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It’s National Pita Day & other food news tidbits

By Jess Harter Friday, March 29, 2024

🥙 It’s National Pita Day! Pita Jungle is donating $1 from every pita sandwich sold today at its 23 Arizona locations to local non-profit Waste Not, whose mission is creating sustainable food systems that help people and the planet flourish.

🐓 Saturday is National Hot Chicken Day! Angry Chickz is celebrating by offering $3 sliders from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. The fast-food chain’s only Valley restaurant is on the northwest corner of Bell and 51st Avenue in Glendale.

🍸 Monday is April Fools Day! Bar Louie at Tempe Marketplace and Westgate in Glendale will be selling martinis for half-price all day. No joking.

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🥢 Mott 32, one of world’s most acclaimed Chinese restaurants, will open its second U.S. location at the upcoming Ritz-Carlton Paradise Valley, the centerpiece of a master-planned community called The Palmeraie.

Mott 32 was founded in Hong Kong and has eight locations worldwide. The only current U.S. restaurant is at The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas.

What’s on the menu?

The resort’s showcase restaurant, which will be open for lunch and dinner daily, will serve traditional Cantonese dishes with some Beijing and Szechuan influences.

Menu highlights will include its signature 42-day applewood-roasted Peking duck carved tableside ($128, lower left) and barbecue pluma Iberico pork glazed with yellow mountain honey ($48, lower center).

An expansive dim sum selection will feature steamed, fried, and baked dumplings, including a soft quail egg placed inside an Iberico pork siu mai with black truffle ($14 for two, lower right).

The space

The 4,600-square-foot restaurant, located on the northwest corner of Scottsdale and Lincoln, will have a 4,100-square-foot patio.

Did you know?

Mott 32 is named for 32 Mott Street, the address of New York’s first Chinese convenience store, which opened in 1891.

The timeline

The Ritz-Carlton and Mott 32 are expected to be completed around the end of this year.

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☕️ Empower Coffee Roasters, which Denise and Zach Gamza (pictured) launched in 2020 with a mission to empower women through education and opportunity, has opened a bricks-and-mortar cafe on the southeast corner of Southern and Gilbert in Mesa.

What’s on the menu?

Drip coffee ($3.50-$4.50), espresso ($3.50), latte ($5-$6), mocha ($5.50-$6.50), cappucino ($5), Americano ($4-$5), macchiato ($4.50), cortado ($4.50), cold brew ($5), nitro c old brew ($6), chai ($6), matcha ($6), and more.

Empower sources its beans from women-owned farms and donates 5% of all sales to local organizations that empower women and girls.

If you go

📌 Empower Coffee Roasters, 1337 S. Gilbert Road #120, Mesa, 347-813-1733. Open 8 a. m.-3 p.m. Tuesday-Friday.

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🍣 Zu Izakaya, an eight-year-old Tempe kitchen and bar offering Asian fusion cuisine and sushi, has opened a second location in the Sprouts shopping center on the northeast corner of Tatum and Cactus in northeast Phoenix.

What’s on the menu?

Small plates ($3.50-$11.95), salads ($3.95-$14.95), ramen and other noodle dishes ($12.95-$15.95), hot pots ($13.95-$17.95), skewers ($2.95-$5.50), tempura ($7.95-$10.95), grilled meats ($13.95-$17.95), and dinner entrees ($14.95-$19.95).

The sushi menu includes nigiri ($4-$8.95 for two pieces), sashimi ($10-$20 for five pieces), classic rolls ($5.50-$10.50), specialty rolls ($9.95-$15.95), poke bowls ($13.95), and more.

A raw bar features a daily selection of oysters.

The space

Formerly home to Shogun, one of the Valley’s first sushi bars, which closed last year after 41 years in business.

If you go

📌 Zu Izakaya, 12615 N. Tatum Blvd., Phoenix, 602-675-0512. Open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday.

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🍺 Adam and Alicia Vath, owners of home brewing supply store What’s Ale’s Ya in Glendale, have launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund a taproom with an instructional brewery.

What’s the plan?

Eight years ago, the Vaths (pictured) approached What Ale’s Ya owner Chuck Therio with the idea of integrating his homebrew store into a taproom and brewery. Instead, Therio decided to retire and sell the store to the Vaths in 2021.

To accomplish the second part of their dream, the Vaths now have signed a lease for a new space in north Phoenix they’re calling Hopsology Brewhouse & Taproom.

Fundraising goal

Glendale home brewing supply store owners launch Kickstarter to open taproom & breweryThe Kickstarter campaign’s goal is $20,000, mainly to build a walk-in cooler to feed 20 taps. As of Wednesday, it had raised nearly $6,000.

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📺 Tim Finnegan’s, an Irish restaurant and pub in Glendale, is the latest Valley establishment to reveal it will be featured on the April 5 episode of the Food Network’s ‘‘Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.’’

The episode, ‘‘Phoenix Food Fans,’’ also will spotlight Bonfire Craft Kitchen & Tap House in south Tempe and CRUjiente Tacos in Arcadia.

Showtimes vary depending on your TV provider.

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🍨 Gelato Cimmino, a locally owned gelato shop that opened in Old Town Scottsdale in 2018, has launched its long-in-the-works second location on the northeast corner of Gilbert and Vaughn (just north of OHSO Brewery) in downtown Gilbert.

Owner Mario Cimmino grew up in Torre Del Greco, an Italian city well-known for its tradition of gelato.

What’s on the menu?

More than a dozen flavors of gelato, such as dark chocolate, hazelnut, pistachio, cinnamon, and coconut ($4.50-$6.50). The gelatos are made from scratch using ingredients sourced directly from Italy.

Besides gelato, the menu offers a variety of coffee drinks, including affogato (gelato topped with hot espresso) and Chocolate Dream (milk chocolate gelato and chilled coffee topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings).

The space

Formerly the home of Western Audio stereo repair. It’s right next door to Creamistry, which creates customized ice creams with liquid nitrogen, and just across the street from Peterson’s Ice Cream & Cafe.

If you go

📌 Cimmino Gelato, 339 N. Gilbert Road, Gilbert, 480-457-9016. Open 1-10 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, noon-11 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, noon-10 p.m. Sunday.

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🥢 Number 1 Buffet, an all-you-eat Chinese restaurant, has opened at the Gateway Crossing shopping center on the northwest corner of I-10 and 99th Avenue in Avondale.

What’s on the menu?

A huge buffet of Chinese dishes (well, mostly Americanized Chinese dishes) with a salad bar, soup station, sushi station, habachi station, and a dessert bar.

Adult prices: Lunch (until 3:30 p.m.) is $12.99 Monday-Friday, $15.99 Saturday, an $17.99 Sunday. Dinner is $15.99 Monday-Thursday and $17.99 Friday-Sunday. (Kids’ prices vary by age.)

Beverage options include sake, beer, and wine.

If you go

📌 Number 1 Buffet, 10125 W. McDowell Road, Avondale, 623- 907-2111. Open 10:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. daily.

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🥟 Lovesack Dumpling, the funky storefront eatery that opened on Roosevelt Row in downtown Phoenix last month, is changing its name to Lovebite Dumpling.

The move comes after a lawsuit threat from furniture company Lovesac.

Lovebite offers boxes of Asian-style dumplings – pork, chicken, shrimp, or veggie – to go.

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