Author: Jess Harter

🍔 California-based microbrewery chain BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse officially opens its sixth Valley location today in Queen Creek. It’s located in front of Costco in the new Queen Creek Crossing Plaza on the northwest corner of Ellsworth and Queen Creek.

🍺 Sana Sana Cerveceria, a new craft brewery honoring the owners’ Mexican-American heritage, has soft-opened on Roosevelt Row in downtown Phoenix. It’s located near the southeast corner of Roosevelt and Fourth streets behind Modified Arts and just west of Greenwood Brewing and Il

🍚 Ricemill, a new Asian-inspired fast-casual concept, is scheduled to open Saturday in downtown Phoenix. The 1,789-square-foot restaurant will be located at the Collier Center near the southeast corner of Second Street and Washington. Ricemill’s menu features chef-curated rice bowls like

🐆 Filthy Animal – the latest concept from Pretty Decent Concepts, the team behind Phoenix hot spots Wren & Wolf, Chico Malo, and Carry On – has soft-opened in downtown Tempe. The wood-fired restaurant and its soon-to-open sibling cocktail bar

🐖 Liquor Pig, a much-anticipated gastropub from industry veterans Scott Casey and Steve ‘‘Chops’’ Smith, officially opens at 4 p.m. Friday in Old Town Scottsdale. It takes over the small brick building near the southeast corner of Scottsdale and Fourth

☕️ Jolt N Bolt, an independent coffeehouse and cafe, has opened on the northeast corner of Recker and Guadalupe in Gilbert. Besides a full range of coffee drinks, the beverage options include smoothies, shakes, juices, and lemonade. All-day breakfast features

🍔 Bad Jimmy’s, a pandemic-era burger pop-up that opened a bricks-and-mortar Phoenix restaurant in 2023, has launched a second location in Old Town Scottsdale. It takes over the former Starlite BBQ & Whiskey Bar on the northeast corner of Indian School and

🌮 Cali Tacos, a California-based chain of Mexican eateries, has opened its sixth Valley location on the southwest corner of Bethany Home and 75th Avenue in Glendale. The menu offers tacos on a choice of corn or flour tortillas ($2.49-$3.99),

🧆 Faava, a fast-casual Mediterranean restaurant, opens today behind Chandler Fashion Center on the southeast corner of Chandler Village Drive and Frye. It’s situated next to fine-dining restaurant Feringhee Modern Indian Cuisine. Both are part of the Zest Hospitality Group.

🌮 Dos Victorias, a Mexican restaurant in Monterey, Calif., has opened a second location in the former Los Favoritos space on the southeast corner of Kyrene and Ray in west Chandler. The counter-service menu features 15 burritos (plus seven breakfast

🏠 The Pemberton, a popular outdoor food hall and entertainment venue in downtown Phoenix that closed last March, has reopened with a new look. The original concept, which opened in 2021, featured rotating food trucks, funky art displays and retail

⛹️‍♀️ Title 9 Sports Grill, Phoenix’s first women-focused sports bar, has opened near the northeast corner of Indian School and Seventh Avenue in central Phoenix. It takes over the former Short Leash Hotdogs & Taproom, which closed in December. Title 9’s menu

🍣 Blue Sushi Sake Grill, an Omaha, Neb.-based chain of Japanese restaurants focused on responsibly caught and humanely raised seafood, has opened its second Valley location at the Village at Prasada in Surprise. The concept from the Flagship Restaurant Group made