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To chef/restaurateur Marcellino Verzino and his wife and business partner, Sima Verzino, Italy is more than a vacation destination – it’s their home away from home. The owners of Marcellino Ristorante in Old Town Scottsdale take a yearly trip to Rome, where they lived for many years and have property and a second home. For 25 years, they’ve been following their Roman sojourn with a jaunt to the Greek island of Poros. The couple takes...

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Burned by one too many Facebook Marketplace transactions gone awry? Download Oana, the “pay-it-forward marketplace” developed by Phoenix friends Maggie Fearnow and Tom Hutchison to create an easier, friendlier way to buy and sell goods online. You can even barter or offer goods and services for free or at a deep discount. The free app is available on Apple and Android devices.

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Dozens of eager golden retrievers and their volunteer caregivers gathered at the Arizona Biltmore on April 30 for a one-of-a-kind happy hour event where attendees could meet the pups while sipping on specialty cocktails. Dubbed “Golden Hour with the Goldens,” the event took place from 4 to 7 p.m. at the iconic resort’s outdoor bar area. The event was a partnership between the Biltmore, Tito’s Handmade Vodka and Arizona Golden Rescue, a Glendale-based nonprofit dedicated...

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Head to Ventura for a beach-lover’s paradise full of sun, sand and surf. Even if you’re not frolicking in the waves, this ocean community north of Los Angeles offers the perfect getaway full of unique dining and entertainment experiences. Ventura Music Hall This new music venue aims to bring major musical acts to an intimate space. Enjoy live music of all genres while chowing down on local craft food and drinks for an authentic taste...

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“Sustainable” and “plant-based” aren’t just buzzy menu descriptors anymore. With Phoenix company DYPER, even baby tushes are getting the eco-treatment. It offers subscriptions to unscented bamboo diapers (also available: cloth diapers) sans alcohol, chlorine, latex and lotions. “I started the company to solve three problems: never running out of diapers, treating my daughter’s bum with no harmful chemicals and leaving a better planet behind for my three children,” owner Sergio Radovcic says. The company’s REDYPER...

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In a world full of deadlines, stress and social media, sometimes you need to refresh by unplugging for a little bit. “If you want to find a place to disconnect with your day-to-day life, you come here and right away you disconnect [with the world] and you reconnect with yourself,” says Bixente Pery, general manager of Four Seasons Resort Rancho Encantado Santa Fe. The resort, situated on 57 acres in the Sangre de Cristo foothills,...

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“The party is here on the west side,” quoth hip-hop poet Montell Jordan. With the April debut of Heritage at Sportsman’s Park, that lyric is ringing true. The tri-level, 10,000-square-foot venue on the Great Lawn adjacent to State Farm Stadium in Glendale boasts a garden patio and chef-driven kitchen. “Heritage has so much to offer the West Valley,” says general manager and executive chef Marshall Reichert, who will run it as a restaurant open to...

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Photo courtesy Tía Carmen All the news that’s fit to nosh.   Felicidades: Tía Carmen is now open! The hotly anticipated restaurant from Top Chef alum Angelo Sosa made its debut early this month at JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa. The contemporary Southwestern eatery boasts globally inflected Southwestern/Mexican dishes including tuna crudo with chilled corn-coconut broth; Southwestern-style Wagyu tri-tip kebabs; lamb ragù with mesquite noodles; and the restaurant’s signature dish, chicken guisado, a...

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How many of us would love to go back to that carefree feeling of frolicking around the playground as a child? Indeed, it would be pretty cool to relive those memories as an adult – perhaps even with a cocktail in hand. Good news for the young at heart: Recreo, a new playground-themed restaurant in downtown Chandler, is serving up inventive eats and playful cocktails with a serious side of nostalgia. The expansive patio and...

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When my friend and I wander into Far Away Wine and Provisions, we consider the cozy living room set-up — couch, chairs, coffee table — near the entrance but settle instead for a couple of stools at the tiny bar. We know we want to eat something and hunching over a coffee table is never a fun way to go about it. Besides, the bar seems to be where the action is. At 5:30, there...

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When we last spoke with Peter McQuaid in 2016, he was just starting culinary school at the International Culinary Center in New York City after winning a scholarship from Careers Through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP). Today, the 24-year-old McQuaid is the executive chef at Cala, a Clive Collective restaurant in the new Senna House Hotel in Scottsdale. After culinary school, McQuaid spent time in the kitchen with chef Beau MacMillan at The Sanctuary and then...

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Pearl Jam | Photo by Danny Clinch Every week, we present a curated list of live music in a wide range of genres all around the Valley. This week we’re taking a look at cinematic music. May 9 Pearl Jam The Seattle grunge group behind the hits “Jeremy” and “Evenflow” were among the first bands to stop touring as the pandemic shut everything down. Two years later, they’re ready to make the arenas shake with...

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The muralist, vehicle painter and graffiti maestro Javier Cordova has a core specialty: lettering. Cordova, who grew up in South Phoenix and goes by “Spawk,” sprays and brushes scripts around Phoenix, often tagging his curvaceous letters on murals and vehicles with gold leaf. His work appears in skate parks, bars, barbershop windows and even Phoenix Suns murals. But you’d never know it. Spawk doesn’t sign his work. “I’m doing it for me,” he says. “If...