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If you didn’t think Pita Jungle could get any better, the Tempe location (4 E. University Drive) now serves healthy and fresh Mexican food through its new ghost kitchen, A Su Salud. Pita Jungle has been a Phoenix area favorite for delicious, guilt-free appetizers, meals and desserts for almost two decades. And now, they’ve created an entirely new takeout menu to try out. A Su Salud, meaning “to your health” in Spanish, is a wood-fired...

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Gather with more than 300 Native American artists from more than 75 tribal affiliations – virtually, that is – during the 63rd Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market. Beginning at 10 a.m. Friday, March 5 and continuing through 4 p.m. Sunday, March 7, visitors to the virtual festival can watch dance performances, listen to playlists of music by indigenous artists (courtesy of Tempe-based Canyon Records), and peruse paintings, baskets, jewelry, pottery, textiles, sculptures and...

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Franchesca Gonzales left a successful career in commercial banking after 10 years because she’d lost her passion for the industry. “I took a leap and burned the boats and tried something different,” she says. Growing up in New Mexico, she watched the Food Network and always enjoyed cooking for her friends. So, Gonzales researched new career options and then launched Fuel to Fit, a nutritional packaged meal company that serves individuals and families as well...

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Local-food lovers have a new spot to stock up on artisanal delights: nomada provisions, the latest concept from Valentina Huerta and chef Gian Franco Brugaletta of Nonna Urban Eatery in Scottsdale.  The retail space is located at 3410 N. 24th Street in Phoenix and opens this week. In addition to a carefully curated selection of goodies – cheese, charcuterie, oils, vinegars, condiments, spices, baking products and teas – nomada has a “cozy coffee corner” where guests can sit and linger over a latte or an Americano and purchase beans. Globally inspired ready-made and heat-and-serve...

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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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The Central Avenue location of Lo-Lo’s Chicken & Waffles is home to two new Black History Matters murals. The murals are part of the Black History Month Mural Project spearheaded by Gizette Knight. One mural depicts baseball legends Willard Brown, Jackie Robinson and Willie Wells. Willard Brown by @creation80 Jackie Robinson by @artthoutiffany Willie Wells by @evolvingthroughart The other hits closer to home, depicting chefs Lucille B. Smith, Leah Chase, and Mrs. White. Mrs. White...

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Support Local Art and Share the Love Snap a selfie with your sweetie by the Love Wall at Outlets at Anthem shopping center. Chloe Merriweather, a senior at Mountain View High School in Glendale, was commissioned to create the cheery mural as a way to spread love, kindness and community spirit in a time when people feel so disconnected. The 30-by-40-foot piece is located near the Vans Outlet store, Outlets at Anthem, 4250 W. Anthem...

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THE SCENE  As a pretty patient introvert, I’m much more likely to get JOMO (joy of missing out) than FOMO (fear of missing out). I get excited about new restaurants – and in “normal times” I am grateful to visit them during media previews – but I’m not someone who has to be among the first to try a place. I’m OK with waiting until the buzz abates, because crowds and lines made me itchy even before COVID-19.  My chill approach has held throughout the pandemic, even...