Daily Newsletter

🇲🇽 Tulum Modern Mexican, a fine-dining restaurant inspired by the popular Mexican beach city of Tulum, has opened at the Westgate Entertainment District in Glendale.

It’s located on the second level in WaterDance Plaza, next to Kabuki Japanese Restaurant.

Tulum’s menu offers a variety of seafood, grilled meats, specialty cocktails, and more featuring high-quality products and locally sourced ingredients.

Open for dinner Monday-Friday and lunch and dinner Saturday-Sunday.

Friday: Sicilian dinner at Dolce Vita in Mesa

🇮🇹 Dolce Vita, a family-run Italian restaurant, gelato shop, and grocery in northeast Mesa, is hosting a three-course Sicilian Night dinner from 4-8 p.m. Friday. Diners can choose from two pasta dishes and two entrees. Cost is $60 per person ($50 without wine).

Ahwatukee Nello’s launches weekday lunch deal

🍕 Nello’s Pizza in Ahwatukee has launched a new weekday lunch special: Get an 8-inch two-topping pizza or select half sandwich, a side salad or soup of the day, and a soft drink or iced tea for $12.95. The special is available 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday.

Salad and Go launches 5th location in Tucson

🥗 Salad and Go, the Gilbert-born drive-through concept, opens its fifth Tucson location today at Campbell and Fort Lowell. The fast-growing chain, which offers chef-designed salads and wraps, was founded in 2013 and is nearing 100 locations in four states.

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Award-winning Bryan’s Black Mountain Barbecue wraps up its 14-year run in Cave Creek with a Going Away Party from 4-9 p.m. Saturday.

Owners Bryan and Donna Dooley announced the barbecue joint’s impending closure in February.

Saturday’s celebration will feature a buffet with all of BBMB’s smoked meats, sides, bread/buns, and sauces for $20 per person ($10 for children 10 and younger).

In addition, there will be birthday cake and live music. No menu ordering or takeout will be available.

A merchandise table will be selling T-shirts, signed Phoenix Cooks cookbooks, stickers, sauces, rubs, and more while supplies last.

Saturday: Downtown Phoenix Urban Wine Walk

🍷 The 11th annual Urban Wine Walk in downtown Phoenix takes place from 1-5 p.m. Saturday. Each of the 27 participating locations on the self-guided tour will offer a $5 wine sample accompanied by a free snack. There’s no tour charge, and no registration is necessary.

Saturday: AZ Craft Spirits Festival in Gilbert

🥃 Meet distillers, enjoy free spirits samples, and buy bottles from the state’s top distilleries at the Arizona Craft Spirits Festival from 2-6 p.m. Saturday at The Park next to OHSO Brewery in downtown Gilbert. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 on the day of.

AZ Wilderness Brewing partners with Quail

🍺 Acclaimed Arizona Wilderness Brewing has signed an agreement with Quail Distributing to disburse the Gilbert-based brewery’s nature-inspired ales to a wider audience throughout Arizona beginning in May.

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💎 Quartz, the Valley’s newest ‘‘immersive cocktail experience,’’ opens at 4 p.m. today in a storefront space on the southeast corner of Van Buren and Fourth Avenue in downtown Phoenix.

It’s the first standalone bar from Instrumental Hospitality (Belly Kitchen & Bar, Sin Muerte) in partnership with Chuckie Duff (Cobra Arcade Bar, Ziggy’s Pizza, The Rebel Lounge).

The 2,000-square-foot cocktail lounge features a glowing main bar with a mirror-like brass bar top floating beneath a giant rock-slab ceiling.

The bar offers a dozen gemstone-inspired specialty cocktails, three mocktails, wine, and beer.

Tucked behind the bar, a high-end desert-inspired lounge, The Cave at Quartz, is a mirrored rose-gold arched crystal cave with private booths accessible by reservation only.

Quartz is open 4-midnight Sunday-Thursday and 4 p.m.-1 a.m. Friday-Saturday.

LA Crab Shack launches 2nd location in Peoria

🦀 LA Crab Shack, which debuted at AZ International Marketplace in Mesa in 2017, has launched a second location on the northwest corner of Peoria and 67th Avenue in Peoria. (The ‘‘LA’’ stands for Lousiana, not Los Angeles.) Open for lunch and dinner daily.

Brillé Mead Company makes debut in Tucson

🍻 Brillé Mead Company, Arizona’s fifth commercial meadery and the first in Tucson, has opened. Brillé, which specializes in Ethiopian-style mead known as T’ej, has set up inside the Dillinger Brewing production facility and shares the brewery’s Oracle Road taproom.

Hidden House in Chandler closed this weekend

🔒 In a somewhat unusual move for a restaurant its size, The Hidden House in downtown Chandler will be closed this Friday and Saturday in order to host private events. The high-end New American restaurant will reopen to the public at 11 a.m. Sunday.

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🌮 After a long and unlikely journey, Casa Ramos has reopened on the north side of Main Street, between Stapley and Gilbert, in central Mesa after a six-year absence.

Ben Ramos debuted Casa Ramos in Heber in 2006. His son, Kenny, opened a Mesa spinoff of the Mexican sit-down restaurant in 2011, but it closed in 2017.

Then its successor, La Patrona Mexican Cuisine, was destroyed by fire 🔥 in 2020.

Re-enter Casa Ramos, which decided to open an all-new Casa Ramos built on the same site by Valley-based Laurshan Inc.

Open for dinner Monday and Wednesday-Friday and lunch and dinner Saturday-Sunday.

Another pasta-to-go concept debuts in Gilbert

🍝 Pasta Joint, yet another concept offering pasta, garlic bread, and meatball subs to go (similar to By the Bucket), has opened on the northwest corner of Higley and Queen Creek in southeast Gilbert. Open for dinner Monday-Friday and lunch and dinner Saturday.

Newly hired Röllich revamps Fat Ox cocktails

🍸 L.A. cocktail guru Christiaan Röllich, author of award-nominated ‘‘Bar Chef – Handcrafted Cocktails,’’ has signed on as bar director of chef Matt Carter’s Fat Ox, The Mission, and Zinc Bistro.  His first lineup of eight $18 seasonal cocktails has rolled out at Fat Ox.

Saturday: Original Taste Food and Wine Event

🎟 The Original Taste Food and Wine Event celebrates its 50th year from 7-11 p.m. Saturday at the Scottsdale Civic Center. Tickets are $200 for general admission and $500 for VIP, which covers all tastings and entertainment. You can buy tickets here.

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🍔 Paradise Valley Burger Company, which has been serving up award-winning burgers in north Phoenix for the last 12 years, has opened a second location on the southwest corner of Rural and Baseline in south Tempe.

The strip-mall space briefly was home to a Matty G’s and, before that, a Smashburger.

Owner and chef Mark Shapiro’s menu offers specialty burgers – including its signature Brulee Burger on a burnt-sugar bun (pictured) – as well as sandwiches, tacos, salads, and ice cream.

Since opening in 2011, P.V. Burger Co. has won awards from nearly every Valley media outlet. In 2015, it was featured on the Food Network’s ‘‘Diners, Drive-ins & Dives.’’

Open for lunch and dinner daily.

Twin Peaks soft-opens 5th location in Valley

🏀 Twin Peaks, a Dallas-based chain of sports bars, has opened its fifth Valley location in the former Claim Jumper building on the southeast corner of the 101 and 31st Avenue in Deer Valley. Open for dinner only through this Friday, then open for lunch and dinner daily.

Correction: New link for Flagstaff Beer Festival

🎟 Monday’s post about the Flagstaff Beer Festival, formerly known as Made in the Shade, on Saturday, June 10, at the Pepsi Amphitheater in Flagstaff had an incorrect link for tickets. You can buy tickets, which are discounted until the end of April, here.

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🍝 Old-school Italian restaurant Tomaso’s on Camelback, a Phoenix institution for nearly a half-century, announced it will close May 20.

Tomaso Maggiore and his wife, Patricia, opened the restaurant on the southeast corner of Camelback and 32nd Street in 1977.

Tomaso Maggiore died of cancer in 2021. His family plans to continue his legacy with a new restaurant, Il Massetos, on the northwest corner of Camelback and 32nd Street in 2024.

Maggiore’s son, Joey, has launched several successful concepts, including Hash Kitchen, The Sicilian Butcher, The Sicilian Baker, and The Mexicano.

Maggiore’s daughter, Melissa Maggiore-Meyer, founded The Italian Daughter.

For its final week, Tomaso’s plans to bring back original menu items at the original prices from 1977.

BlackSheep Wine Bar introduces Monday deal

🍷 BlackSheep Wine Bar & Merchant in downtown Chandler has introduced a new special on Monday nights. From 6-10 p.m. you can enjoy a featured bottle of wine, a half-order of bruschetta (two pieces), and a dessert for only $25.

Steel Cactus Brewing launches Industry Night

🍺 Recently opened Gilbert brewery Steel Cactus has launched an Industry Night on Mondays. All their beers will be just $5. The  brewery’s taproom is located in the Commerce Park business center on the south side of Guadalupe halfway between Cooper and Gilbert.

Flagstaff Beer Festival tickets finally go on sale

🎟 Tickets belatedly have gone on sale for the Flagstaff Beer Festival, formerly known as Made in the Shade, on Saturday, June 10, at the Pepsi Amphitheater in Flagstaff. You can buy tickets, which are discounted until the end of April because of the delay, here.

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Las Vegas-based Sugar Factory, a celebrity-favored restaurant, bar, ice cream bar, and candy store, will make its Arizona debut May 1 at Westgate Entertainment District in Glendale.

A huge menu features lots of savory items – burgers, sandwiches, tacos, pasta, steaks, and more – including several over-the-top items like a 24K Gold Burger for $150.

The menu also offers fish-bowl-sized cocktails designed by celebrities like Pitbull, Nick Jonas, 50 Cent, Bruno Mars, and Kevin Hart.

The biggest draw, however, are the sweets, including Sugar Factory’s signature candy wall, candy heart lounge, and candy store. (Pictured: Cookie Monster milkshake.)

Food & Wine Magazine calls Sugar Factory ‘‘the most Instagrammed restaurant in the United States.’’

The Westgate location will be Sugar Factory’s 23rd in the U.S. along with five overseas.

Olive Blossom Festival at Queen Creek Olive Mill

Enjoy live music, shop at special vendors, try the new late-harvest EVOO, and see the groves in full bloom when Queen Creek Olive Mill hosts its annual Olive Blossom Festival from 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free.

Win free beer for year at BRI Taproom & Arcade

 Beer Research Institute Taproom & Arcade in downtown Mesa will celebrate its one-year anniversary Saturday with $4 BRI draft beers, a new beer release (Special When Lite light lager), food trucks, a DJ, and more. One lucky person will win free beer for a year.

Hair of the Dog celebrates 2-year anniversary

Gilbert craft beer bar Hair of the Dog will host its two-year anniversary party from 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday with the Goat & Ram and SALT food trucks, a DJ, live music, axe-throwing, and dog photography. Admission is free.

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🏈 Arizona Wilderness Brewing releases Strong Safety, a hazy triple IPA to benefit the Pat Tillman Foundation, on draft and in cans today at its Gilbert and downtown Phoenix locations.

In honor of Tillman’s number (42) when he played football for ASU,  it’s brewed with 4.2 pounds per barrel of Yakima Chief Hops’ Veterans Blend as well as Idaho 7 and Simcoe.

The heavily hopped beer has notes of peach, mandarin orange, and Juicy Fruit gum.

A percentage of every pint and can sold will be donated to the Tillman Foundation, providing scholarships to military service members, veterans, and spouses.

Flower Child, Blanco & North coming to Tempe

🌼 Fox Restaurant Concepts announced it will open new locations of Flower Child, Blanco Cocina & Cantina, and North Italia at The Novus Innovation Corridor on the northwest corner of Rural and University in Tempe, but not until the second half of 2024.

Saturday: Foodstock food truck fest in Peoria

🚚 More than 55 food trucks will offer $3 samples at Foodstock 2023, which will run 4-10 p.m. Saturday at Peoria Sports Complex. There will be a full bar, bounce houses, a splashpad, a playground, and face painting. Admission is $5 (free for kids 12 and under).

‘3rd Tuesday’ pairing at Romeo’s Euro Cafe

🍷 Romeo’s Euro Cafe in downtown Gilbert will host its monthly ‘‘3rd Tuesday’’ food and wine pairing – featuring three new seasonal dishes paired with three wines – at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. See this month’s menu. RSVP: Romeo@EuroCafe.com or 480-962-4224.

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