MOUTH BY SOUTHWEST

🍷 Downtown Mesa’s once-maligned food and drink scene just keeps getting better and better. The latest addition is Rebel Wine Lounge, an elegant wine bar with a sidewalk patio and occasional live music, on the northwest corner of Main and Macdonald, just across the street from the Nile Theatre. In addition to wines by the glass or bottle and craft beers, Rebel offers bar snacks, charcuterie boards, flatbreads, paninis, and desserts. There’s even a brunch menu on weekends.

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🌭 The Valley’s collective appetite for Chicago fare seems endless. So it’s not much of a surprise that Illinois-based Portillo’s has opened a seventh Valley location (all since 2013) at Prasada North on the northeast corner of the Loop 303 and Waddell in Surprise. The chain is popular for its Chicago-style hot dogs, Italian beef sandwiches, Italian sausages, and its signature chocolate cake.

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🍓 On the heels of opening its second Valley store in Fountain Hills in March, Florida-based Graze Craze has launched a third on the southwest corner of Thunderbird and 32nd Street in north Phoenix. The stores specialize in grazing boards and boxes featuring a mix of meats, cheeses, vegetables, fruits, crackers, baked goods, and sweets. A fourth location is coming soon to 16th Street and Campbell in Phoenix.

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🍺 Tempe brewery Catalyst Crafted Ales, which made its debut in October, has expanded by soft-opening a taproom in southeast Mesa. It takes over the former Cork Crush Wine & Beer House on the southeast corner of Ellsworth and Ray. Some remodeling work, including new signage, and Catalyst’s in-house restaurant, SALT (which stands for Sea and Land Tacos), are yet to be completed.

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🇮🇹 Little Joe’s Italian Market, a bricks-and-mortar spinoff of the East Coast Joe’s food truck, has opened in the former Matcha Grove space on the southeast corner of McQueen and Elliot in Gilbert. The menu features pizzas, pastas, and sandwiches to go. Owner and Bronx native Joseph Gerace (pictured) imports the flour, tomatoes, cured meats, hard cheeses, olive oil, and dry goods from Italy, while making the pizzas, pastas, mozzarella, tiramisu (pictured), and more in-house.

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