Using this space, I’ve reluctantly bid adieu to beloved longtime magazine colleagues in three consecutive issues at this point. So many tearful farewells. It’s a little like living in a Nicholas Sparks novel.
The Best of the Valley feature you’re about to read reflects dozens, maybe even hundreds of such lineages.
PHOENIX dining critic Nikki Buchanan is hanging up her trademark wig disguise for good.
Know that we take the issue of keeping this issue fresh very seriously. To that end, there are a few Top Docs ‘firsts’ in this edition that I’d like to underline.
Our annual food-centric issue covers Hole in the Wall Wonders, Where Valley Chefs Eat and Food Trends for 2026.
I really, really like hiking Piestewa Peak. How much? Well, I did some math in my head the other day.
"As much as we like the ’90s, we don’t want to repeat them. A cover [story] every 25 years will do."
"But when it comes to our annual Best of the Valley issue, which is gloriously celebrating its silver anniversary in 2025 with this out-of-control freight train of an issue, maybe the criticism is valid.”
Often, when you’re conceiving, designing and producing a content-rich whatever – like, say, a 200-page magazine – discrete but unmistakable patterns and themes emerge that you’re not even aware of until it’s almost finished.
Given all the restaurants and talent that move in and out of the Valley on a yearly basis, and the rise of seasonal and rotating menus, three years seems like a safe, responsible following distance between Top Dishes issues.
Writing, editing and designing the November/December issue of PHOENIX always requires an enormous feat of mental play-acting for its editors and art directors. “Suspension of disbelief,” they call it in movies.
Today, there are more speakeasies in the Valley than ever... to feed that delicious illusion of transgression [we] all love so much.
Best of the Valley is no longer just one of our yearly cover stories. It resides in multiple dimensions.
