Valley NewsBusiness Buzz: Brewing Business
Teresa MedranoSeptember 26, 2019
After a successful few years in Phoenix, The Teapot is expanding – to Baltimore.
Food ReviewsSpace Case: Welcome Diner
Nikki BuchananSeptember 26, 2019
Artist and entrepreneur Sloane McFarland opened the original Welcome Diner in a renovated Valentine diner on Roosevelt Row in 2004, aspiring to mingle his interests in community development and the emerging farm-to-table movement.
CultureThe PHiXPhoenix Unknown Showcases the Valley’s International Food and Music
Madison RutherfordSeptember 13, 2019
Once Charlie Levy and his team found out that more than 160 different languages are spoken in Phoenix, they knew they had to do something to showcase the city’s diversity. “We were just discussing how there’s so many different cultures and people from all over that live in Phoenix and how little we knew about this,” says Levy, who owns popular Downtown haunts The Van Buren and Crescent Ballroom. Enter Phoenix Unknown: World Food and...
The PHiXDowntown Phoenix Featured in New Disney Film
Cody FitzpatrickSeptember 11, 2019
The calendar may have only just flipped to September, but Phoenicians—and Disney fans—already have one great excuse to get into the holiday spirit early: Downtown Phoenix (and possibly the Glendale Tanger Outlets mall) features in the upcoming Disney holiday comedy Noelle, starring Anna Kendrick and Bill Hader. For obvious reasons, Arizona typically gets a raw deal when it comes to representation in Christmas movies—why have one set here when the Valley doesn’t look classically Christmas-y?...
Desert DigestOpenings/ClosingsSuperstition Meadery Set to Open in Downtown Phoenix Next Year
Marilyn HawkesAugust 29, 2019
In spring 2020, Downtown Phoenix will welcome a new branch of one of Arizona’s more unique businesses, Superstition Meadery, owned by Jeff and Jen Herbert. The original meadery and tasting room is located in downtown Prescott. If you don’t know what mead is, you’re not alone. Mead is wine made from honey, but it’s not all sweet, Jeff explains. When you visit the tasting room, the Herberts and staff will give you the lowdown on...
I love birthdays and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Yes, I am the type of person who declares that it’s their “birthday month.” Yes, I like to plan out how I’m going to celebrate weeks in advance. Yes, I enjoy having one day a year when I can bask in gifts and compliments – let a girl live! Hence, here is my guide to planning a unique birthday party in the greater Phoenix area....
ArtsArtistic Evolution
Lisa Van LooAugust 22, 2019
Artlink ups the ante on First Fridays with a connector hub for cars and a hotel art lab.
Food ReviewsAnhelo
Nikki BuchananAugust 22, 2019
Set in historical Heritage Square, this new chef-run restaurant excels with small bites, but over-punches a bit with pricey entrées.
I know it might seem odd that the person who’s written a blog about an introvert’s night out and an introvert’s date night is now writing about dancing in a crowded room filled with strangers, but trust me, it’s actually a really good time. If you’ve paid even the slightest bit of attention to your Facebook feed in the past few years, you’ve probably seen people mark themselves as “interested” or “going” to themed dance...
These rooftop bars in Downtown Phoenix offer fresh air, great food and festivities for days.
Food & DrinkThe Farish House
Nikki BuchananJune 20, 2019
A historical home in Roosevelt Row roars back to life as a pan-European bistro.
Downtown Phoenix has just added another culinary luminary to its roster: James Beard award-winning Chef Alex Stratta has recently taken over as culinary director at MATCH: Restaurant & Cocktails inside the chic and arty FOUND:RE Hotel.
Stratta’s storied career includes stints at Mary Elaine’s at The Phoenician, ALEX and Stratta restaurants inside the Wynn Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, as well as Prado at the Omni Montelucia Resort in Scottsdale. His accomplishments include a coveted two-star rating by the Michelin Guide (three times over, in fact, for his namesake restaurant ALEX in Las Vegas) and Stratta was once named Food and Wine Magazine’s Best New Chef.
First on his to-do list at MATCH is to completely revamp the menu, which skewed to a "global street food" theme (and didn't wow our dining critic). Ahead of Stratta's menu debut in September, PHOENIX caught up with the guy who most recently raised eyebrows by hanging his hat at the respectable but decidedly un-showy and non-James Beard-y The Herb Box.
LiteraryThe 5 Zines We Loved Best at PHX Zine Fest 2016
Lauren LoftusOctober 27, 2016
The first PHX Zine Fest introduced Downtown Phoenix to dozens of West Coast zine makers Sunday afternoon.
Zines are self-published, DIY magazines – equal parts grandma’s craft closet and anarchic punk concert (basically, on the opposite end of the spectrum as PHOENIX magazine). Find them at art walks, festivals and independent bookstores and music venues (or, make your own in this easy how-to from Rookie magazinie).
Here are our five favorite zines, both for their unique qualities and for how they exemplified key zine traits: DIY spirit, advocacy, creativity and humor:
Forget white-gloved bellhops or the overly enthusiastic, suck-up lobby attendants of Amy Schumer skits, the first to greet you upon arrival at FOUND:RE Phoenix is a lot more casual than those at some stuffy Scottsdale resorts or old-school Downtown high rises: a naked Burt Reynolds in a golden wig on a bearskin rug.
DIG IT Urban Gardens + Nursery is so Downtown Phoenix. The boutique nursery on 16th Street, just north of Thomas, sits on a small lot with lots of desert flora framed by a cement box of a shop covered in a bright mural of a skeleton with a saguaro growing out of its head. Co-founder Ryan Jerrell says when he and his business partner Tim Bishop launched in the fall of 2015, they wanted to offer Phoenix urbanites a break from the big box stores where they usually buy their trendy succulents. “A garden center should be a place where people can come on their lunch break” and have a more “hang-out vibe,” Jerrell says.
Celebrating DIG IT's one year anniversary this weekend with a birthday party, Jerrell hopped on the phone with me to answer some questions about the growth of urban gardening (and give me a tip or two on my pesky habit of killing every green thing I come in contact with).