get a $100 gift card, get a $20 bonus gift card.
For every $100 worth of gift cards purchased by December 31 from any Fox Restaurant Concepts establishment, receive a $20 bonus gift card. The Fox Restaurant Concepts gift cards are good for 12 unique dining experiences including The Arrogant Butcher, Blanco Tacos + Tequila, Culinary Dropout, The Greene House, Modern Steak, NoRTH, Olive & Ivy Restaurant & Marketplace, Sauce, True Food Kitchen, Wildflower and Zinburger. Fox Restaurant Concepts gift cards are available in denominations of $10, $25, $50, $75 and $100. Purchase the gift cards online here, any of the above restaurants, or call 480-905-6920.

RA Sushi Bar Restaurant: Every $50 gift card, gets you a $10 bonus card.
Available until December 31, 2011. The $10 bonus cards must be used between January 2 and March 31, 2012.  RA Sushi gift cards can be used at all 25 locations nationwide, including the five locations in Greater Metro Phoenix. For locations click here. Gift cards may be purchased in person at any RA Sushi location or online.

Carefree Station: Get a $10 bonus gift certificate with every $100 gift certificate.
Through December 25, 2011, Carefree Station will be offering a $10 bonus gift certificate with every $100 worth of gift certificates purchased. Gift certificates are available in denominations of $25, $50, and $100, and they can be purchased in person at Carefree Station or by calling 480-488-8182. For more on the Carefree favorite, click here.

Kona Grill: Get a $20 bonus gift certificate or e-card with every $100 gift certificate or e-card purchase.Bonus cash can be used starting January 1, 2012. Purchase the cards online by clicking here and have it mailed to your recipient. How easy is that? Or pick them up at your nearest location here.

The Strand Urban Italian opens today for lunch and dinner at CityScape in downtown Phoenix, joining Fox Restaurant Concept’s The Arrogant Butcher, Lucky Strike Bowling Lanes, Copper Blues and more.

The modern Italian Eatery focuses on affordable Italian dishes for around $10 with a bruschetta bar, pizzettas, cooked to order pastas, stuffed sandwiches, fresh seasonal salads, grilled entrees, and their signature pizcotti and zeppolini desserts. Check out the frozen cocktails like the Italian Margarita, Peach Bellini and the Orangecello XXXtreme and the coffee bar with natural fruit smoothies, our Granita Caffe iced beverages and spiked coffee cocktails. The Strand offers pick up and delivery for the downtown urban dwelling and working crowd, for lunch and dinner with a breakfast menu coming after the holidays.

The Strand Urban Italian | 2 E. Jefferson Street | Phoenix, AZ 85004 | 602.253.1600

After 10 years in Scottsdale, Bloom will shrivel this Saturday after its supper service. The Fox Restaurant Concept known for its seasonal American menu was the first FRC in the Valley, and the third restaurant for the Tucson-grown company, inspired by the company’s original Tucson restaurant, Wildflower. Bloom’s wine list was a consistent favorite for Wine Spectator Magazine.

The space will taken over by Highgrove Hill and a new American eatery will open at a later date.

The new NoRTH Arcadia Fattoria Italiana by Fox Restaurant Concepts is now open in Phoenix, just southeast of 40th Street & Camelback Road. The swanky restaurant decked out in DLT favorite, Vintage Industrial Furniture, has a neighborhood, open-air ambiance accompanying the regional Italian cuisine created by Chef Chris Curtiss, formerly of Noca. Beyond lunch and dinner, the new NoRTH will serve breakfast on the weekends, adding another neighborhood option to the often cramped 40th & Campbell LGO scene.

Take our word, try “The Pig” pizza with pepperoni, soppressata, salami and house-made sausage or the Heirloom Beet salad with arugula, apples and lemon creme fraiche with a glass of prosecco served in a retro champagne coupe. Or check out the entire menu here. And for you Arcadians, the bike rack is already out front, adding it to the list of bike-worthy stops in the ‘hood.

NoRTH Arcadia | 4925 N 40th St | Phoenix, AZ 85018 | 602.324.5600

The new NoRTH Arcadia Fattoria Italiana by Fox Restaurant Concepts is now open in Phoenix, just southeast of 40th Street & Camelback Road. The swanky restaurant decked out in DLT favorite, Vintage Industrial Furniture, has a neighborhood, open-air ambiance accompanying the regional Italian cuisine created by Chef Chris Curtiss, formerly of Noca. Beyond lunch and dinner, the new NoRTH will serve breakfast on the weekends, adding another neighborhood option to the often cramped 40th & Campbell LGO scene.

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As chosen by you, here are the most popular stories OF ALL TIME (aka last week). Just in case you missed it.

On the clock today, Mr. Sam Fox, CEO of Fox Restaurant Concepts (you know, Culinary Dropout, Sauce, Bloom NoRTH, True Food Kitchen, the list goes on) chiming in on football in honor of the Valley’s 2015 Super Bowl victory as well as food.

Today, Sam Fox announcing his partnership with Ashly Young, owner of Chloe’s Corner at Kierland Commons, to open Chloe’s Corner at downtown’s CityScape, where Oakville Grocery is.

So here’s how this works, we start the clock and rapid fire some questions to you, you answer them and bam, we post them up on the interwebs for the world to see and share. Let’s begin:

DLT: When did your first restaurant open? What was it?
SF: Gilligans Bar & Grill Tucson in 1993.

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On the clock today, Mr. Sam Fox, CEO of Fox Restaurant Concepts (you know, Culinary Dropout, Sauce, Bloom NoRTH, True Food Kitchen, the list goes on) chiming in on football in honor of the Valley’s 2015 Super Bowl victory as well as food.

Today, Sam Fox announcing his partnership with Ashly Young, owner of Chloe’s Corner at Kierland Commons, to open Chloe’s Corner at downtown’s CityScape, where Oakville Grocery is.

So here’s how this works, we start the clock and rapid fire some questions to you, you answer them and bam, we post them up on the interwebs for the world to see and share.  Let’s begin:

DLT: When did your first restaurant open? What was it?
SF: Gilligans Bar & Grill Tucson in 1993.

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Many will agree: Mixology is an art. For Sam Fox, owning millions of restaurants is a lucrative business. Bring the two together and you have the first ever Cocktail Competition this Sunday at Culinary Dropout from 2-4 p.m. If 10 Fox Restaurant bartenders competing for the ultimate crown of master mixologist doesn’t sound like a good Sunday Funday activity, maybe the drink specials will rope you in. From 4 p.m. to close, there will be Holy Stoli drink specials and 25% off snacks and liquor in the bar. As for the entertainment, the bartenders will submit their concoctions to a blind tasting to panel of esteemed judges and the top three will advance to the next round. Friendly competition and lots of booze? This sounds like his best business plan yet. Cheers!

Remember Chris Curtiss? Of course you do, you’ve been missing him at your (weekly) Noca dinners. After his sudden departure from the Noca kitchen last month, we’ve heard he’ll be heading over to Fox Restaurant Concepts. No word on what he’ll be doing there or which kitchen he’ll be manning, but it’s very interesting considering AZ Central was reporting he’d be spending the next two years at Valley non-profit, One Step Beyond. Have info? Let us know.

The competition is down to four hamburger loving finalists and it’s up to you to decide whose burger takes the cake in Zinburger’s Ultimate Burger Search. Head to Zinburger Biltmore between now and July 18th to get a taste of the finalists’ burgers. Each are being sold for $10 and come with a side of fries, a coupon for a free shake or dessert and a chance to win a $100 gift card from Fox Restaurant Concepts. Vote for your favorite in the restaurant or on Facebook before the winner is announced on July 22nd.  The champion’s mouthwatering creation will be sold at Zinburger Biltmore for the month of August as the “Burger of the Month” and will receive 50 cents for each one sold. To check out which burgers are in the running, click here.

Principal at Hayes Architecture/Interiors, Cathy Hayes (pictured at right) is the go-to architectural designer for top Valley restaurateurs such as Sam Fox’s Modern Steak (left). Not to mention Lenny Rosenberg (Delux Burger, Revo Burrito), LGO Hospitality (La Grande Orange Grocery, Chelsea’s Kitchen) and the new edge outdoor dining deck at Sanctuary on Camelback.

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After DLT outed Sam Fox’s latest super-secret project, this legendary local restaurateur agreed to give us a few minutes of his time if we promised to stop digging through the trash outside his Fox Restaurant Concepts HQ. And after whetting our appetite with some savory deets on his first foray into Downtown Phoenix, The Arrogant Butcher, Fox broke some news about our breaking news.

Yes, he’s the one tearing down the former car wash at 40th Street & Camelback. And yes it will be the sixth location of his popular modern Italian concept, NoRTH. However, Fox promises this all-new NoRTH will actually be more French Laundry than Italian Stallion. Confused? Read on.

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Another day, another cool-sounding new Sam Fox restaurant is landing in the Valley. Yes, the talented Mr. Fox just announced that BarFly, his upscale tavern inside Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport will officially open on Feb 18. (Funny coincidence, he’s replacing the former Fox Sports Grill). Of course, this is just five days before the grand opening of The Arrogant Butcher in Downtown Phoenix, and mere weeks after we broke the news that he’s also under construction on an all-new version of his popular Italian eatery, NoRTH in Arcadia.

Sam Fox + Great Name + Thirsty Travelers + Captive Audience. What could go wrong? Well for one, a famed local chef already tried the whole Barfly thing.

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As promised, our sister publication, Scoop Factory has all the delicious deets on Sam Fox’s latest hotspot:

Hello Scoopers. “Enough of the nostalgic architecture posts,” you say. Give us something savory, piping hot and insider-only. Well try this one on for size. We’ve learned that a certain famed Valley food-dude is quietly constructing a new restaurant in the heart of the Arcadia/PV/Biltmore areas.

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Say it with us, TGI Weekend Guide! As usual, there’s going to be a frantic amount of fêting going on over the next 48 hours, so let’s get right to it. Have you been wondering why there are all these pasty folks walking around wearing colorful college clothing? (No? Well, play along anyway.) That’s because the eyes of the nation are focused on the Valley as we host the College Football national championship game on Monday evening. Which is why thousands of green-clad Oregon Ducks fans and navy blue- and orange-dressed Auburn Tigers fans, have all descended upon our fair city.

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New restaurants are opening their doors all over the Valley. Three opened up this week, and DLT has the scoop you’re craving after the jump!
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Wanna get a kick-start on your post Halloween shape-up? Famed food and wellness guru, Dr. Andrew Weil, is coming to the Valley tomorrow to give a presentation and cooking demonstration at True Food Kitchen.

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Cancel your plans, you’ve got a hot date tonight with Fashion’s Night Out. Dress to impress and head over to Scottsdale Fashion Square, Kierland Commons or Biltmore Fashion Park for this one-night-only event overflowing with style, fashion shows, makeovers, steep discounts, Champagne and entertainment held in honor of New York’s Fashion Week. A shopaholics guide to participating stores and must-stop shops after the jump! »READ MORE

If you’re anything like us, you shamelessly advocate the following: novelty, attention to detail and iced cold beverages. With Independence Day this weekend, we’ve been looking for interesting ways to liven up the food-focused festivities and think we may have found the next big culinary concept soon-to-be-seen-at-a-Sam-Fox-restaurant-near-you.

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Happy Hour menus around the Valley are getting just a little more festive this summer as restaurants lure in deal-hungry customers with specials that won’t make you regret having that second margarita. And speaking of killer ‘ritas, Fox Restaurant Concepts, the food empire owned by Valley-based restaurateur Sam Fox, is offering a sweet Summer Steals menu at seven of its local eateries.

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