MXSW Sponsor News

Please welcome Pier 54, a lakeside patio bar and restaurant in The Lakes neighborhood in south Tempe, as MXSW’s newest sponsor.

Located south of Baseline between McClintock and Rural, Pier 54 is an all-patio venue with two levels: A main deck with a covered bar and a lower deck right at lake level.

Pier 54 serves modern American food (see menu) for lunch and dinner daily plus brunch on Saturdays and Sundays. Local artists perform every Friday and Saturday night.

The patio is dog-friendly and comfortable thanks to a misting system and evap coolers in the summer and heaters in the winter.

Please thank Pier 54 for its support of local food and drink coverage.

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Please welcome Ocotillo Golf Resort, a Troon golf facility in south Chandler, as MXSW’s newest sponsor.

The resort is home to Bernard’s Restaurant, which offers breakfast and lunch daily and dinner Tuesday through Saturday. The restaurant includes a beautiful patio with waterfall.

Weekly food and drink specials include $2 tacos and $4 margaritas on Tuesdays, and $20 and $23 prime rib dinners on Wednesdays.

Happy hour is 3-6 p.m. daily with $3 draft beers and $5 house wines, well drinks, and specialty cocktails. Appetizers are $3-$5.

Please thank Ocotillo Golf Resort for its support of local food and drink coverage.

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The Brass Tap at Mesa Riverview will launch its new brunch menu Saturday to coincide with the kickoff of the football season.

The brunch menu will be available from 9:30 a.m.-noon Saturdays and Sundays all season. It will feature $10 bottom-less Bloody Marys and Screwdrivers made with premium spirits.

To celebrate the launch of the brunch menu, all items will be half-price this Saturday only.

The Brass Tap brunch menu:

• Waffles:
  • Bacon and waffles ($8.99): Warm, crisp waffles topped with a bacon and stout syrup blend served with bacon strips.
  • Blueberry ale waffles ($7.99): Waffles topped with fresh blueberries and served with a blueberry wheat ale maple syrup.
  • Banana & Peanut Butter Ale Waffles ($7.99): Waffles topped with banana slices and drizzled with a peanut butter ale sauce.
•  Breakfast Pizzas
  • Bacon Egg n Cheese pizza ($7.99): Our signature pizza crust topped with egg, bacon, scallion, and cheddar-jack cheese blend
  • Western Omelet Pizza ($7.99): Our signature pizza crust topped with Canadian bacon, egg, scallion, red onion, and green peppers.
• Paninis
  • Triple Decker Panini ($9.99): Toasted sourdough bread stacked with scrambled egg, Canadian bacon, smoked bacon strips, sausage patty, and gouda cheese, served with a side of home fries.
  • Florentine Egg Panini ($8.99): Egg, bacon, spinach, artichoke, tomatoes, and parmesan cheese on grilled sourdough, served with home fries.
• Sausage Favorites
  • Sausage Hash ($8.99): A delicious blend of sausage, potatoes, green peppers, onions, and peppadew peppers smothered with country sausage gravy, served with a biscuit.
  • Sausage Egg n Cheese Burrito ($7.99): A grilled flour tortilla stuffed with scrambled egg, sausage, cheddar jack cheese, peppadew peppers, jalapenos, and scallions. Served with salsa and home fries.
  • Biscuits n Gravy ($5.99): Warm and toasty biscuits smothered with country gravy and crumbled sausage.

The Brass Tap’s regular lunch menu will be available starting at 11 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

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JC’s Steakhouse, which opened in December on the southeast corner of Gilbert and Ray in Gilbert, has expanded its menu with a selection of comfort-food dishes.

The new additions include:

• Cajun pasta (with chicken or shrimp)
• Beef stroganoff
• Mac Daddy mac and cheese (with chicken or reindeer)
• Meat loaf
• Reindeer sausage dinner
• 18-ounce prime rib
• 8-ounce prime flat-iron steak
• Chicken apple walnut salad
• Steak Diana burger
• Bleu burger

Restaurant hours are 4-10 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and 4-8 p.m. Sunday.

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The weekly five-course dinners, hosted by chef Romeo Taus and his wife, Janice, in a private dining room, typically highlight a rotating selection from the regular menu at Romeo’s Euro Cafe in Gilbert.

Sept. 3 “Taste of Romeo’s” menu:

• Greek Skins: Gyros meat, artichokes with feta and kasseri cheese, yogurt dressing.
• Mandarin Dijon Chicken Salad: With black olives, mandarin oranges, peas, carrots, water chestnuts, pecans, hearts of palm, and pineapple.
• Chicken Astoria: Chicken breast with Canadian bacon, baby corn, asparagus, artichokes, pea pods, mushrooms, and almonds sauteed in marsala cream sauce with kasseri cheese over linguini.
• Paella Barcelona(pictured): Shrimp, chicken, clams, Italian sausage, hearts of artichoke and palm, spinach, red bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, and brown rice.
• Intoxicated Love: Dark chocolate, Grand Marnier, milk chocolate, and Kahlua, white and milk chocolate layers kissed by Jack Daniels.

Dinner starts at 6:30 p.m. Cost is $27 per person plus tax and tip. Add five wine tastes for $10. RSVP: 480-962-4224.

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The Brass Tap at Mesa Riverview has reached an agreement with Santa Fe Brewing for the New Mexico brewery to make two house beers for the craft beer bar.

The two beers, according to The Brass Tap co-owner Jason Rowe, will be The Brass Tap Hefeweizen and The Brass Tap Blonde. The beers only will be available at the Mesa bar and the brewery.

‘‘One night my partners and I were having beers with (brewery rep) Don Byus and just talking and I had the idea of why not see if Santa Fe will contract brew a wheat beer for us,’’ Rowe says.

The Brass Tap will unveil the beers Tuesday, when it will tap both at 6 p.m. It also will tap a keg of Santa Fe’s award-winning Krieg, part of the brewery’s Los Innovadores series of wild fermented ales.

In addition, Santa Fe will be The Brass Tap’s brewery of the month for September, meaning pints of Hefeweizen and Blonde – as well as Santa Fe’s Nut Brown and Pilsner – will be $4 all month.

‘‘We are looking forward to selling some great beers from our neighbors to the east,’’ Rowe says.

The Brass Tap also will be giving away a three-day trip to Santa Fe from Oct. 15-17, with everything except transportation paid for by the brewery.

The trip for two will include hotel accommodations, a tour around historical Santa Fe, a brewery tour, a dinner with the owner and brewmaster, a free tasting at the taphouse, and tickets to Santa Fe’s Oktoberfest.

You can enter the drawing for the trip once per business day during September. The winner will be selected at the end of the month.

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When El Palacio owner Anthony Serrano (pictured) went looking for a private-label beer for his Chandler Mexican restaurant, he didn’t want to think big. In fact, just the opposite.

‘‘We thought it would great to team up with a local brewery,’’ says Serrano, whose 18 taps feature eight Arizona beers and 10 Mexican ones. ‘‘Since we are smaller, we decided to pick a small brewery as our partner.’’

The restaurant had teamed up with Flagstaff’s Mother Road Brewing for a successful beer dinner last October, so Serrano sat down with brewery rep Dan Choiniere.

‘‘After many, many tastings we chose Gold Road, which is a Kölsch-style beer, to be our private label beer,’ Serrano says. ‘‘We felt that it paired incredibly well with practically everything on our menu.’’

Since Kölsch is a German style, Serrano chose the name Cantina Göld and had a special tap handle created. The beer is now on tap at El Palacio, and by mid-September will be sold at Serrano family restaurants in Bullhead City and Mohave Valley.

Not only do the restaurants and breweries benefit from the arrangement, but so do customers.

‘‘Because of our close partnership with Mother Road, we are able to offer this awesome beer at the price of $3 a pint or $4 for a 20-ounce,’’ Serrano says. ‘‘So far the response has been incredible and the patrons we’ve sampled it on have fallen in love.’’

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Uncle Bear’s Brewery in Ahwatukee will host a Meet the Brewer cask tapping at 5 p.m. today.

Meet head brewer Joe Baldwin and enjoy $4 pints from a firkin of Tangelo Ocean Beach IPA dry-hopped with whole-cone Simcoe.

There also will be $4 pints of Dog Park Dark Ale randalled with vanilla and cinnamon.

All growler fills of UB beers will be $3 off.

The New Groove Band will perform from 6-9 p.m.

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