Happy Hour

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THE SCENE Like any The Real Housewives of New York City fan worth the salt on her Skinnygirl Margarita, I have a bit of an obsession with the Hamptons. I live for Ramona’s volcanic dinner parties (and questionable design choices), Luann’s out-of-touch pizza order (“Mrs. de Lesseps… The Countess!”), Sonja’s kooky jitney bathroom rituals, Bethenny’s avoidance of guests at her own home, high-stakes brunch battles and, of course, Barbara’s clambake, complete with doggie bags full of lobsters.   Alas, I am but a desert girl in an average tax bracket, so I figured my Hamptons enjoyment would remain vicarious unless I somehow befriended a celeb –...

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THE SCENE I almost can’t believe my eyes when I walk into CHAR Pizzeria Napoletana in Peoria. There’s a sleek, clean and downright Euro feel – silvery tin tiles on the ceiling, modern black light fixtures, gleaming wood and metal chairs congregated around marble-topped tables, brown leather banquettes and booths, a contemporary wooden bench and a clean white counter.   I grew up in the West Valley and went to high school just minutes away from this pristine pizzeria at the corner of Lake Pleasant Parkway and Happy Valley Road. Let me tell...

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THE SCENE  I am a lot of things, but two things I certainly am not are a beer drinker and a vegan. I often wish I could be both! Life – especially concerts, dive bars, festivals and my alcohol budget – would be so much easier if I loved beer. While I can find merit in a porter or stout redolent of chocolate, coffee or caramel, or in a fruity light beer like Papago Orange Blossom, I’d always rather skip the brew in favor...

To quote the great Happy Gilmore, “Sorry, ladies, I’m not the golfing type.” I like my birdies fried and my bogeys Lowenstein, thank you. Occasionally, though, the promise of good food lures me to restaurants that just happen to be at golf courses. Take Toro Latin Restaurant & Rum Bar, which is a property of Fairmont Scottsdale Princess resort but lives across the street on the 18th hole of the TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course, with...

THE SCENE It’s grand indeed at Century Grand, the 1920s-inspired cocktail compound from the minds of Jason Asher and Rich Furnari of Barter & Shake. You feel like Jay and Daisy from the moment you walk into the Arcadia building that houses Century Grand (a Prohibition-era cocktail bar with dim sum carts bearing nibbles, cocktails and wine), the Grey Hen Saloon (a tasting room and spirits shop where Valley whiskey maestro and general manager John...

THE SCENE While I love our new office at The Quad business/restaurant complex in the south Scottsdale/Arcadia area, there are quite a few things I miss about our old office at Scottsdale Quarter in north Scottsdale. Chief among them are Press Coffee (where I was a daily visitor) and Sorso Wine Room, the first wine bar I fell for as a nascent wino and a frequent happy hour haunt for PHOENIX and Phoenix Home &...

“A lot of thought and care went into engineering this happy hour,” chef/owner Chris Collins said as he leaned over the table, perusing the happy hour menu with me. I don’t always get to speak with the chef for these little happy hour outings, so I was pleased to hear about The Macintosh’s HH menu from the head honcho himself. “When we came up with this menu, we knew when we were rebranding it from...

I remember when I was in high school and a Pita Jungle location finally opened on my side of town, the chain-rich West Valley. Finally, something local in the Arrowhead Towne Center area my friends and I haunted, something more sophisticated than food-court fare, something with options for the vegetarians among us.

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