Over the past couple of quarantined weeks, I’ve written about making your own happy hour spread at home and I’ve rounded up some great takeout happy hour options so you can #supportlocal while you #stayhome. Now, I suppose I’ll start making my own way through said takeout options. (Though if you have questions or suggestions on DIY happy hours at home, I’m all ears! Email me at leah.lemoine@phoenixmag.com.)  I should have taken this week’s Happy Hour To Go blog as an opportunity to try a new restaurant. I haven’t encountered one of those in a...

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Last week I wrote about creating your own happy hour spread at home with DIY snack plates and cocktails using the provisions you have on hand. This week, I’m highlighting where you can pick up cocktails – in their completed forms or in components to mix yourself at home – from local businesses to keep supporting them during this truly insane time. Plenty more places are offering these things, so find your favorite local restaurants and bars on social media to see their up-to-date...

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Good lord, what a week. I don’t know about you, but I need a drink.   Normally for this recurring blog, I’d visit a local restaurant during happy hour and report back to you with all of the details – the vibe, the discounted drinks, the most delicious dishes and any “insider secrets” I can scrounge up. This week, of course, nothing is normal. Some restaurants are closing – some for the time being, some potentially for good – while many more have transitioned...

THE SCENE You can see Agave del Scottsdale from the street at the corner of North Hayden Road and East Via de Ventura – it has a lovely patio looking out onto North Scottsdale – but once you turn into the labyrinthine Mercado on Hayden plaza, it can be challenging to locate. Tip: It’s between Village Coffee Roastery and Mail and Parcel Express, on the ground floor – don’t be distracted by the elevator. Inside,...

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Agave Del Scottsdale On February 22, the Mango, Spicy Cucumber and Tamarindo margaritas will be served at $8. Agave Del Scottsdale offers eight different types of tacos for lunch including pork tacos, seafood tacos, and a vegetarian taco option. Ghost Ranch From 1-6 p.m. on National Margarita Day, Ghost Ranch will have $5 margaritas including its classic Ghost Ranch Margarita, spicy Pina Picante or fruity Chilton. Choose one of their taco platters that is served...

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 I must admit my bias at the start: The Hermosa Inn is one of my happy places. I’ve covered political fundraisers there, enjoyed romantic staycations with my beloved there (we even brought our firstborn fur son one year, since the hotel is dog-friendly) and feasted on countless media dinners and happy hours with friends and colleagues there. I even wrote a profile of owner Ron Allred (and his lovely wife, Joyce) a couple...

THE SCENE There’s a very “young Scottsdale” vibe at Hand Cut Burgers & Chophouse at Scottsdale Waterfront. The décor is polished, but energetic – shiny wood floors and tables, white subway tiles, bright yellow high-top stools perched on squares of faux grass, a green wall festooned with golden cow heads, a white tile bar with cushy black leather stools. It’s fun and eye-popping, with splashes of emerald and daffodil everywhere. The staff and clientele are...

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 &...

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Once upon a time, three finicky foodies met up for happy hour at what they’d heard was a hot new restaurant in town. The restaurant had tagged one of the ladies’ social media accounts incessantly in its posts leading up to its opening – a misguided attempt to generate buzz that left her feeling more besieged than intrigued – and they had high hopes. After ordering wine and glancing at the menu, they were underwhelmed. The...

“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.