Author: Jess Harter

🍣 Yellowtail Sushi, which closed its popular Glendale restaurant near Bell Road and 83rd Avenue two years ago, has reopened on the northwest corner of the Loop 101 and 59th Avenue. The menu offers more than 40 sushi rolls, nigiri, sashimi,

🎲 Forks & Boards – a large restaurant and bar attached to Gamers Guild, one of the country’s largest gaming stores – has opened on the northeast corner of Bell Road and 19th Avenue in north Phoenix. The menu features salads,

🍨 Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream, a Youngstown, Ohio-based chain, opens its ninth Valley store today next to AJ’s Fine Foods on the southeast corner of Scottsdale and Lone Mountain roads in Cave Creek. Approximately four dozen flavors – such as blueberry

🌮 Blanco Cocina & Cantina, the Sonoran-style Mexican concept from restaurateur Sam Fox, opens its fifth Valley location – and the first in the West Valley – today at The Park at 83 near the southeast corner of the Loop

🍦 Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, a Columbus, Ohio-based chain that made its Arizona debut last year in Old Town Scottsdale, celebrates the opening of its second Valley scoop shop at the Scottsdale Quarter from 7-11 p.m. today with free scoops

🍩 Randy’s Donuts, a famed Los Angeles doughnut shop that has appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows, has opened its third Valley shop – all in the past six months – near the southeast corner of Queen Creek

🌮 Fire & Braids, which has done Mexican food pop-ups at Pinnacle Brewing for several months, has set up a semi-permanent trailer next to the north Scottsdale brewery’s biergarten. The seasonal menu currently features corn masa sopes topped with Michoacán-style

🇰🇷 Central BBQ House, a five-year-old Korean barbecue restaurant in south Phoenix, has opened a second location at The Lakes in south Tempe. It takes over the lakeside building formerly home to The Watershed (and, before that, Charlie Brown’s) on

🍔 After nine months of construction delays, Badlands Bar & Grill finally has opened in Queen Creek. The American elevated comfort food restaurant closed its original Tempe location in January and planned to reopen that same month in the former

💐 Eighteen-year-old entrepreneur Dylan Capshaw has opened a third Valley location of Stemistry, his unique concept that’s part coffee shop and part flower bouquet bar. It’s located in the Road Runner apartments near the southwest corner of McDowell Road and 68th

🍝 North Italia, the upscale-casual Italian restaurant that Fox Restaurant Concepts launched in 2002 in Tucson, opens its fourth Valley location today at The Park at 83 near the southeast corner of  the Loop 101 and Bell Road in Peoria.

🍺 Mother Tucker’s Tavern, a vintage dive bar-style hangout, has opened in the former Bevvy space on the northwest corner of Saddlebag Trail and Shoeman Lane in Old Town Scottsdale. A streamlined menu offers burgers, sandwiches, tacos, and salads. Like

🍩 Creampuff Donuts, a pastry and coffee shop from Pretty Decent Concepts (Wren & Wolf, Chico Malo, Trophy Room), has opened on the southeast corner of Buchanan and First streets in downtown Phoenix. Chef Lucia Alferez’s menu features a rotating

🍔 Scottsdale-based gastropub chain Thirsty Lion opens its fifth Valley restaurant today at the Westgate Entertainment District in Glendale. The two-story building – the Thirsty Lion’s largest in the Valley – has a dining area, bar, and patio on the ground

🥗 True Food Market, a fast-casual spinoff of True Food Kitchen, has opened at The Edge shopping center near the northeast corner of the Loop 101 and 90th Street in Scottsdale. True Food Market offers health-focused dine-in meals – breakfast

🥖 Cheba Hut, the Valley-born cannabis-themed sub shop, opens its ninth Arizona location – and first in Gilbert – on the southeast corner of Baseline and Higley roads today. The menu features more than 30 signature “toasted” subs and a variety

🍺 Mr Brews Taphouse, a Wisconsin-based chain of burger-and-beer eateries, opens its second Valley location today in northeast Mesa. It takes over the former B’s Fiesta Kitchen building in the Bashas’ plaza on the southeast corner of Ellsworth and Brown roads.

🇻🇳 KaĐa Vietnamese Coffee & Tea has taken over the former Boba Bliss space on the southeast corner of Gilbert and Williams Field roads in Gilbert. KaĐa serves a mix of classic Vietnamese iced coffee (cà phê sữa dá) with modern

🐓 Copper & Sage, a Southern-influenced gastropub that’s the newest concept from Westside Concepts (Haymaker, Cantina Gueros, Maple & Rye, etc.), has launched a second location at GSQ in downtown Goodyear. Copper & Sage made its debut in Phoenix in late

🔥 Etta, a two-year-old restaurant that closed for remodeling in July after being sold, has reopened at the Scottsdale Quarter. The revamped menu from chef Todd Mark Miller leans more Italian than the previous New American version but still focuses on

🥗 3Natives, a Florida-based chain of health-focused juice bars, has made its Arizona debut on the southeast corner of Tatum Boulevard and Thunderbird Road in east Phoenix. It takes over the space formerly home to Starbucks. The menu features acai

🥖 Taste of Philly, a Colorado-based sandwich delivery concept, has opened its first out-of-state location at the Tempe Food Court located a quarter-mile south of Tempe Marketplace. The menu offers nine varieties of Philly sandwiches, plus reubens, grinders, chicken tenders,

🇮🇳 Sampurna, a family-owned Indian restaurant that offers a lunch buffet from 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily, has opened on the southwest corner of Dobson and Warner roads in Chandler. It takes over the space formerly home to Ruchi Vegetarian South

🍔 Smash Grille, an elevated kosher eatery offering parve meals, has opened on the northwest corner of 16th Street and Bethany Home Road in north Phoenix. The menu includes nine smash burgers, chicken sandwiches and wings, and dinner platters (such

🥪 Lunch N Munch, a breakfast and lunch cafe, has opened on the northwest corner of University Drive and Power Road in northeast Mesa. (No relation to the similarly named breakfast and lunch cafe Munch A Lunch in Tempe.) Lunch

🌻 Flower Child, a fast-casual healthy concept, has opened its seventh Valley location at PV, the $2 billion redevelopment of the former Paradise Valley Mall near Cactus Road and Tatum Boulevard in Phoenix. The menu features salads, bowls, entrées, wraps,

🎸 The Stillery, a Nashville-based restaurant and bar with Southern comfort food and live country music, has opened its third Valley location at Goodyear’s new downtown mixed-use development called GSQ. It’s located near the northwest corner of McDowell Road and

📺 Backyard, the newest concept from Scottsdale-based Evening Entertainment Group, has opened its second Valley location near SanTan Village in Gilbert. Backyard, which made its Arizona debut in March at Desert Ridge Marketplace in Phoenix, takes over the former Sandbar

🇮🇹 The Italiano, the newest concept from restaurateur/chef Joey Maggiore (Hash Kitchen, The Sicilian Butcher, The Mexicano, The Rosticceria, etc.), opens today next to the Sprouts Farmers Market on the southeast corner of Shea Boulevard and 90th Street in central

🎲 Mox Boarding House, a Seattle-based restaurant and board games concept, opens with a 2 p.m. ribbon-cutting today in Chandler. It took over the former Social Box Neighborhood Eatery on Alma School Road between Warner and Ray roads in 2020,

🦬 The Frybread Lounge, which claims to be the first Indigenous-owned restaurant in Old Town Scottsdale, has opened on the southeast corner of Scottsdale Road and Main Street. It’s located next to sibling business Native Art Market. The menu from

🧑🏾‍🍳 The Larder & The Delta, the elevated Southern restaurant from chef/owner Stephen Jones, reopens today in midtown Phoenix. Jones, who lost his downtown Phoenix space last October, takes over the recently closed Binkley’s Restaurant on the northwest corner of

🧇 Central Bean Cafe, a family-run bakery specializing in ‘‘croffles’’ (croissant waffles, pictured) and Filipino pastries, has opened in uptown Phoenix. It takes over the space formerly home to Infinity Sweets bakery near the southeast corner of Central Avenue and

🍲 Top One Hot Pot & Asian Cuisine, a restaurant specializing in traditional hot pots, has opened at Superstition Springs on the northwest corner of Power and Baseline roads in east Mesa. Besides hot pots (including a mini version for solo

🥙 Spitz, a Los Angeles-based Mediterranean street food concept that made its Arizona debut last year, opens its third Valley location today near downtown Chandler. It takes over the former Roll-Em-Up Taquitos space on the southeast corner of Arizona Avenue and

🧋 Pu’er Taiwan Tea & Coffee, a Texas-based chain specializing in its namesake fermented variety of tea, has made its Arizona debut at the Agua Fria Towne Center on the northeast corner of the Loop 101 and Camelback Road in

☕️ San Diego-based Better Buzz Coffee launches its second Valley location at 5 a.m. Thursday in south Tempe. The store, which has a double drive-through, is located on the northwest corner of Kyrene and Elliot roads. Besides hot and cold coffee

🦞 Krazy Cajun Seafood & Hibachi, which debuted in Phoenix in 2021, has opened a second location in the Fry’s plaza on the northwest corner of Rural and Ray roads in south Tempe. Previous occupants of the space included Asian

🌮 The Guadalupe on Main, a modern Southwest restaurant with a focus on Jalisco-style dishes, has opened in central Mesa. It takes over the building formerly home to Casa Ramos Redux, which closed last month, on the north side of

🍕 Little Ray’s Pizzeria, a family-owned Italian restaurant, has opened on the northeast corner of Beardsley Road and 59th Avenue in Glendale. New York-style pizzas range from traditional thin-crust to Sicilian thick-crust (pictured). In addition to pizzas and calzones, the