Category: Media

The MXSW website experienced a major meltdown over the weekend due to a malware attack and a WordPress update that was incompatible with some of the site’s coding. The good news is all the stories and photos have been restored.

Las Vegas-based TikTok sensation Keith Lee made good on last week’s promise to visit Arizona, posting reviews of several Valley restaurants this week for his 15.9 million followers on the platform. Where did he go? His first review was Republica

📲 Keith Lee, the former MMA fighter turned food critic whose TikTok videos are followed by more than 15 million people, is coming to check out restaurants in Arizona. Recommendations sought In a social media post, Lee says he’s looking

🔪 Valley chefs Matt Jordan and Gio Osso will face off tonight on the Food Network’s “SuperChef Grudge Match” with the winner getting the loser’s favorite knife and $10,000. Jordan (left) is a corporate chef for Nestle Professional. Osso (right)

🏆 Another day, another list of restaurant rankings. This time it’s Esquire’s annual list of the Best New Restaurants in America, and two downtown Phoenix restaurants are among this year’s 50 honorees. One is Chilte, the Mexican restaurant at the

⌨️ Great news for those who are passionate about the Valley’s food scene: Former AZCentral restaurant critic Dominic Armato has resurrected his food discussion website PHXfoodnerds. The bulletin board-style site explores categories such as Phoenix Eats; Kitchen, Market & Garden; Events

🎬 ‘‘Uncanny Valley,’’ a docuseries going behind the scenes of the local restaurant industry, launches online today with the first episode featuring Asian fusion restaurant Belly Kitchen & Bar. The episode won best documentary/short documentary at the Toronto Indie Shorts, Santa

Dominic Armato, who critiqued restaurants for the Arizona Republic and AZCentral.com from 2015-2020 before resigning to take a much-needed break from the business, has hooked up with the alt-weekly Phoenix New Times, where he will write one monthly review on

Kudos to Craft 64, which earned a respectable 7.5 rating during a visit by Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy over the weekend. 🍕 Aside from his online sports conglomerate, Portnoy has cult following for his YouTube show ‘‘One Bite Pizza

Edible Phoenix, an award-winning quarterly magazine that chronicles the Valley’s slow-food scene, has a new owner and editor, assuring the 17-year-old periodical will live on. 🚜 What it covers: The abundance of local foods in Phoenix with articles featuring farmers,

Roberto Centeno, co-owner of Espiritu in downtown Mesa and grill master at Bacanora in downtown Phoenix, won Tuesday’s episode of ‘‘Chopped’’ on the Food Network. The competiton: Centeno and three other chefs experienced in live-fire 🔥 cooking competed in three

Edible Phoenix, the award-winning quarterly magazine that chronicles the Valley’s slow-food scene, is up for sale because publisher and editor Pamela Hamilton plans to retire next month. The history: Edible Phoenix, which Hamilton launched in 2005, is part of Edible

Pastry chef Lola Forbes from Spooky’s Swirls, a horror- and sci-fi-themed bakery in Chandler, competes tonight in the Season 8 opener of ‘‘Halloween Baking Championship’’ on the Food Network. The show: Twelve bakers create spooky or creepy treats for three

Bacanora, the acclaimed Mexican restaurant in downtown Phoenix, has been named to Bon Appetit’s annual list of the 50 Best New Restaurants in the U.S. The history: Former Ghost Ranch chef Rene Andrade partnered with Armando Hernandez and Nadia Holguin of Tacos Chiwas

Pizzeria Bianco founder Chris Bianco will be one of the subjects of ‘‘Chef’s Table Pizza,’’ a new spinoff of Netflix’s popular documentary series ‘‘Chef’s Table.’’ The six-episode spinoff, which debuts Sept. 7, will feature six of the world’s most famous pizza

Bravo’s Emmy-winning reality series ‘‘Top Chef,’’ which has spent most of its 19th season in Houston, moves to Tucson for the final two episodes. Featured guests will include Carlotta Flores of legendary El Charro Cafe, Don Guerra of Barrio Bread,

Now in my 12th year writing Mouth by Southwest, my strategy for covering Phoenix metro area restaurants, breweries, and bars has been simple: Short, to-the-point posts focusing on openings, closings, and events. It’s what analytics tell me readers want, and

The Food Network’s ‘‘Restaurant: Impossible’’ and host Robert Irvine will revisit Ginger Monkey Gastropub, the south Chandler restaurant and bar it featured in February 2020, in a new episode airing Thursday, March 31. Ginger Monkey, located on the southwest corner

Valley chef Lawrence “L.T.” Smith, whose resume includes stints at Tempe Public Market Cafe and Ghost Ranch, will compete on Tuesday night’s ‘‘Chocolate Frenzy’’ episode of the Food Network show ‘‘Chopped.’’ Smith currently operates Chilte, a taco stand at farmers

After a three-year absence, Arizona PBS kicks off a ninth season of its most popular show, ‘‘Check, Please! Arizona,’’ at 7 p.m. Thursday. The 30-minute show, which features three guests reviewing restaurants with host Mark Tarbell each week, had been

For what it’s worth, WalletHub, an online site that ranks the top U.S. cities in various categories each week, has released a ranking of the ‘‘foodie-friendliest’’ cities. The criteria: WalletHub says it used 29 indicators, ranging from the cost of

Ginger Monkey, a 3-year-old restaurant and bar on the southwest corner of Arizona Avenue and Ocotillo in south Chandler, will be featured on an upcoming episode of the Food Network’s ‘‘Restaurant: Impossible.’’ The TV show spends two days and $10,000

Congrats to Valley chef Nick LaRosa, who picked up $10,000 by winning Tuesday night’s episode of the Food Network reality-competition show ‘‘Chopped.’’ LaRosa is executive chef and part-owner of the Blueprint Hospitality Group, which operates Nook Kitchen Downtown, Nook Kitchen Arcadia, Dilly Dally Lounge,

‘‘Plate and Pour,’’ Arizona PBS’s replacement for its popular TV show ‘‘Check, Please! Arizona,’’ makes its debut at 7 tonight on Channel 8. The 30-minute show is hosted by Valley chef Mark Tarbell (pictured), who also hosted the final season

West Alley BBQ in downtown Chandler makes an appearance on the Cooking Channel’s ‘‘Man Fire Food’’ at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 28 (although the showtime may vary depending on your TV provider). According to the cable network’s description of the episode:

Happy New Year! Before we roll onward into 2018, let’s take one last look at what made news in the East Valley food and beverage scene in 2017. Here are last year’s top 10 posts, ranked by the number of

‘‘Gonormous Food,’’ a new Food Network show that seeks out ‘‘the biggest and tastiest foods in America,’’ filmed for nearly eight hours today at El Palacio Mexican Restaurant & Cantina in Chandler. The show, which debuted in January, focused its spotlight on El

Former Arizona Republic restaurant critic Howard Seftel, who parted ways with the newspaper in 2015, has returned to the Valley food scene with a new online video series. Entitled ‘‘Turning the Tables with Howard Seftel,’’ the five-minute videos are intended to give

Kudos to Valley food writer Gwen Ashley Walters, who won one of the top awards Wednesday at the annual Association of Food Journalists conference in Seattle. Walters took first place for Best Non-Newspaper Food Feature for ‘‘Saintly Stockers,’’ which appeared in

When Channel 8’s popular ‘‘Check, Please! Arizona’’ returns in January, the TV show will have a new host – Mark Tarbell. The longtime Valley chef and restaurateur (pictured above), best-known for his eponymous Tarbell’s at 32nd Street and Camelback, will replace

If you’re a fan of train-wreck television, you’ll probably want to check out this weekend’s episode of ‘‘Bar Rescue’’ on Spike TV. The show, hosted by nightlife expert and Frankenstein’s monster lookalike Jon Taffer, visited the former Baseline Sports Pub

‘‘Extra Virgin Americana,’’ a Cooking Channel show chronicling a season-long family road trip by actress Debi Mazar and her chef/husband Gabriele Corcos (pictured), makes a couple of stops in Gilbert on Wednesday. In an episode entitled “Fear and Cooking in the

When Mouth by Southwest created its Facebook page back in 2010, the social media platform had a simple philosophy: If you “liked” a page, you got to see the posts from that page on your timeline. Today, of course, Facebook

At the start of the year, I removed the listing of new restaurants from the bar across the top of this website. I write posts on most new restaurants in the East Valley. Who needs a list of them, I

The Guy Fieri-hosted Food Network show will feature the restaurant, located on Gilbert Road south of Warner, this Friday in an episode dubbed ‘‘Roadtrippin’.’’ Longtime readers know I’m a big fan of the pizzeria’s Baked Ziti Pizza – a cheese

It was an East Valley tripleheader on the season 5 premiere of “Check, Please! Arizona.”

The restaurant-review program, which airs at 7 p.m. Thursdays on Channel 8, will feature a number of East Valley eateries this season, including SanTan Brewing Co., Romeo’s Euro Cafe, DC Steakhouse, Beaver Choice, Bavarian Point, and Restaurant Mexico. Notable non-East

If you missed last night’s “Horizon” segment on the AZ Beer Bill, here’s what Andy Ingram from Four Peaks Brewing and Don Isaacson from AZ Wine & Spirits Wholesalers Association had to say: (You’ll want to move the yellow slider

The craft beer industry is booming in Arizona, but you’d hardly know it from the scant, and often erroneous, attention it typically gets from the Arizona Republic. That may be about to change. Like other newspapers in the Gannett chain,

If you’re reading this on a smartphone or tablet, you probably noticed MXSW has re-introduced a mobile version of the website. This is something MXSW offered in 2012, but discontinued when it became too buggy. Now, a new and improved

Restaurant critic Laura Hahnefeld has given her notice at Phoenix New Times, and the ever-shrinking alt-weekly appears to be eliminating the position of full-time dining critic. Hahnefeld made the announcement today in a Facebook post. She was hired as dining critic in April