November 17 is National Take a Hike Day! Consult our online archive of Citizen Hiker (p. 64) columns and celebrate with an autumnal ramble.
Tryptophan lovers unite. Try a smoked bird from Bobby Q’s this Thanksgiving if your kitchen skills be blah.
Run on police body cameras is a windfall for Scottsdale-based Taser. Current valuation: $1.3 billion.
For the first time in its 126-year history, the Arizona Republic endorses a Democrat for U.S. President. Not even FDR? Yikes.
Colorado leaders urge Arizona voters to vote no on pro-marijuana Prop. 205. What’s good for the irie goose is not good for the gander, evidently.
The Donald disavows “birtherism,” Sheriff Arpaio vows to keep up the fight. Because, Arpaio.
AZ Supreme Court decision potentially criminalizes diaper-changing; turns parents into unwitting child molesters. And we wonder why people tease us.
{module The Lobby November 2016}
Claudio urciuoli
Since moving to the Valley in 2004 to launch Taggia at FireSky Resort, Claudio Urciuoli has worked at a grand total of seven restaurants – a not-so-outrageous tally that has nonetheless earned the influential, Italian-born chef a fair amount of good-natured ribbing from media and peers. On-the-Go Urciuoli. Can't-Sit-Still Claudio. The Roamin' Roman. And so on.
So when Urciuoli announced in late summer that he'd be leaving Noble Eatery, the accolade-drenched Phoenix sandwich shop he co-founded in 2013, for a new venture… well, eyeballs started rolling. Good-naturedly.
Urciuoli was Born to a flour salesman and a school teacher in Italy’s Campania region. Was he also one of those kids who got bored with a toy after a day or two?
“Yeah, that’s me [laughs]. I enjoy the traveling and opening restaurants. With Noble, I put almost four years into it. It was a good time to leave. Evolution for me and [a] chance to do a new thing with a new concept.”
Conceived in partnership with Valley restaurateur Omar Alvarez (Tortas Paquime), Urciuoli’s new restaurant – due in January 2017 – is called Pa’la. He shared a few details.
1) It will be located in a repurposed 1920s home on 24th Street, near craft brewery upstart Wren House Brewing Co.
2) Commanding a wood-burning grill, Urciuoli will offer “a good amount of seafood, 100 percent from California,” locally sourced vegetables and “unique breads that complement the food.”
3) Pa’la roughly translates to “for the people,” Urciuoli says. “It was a good word for me… and easy to pronounce for people who don’t speak Italian or Spanish.”
Urciuoli pioneered the slow food movement in the Valley. He also turned us on to burrata. What emerging food trend does he anticipate for 2017?
“I worked a lot with breads early in my life… and I love the uniqueness of flour. So I see people embracing Sonoran wheat and kind of a rebirth of neighborhood bakeries.”
Are there any chefs or restaurateurs in the Valley he’d still like to work with?
“I’d enjoy working with Nobuo [Fukuda of Nobuo at Teeter House] because I like Japanese food. I worked with Japanese guys in Italy and it was a good experience. I like the way they treat fish, and sushi interests me. The cooking is both simple and complex. I like everything Japanese: the motorcycles, cars and cartoons, and the history. Ever since I was a boy.”
Desert island cheese: Parmigiano-Reggiano or mozzarella?
“Parmigiano. Because it is versatile. You grate it, melt it… and on an island it will age better, have a longer shelf life. Because, desert island. I have to survive.”
A father three times over, Urciuoli says his in-town dining habits are often dictated by the “kids or no kids” variable.
1) Hillstone: “It’s close to my house, and consistently good. And nice and spacious if I’ve got the kids with me. I also know the chef. Nice guy.”
2) Nobuo at Teeter House: “No kids, I go to Nobuo.”
3) Bianco/Cibo/Pomo: “We’ve got a lot of very nice pizzas in this town… with wood-fired ovens, and they’re all different and distinct.”
4) Essence Bakery: “It’s near my house, and I go for the Italian espresso. Love that place…”
Does he have a favorite Italian filmmaker?
“I loved the spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone as a boy. Clint Eastwood was the best… A Fistful of Dollars and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. I said to myself, ‘Wow, that’s really American.’ Kind of ironic I became a Western myself.”
Urciuoli’s Phoenix CV
Taggia (2004-2008)
Different Pointe of View (2008)
Prado (2008-2010)
Pane Bianco (2010-2012)
Restaurant Bianco (2012)
noca (2012-2013)
Noble Eatery (2013-2016)
O’Pinion
I Protest Your Protest Vote
So you’re not happy with either major party’s candidate for U.S. president? You’re not alone.
Perhaps you think the two-party monopoly on our politics is a bad thing? So instead you’ll vote Libertarian or Green… or maybe just skip the polls altogether.
Think again. Honestly, please do. The time for protest votes has passed.
More than 20 people lined up, seeking those major party nominations. Most voters had the opportunity to help select the final two candidates, one of whom will definitely be the next leader of the free world. At this point, that is beyond any reasonable dispute. The winner will symbolize the United States to the rest of the world, guide our foreign policy, command our military, make war-or-peace decisions, select Supreme Court justices and shape government policy. There are profound differences in temperament, experience and outlook between the two major party candidates – a selection between the two is not an exercise in subtlety. This is not a drill: There’s a real choice to be made, even if you view it as “the lesser of two evils.”
But if you choose not to vote, or to vote for a candidate with no chance whatsoever of winning the election, you forfeit that right.
There may be a “feel good” aspect to rejecting both candidates. But failing to vote for one of them will do nothing to improve the quality of choices available in the future.
Sure, protest votes have a role in primary elections. (By the way, you can also organize, canvass, donate money and participate in campaigns or causes as you see fit throughout the electoral process.) But a general election for president is not a responsible time for them. A protest vote is the functional equivalent of casting half a vote for each of the two major candidates, or not voting at all. This is not participating in the process; it is abdicating a civic responsibility.
What about the argument that voting for a third party will help build that party into a national force? There have been many third party candidates over the years: Ralph Nader in 2000, Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996, John Anderson in 1980, George Wallace in 1968 and Strom Thurmond in 1948. Only segregationists Thurmond and Wallace got any electoral votes. Many of these third party candidates were considerably stronger than those in the current election (Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party-ist Jill Stein), but their chances of assuming the Oval Office were still practically nil. And, in the bigger picture, none of their candidacies sparked a groundswell of third party support. The party rolls remained more or less stagnant.
Restructuring the existing parties or developing a third party may yet hold benefit for America. But the idea that a vote for either the Libertarians or the Greens in this election will help lift them to major party status is a pipe dream. That argument was settled when both Johnson and Stein failed to reach the 15 percent threshold to be included in the debates. Had that threshold been reached, my argument would be weaker. A candidate who gets on the debate stage, as Ross Perot did in 1992, has a legitimate, albeit small, chance of being elected. Without the debate platform and the “serious candidate” status it conveys, however, public support for the Libertarian and Green candidates – already in single digits – is far more likely to go down than up. Neither will earn a single electoral vote.
There is an election this month. It’s silly even to feel compelled to point out that the stakes are extremely high – but here I am. So even if you think both Clinton and Trump are flawed, make a call. One of them will be our next president. God forbid, the wrong one.
Mike O’Neil is a sociologist and pollster who hosts the public affairs program The Think Tank on KTAR-FM 92.3. Most of his recent articles are available at mikeoneil.org.
