Nikki Buchanan, Author at PHOENIX magazine

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Desert DigestValley Culinary Institution Rancho Pinot Closes After 27 Years

Nikki BuchananApril 18, 2021

Rancho Pinot staff | Photo by Nikki Buchanan What if your favorite restaurant — your pre-pandemic go-to and home-away-from-home, the place where you celebrated birthdays, had a preferred seat at the bar, knew the servers by name and often received a hug when you came and went — was closing? You’d be heartbroken, right? Well, that’s me. Heartbroken. Because chef-owner Chrysa Robertson has decided it’s time to close her beloved, our beloved, Rancho Pinot....

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Desert Digest Food & DrinkFirst Dish: El Heroico Guaymas Restaurant and Pescaderia

Nikki BuchananApril 8, 2021

Tostada de Pescado | Photo by Nikki Buchanan I’ve never actually counted, but I’m going to hazard a guess that metro Phoenix has more Mexican seafood restaurants than American-style seafood restaurants, which is a plus if you’re more interested in great, reasonably priced seafood than, say, la-di-da décor. El Heroico Guaymas, which opened in Peoria last December, is the newest of these no-frills, no-BS spots and based on a terrific lunch I had there...

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Desert Digest Food & DrinkRub Elbows with Celebrity Chefs at Aaron May’s Big Boy Cook Club Cookout

Nikki BuchananMarch 26, 2021

Sick of the pandemic? Ready to party? No, not like the idiots on spring break in Florida and Texas but in a responsible, socially distanced sort of way? Well, so is chef and “local-boy-makes-good” Aaron May, and he’s throwing his own outlandish outdoor bash called Aaron May’s Big Boy Cook Club Cookout on Sunday, April 25th from 2-7 p.m. at Walter Sterling’s Ocotillo Restaurant in Central Phoenix, which will strictly adhere to CDC guidelines for...

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Desert Digest Food & DrinkFirst Dish: Guy Fieri’s Flavortown Kitchen

Nikki BuchananMarch 25, 2021

Photo by Nikki Buchanan As the pandemic drags on, resourceful chefs and restaurateurs are opening ghost kitchens (delivery-only restaurants) at a clip this year, and Food Network star Guy Fieri, host of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, is right there riding the trend. In recent months, the spiky-haired, red Camaro-driving reality TV icon has launched Guy Fieri’s Flavortown Kitchen in 26 states, opening three virtual operations within Bucca di Beppo restaurants here in metro Phoenix...

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Drink ThisDrink This: The In-Tense City from Chauncey Social

Nikki BuchananMarch 18, 2021

Make this breezy riff on a classic margarita from Chauncey Social at home.

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Food ReviewsRestaurant Review: Character

Nikki BuchananMarch 18, 2021

Restaurateur Peter Kasperski of Cowboy Ciao fame scores a first-round knockout with his new Downtown bistro.

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Desert Digest Food & DrinkFirst Dish: Beaut Burger

Nikki BuchananMarch 12, 2021

Beaut Burger exterior | Photo by Nikki Buchanan Everyone gets a hankering for a burger now and then — even vegetarians and vegans — which is the beauty of Beaut Burger, a Tucson-based vegan burger joint so successful that it’s recently opened a second location here in Phoenix. Housed in a crisp-looking refurbished shipping container on Indian School just east of 32nd Street, BB makes almost all of its fresh, plant-based food in-house —...

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Desert Digest Food & DrinkLocal Coffee Company Exploradora Supports Women Across the Globe

Nikki BuchananMarch 5, 2021

You probably won’t be a bit surprised when I tell you that Alison Anderson, the wife of coffee connoisseur Dave Anderson of the Roastery of Cave Creek (which sells coffee to many of the city’s best restaurants), has coffee in her blood — not to mention her bloodstream. Although she’s always had her own career, Anderson has traipsed around the globe with her bean-obsessed husband for years now, sniffing out the best organic coffees from...

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Desert Digest Dining Openings/ClosingsChef Rene Andrade Opens Bacanora on Grand Avenue

Nikki BuchananFebruary 26, 2021

Great news for Downtown dwellers and the avant-garde peeps who appreciate Grand Avenue for its quirky coolness. Rene Andrade, the Nogales-born chef who garnered a following at Ghost Ranch, is opening his own Grand Avenue restaurant today in the tiny sunlit space that most recently housed Silvana Salcido Esparza’s Barrio Café Gran Reserva – and years before that, the historical Bragg’s Pie Factory and Bragg’s Pie Factory Diner. Andrade is calling his pie wedge-shaped place Bacanora, name-checking the little-known and underrated mezcal produced...

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Desert Digest Food & DrinkFirst Dish: Hot Daisy Pizza

Nikki BuchananFebruary 9, 2021

It’s her third day as proprietor of Hot Daisy Pizza, and Tammie Coe — the classically trained pastry chef famous for ooey-gooey cupcakes, big cookies and whimsical fondant-covered cakes — seems to be having fun in her new role as pie slinger. At 3:30 in the afternoon, her tiny Roosevelt Row shop (formerly known as Tammie Coe Cakes) enjoys a steady stream of curious neighborhood customers, eager to try a slice of pepperoni or margherita...

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Desert Digest Food & DrinkFoodie Darling Cotton & Copper To Close for Good

Nikki BuchananJanuary 27, 2021

We’ve lost so many restaurants to COVID-19 this past year — Amuse Bouche, Barrio Gran Reserva, Delux, El Zocalo, Josephine, La Marquesa, La Piazza al Forno, Phoenix Public Market Café, Razz’s, Sierra Bonita, The Dressing Room and Yasu Sushi Bistro, to name a noteworthy dozen — and just as is true with the virus itself, the devastation is nowhere near over. Brace yourself for more fallout because the next to go is Cotton & Copper,...

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Desert Digest Food & DrinkFirst Dish: Valentine

Nikki BuchananJanuary 25, 2021

Chadwick Price and mixology ninja Blaise Faber (best loved for his brilliant cocktails at Tratto) have teamed up to open this sweetheart of an all-day restaurant parked at the front end of Modern Manor, Ryan Durkin’s mid-century modern furniture store in the Melrose District. Chef Donald Hawk (the guy who started The Gladly’s popular raw bar program) oversees the menu and kitchen, which turns out exceptional baked goods, breakfast dishes, snacks, burgers, small plates, coffee...

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Desert DigestFirst Dish: Character Distinctive Dining

Nikki BuchananJanuary 19, 2021

Peter Kasperski, the crazy-creative Scottsdale restaurateur behind dearly departed Cowboy Ciao, Sea Saw, Digestif, Kazimierz World Wine Bar and Counter Intuitive, partners with longtime friend, former employee and inventive master barman Richie Moe to open Roosevelt Row’s most sophisticated restaurant and bar to date (Speakeasy Alias, which sits behind Character, hasn’t opened yet, but it’s almost ready to rock). I popped in to see how Kasperski, an Old Town Scottsdale boy since his salad days...

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Drink ThisDrink This: La Chocolat Sazerac

Nikki BuchananJanuary 18, 2021

The Sazerac, designated the official cocktail of New Orleans, has various origin stories. Begin your own origin story at home with this simple recipe.

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Food ReviewsThree New Japanese Restaurants That Go Beyond Maki and Miso