Odds & Ends

🍺 Flagstaff’s Mother Road Brewing – makers of Tower Station, one of the top IPAs in Arizona – releases a new variation, Turbo Tower, a mango double IPA (9.1% ABV), on draft and in stores statewide Tuesday.

🎟 A Taste of AZ Magazine will sponsor the first-ever A Taste of AZ Food and Drink Festival on Saturday, Jan. 27, at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale.

🇯🇵 A couple seats remain for the Japanese Wagyu & Whisky pairing dinner – featuring world-renowned Snow Wagyu beef from Château Uenae – Thursday at Shimogamo in Chandler.

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🍺 Gilbert-based Arizona Wilderness Brewing releases its seasonal July 11th, a bright pink IPA brewed with dragonfruit, Tuesday in cans and on draft. The beer was inspired by 7-Eleven’s Free Slurpee Day.

🇲🇽 Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza’s award-winning Barrio Cafe in Phoenix is celebrating its 21st birthday all this month with $21 entrees, $2.10 flan, and $2.10 Mexican draft beers.

🔥 The Downtown Mesa BBQ Classic, a Kansas City Barbeque Society-sanctioned competition with pitmasters from across the country, will take place Nov. 3-4 in downtown Mesa.

👨‍🍳 Stuffed Shells Spinachi and Penne Carbonara will be the featured entrees when Romeo’s Euro Cafe in downtown Gilbert holds its weekly ‘‘Taste of Romeo’s’’ dinner at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

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🍺 Sales director Ted Golden, who has been one of the public faces of Four Peaks Brewing in Tempe for 22 years, has jumped to rival SanTan Brewing in Chandler. (Pictured on left with SanTan’s new on-premises sales manager Greg Ross.)

🍕 Bring in two approved non-perishable food items or make a $2 cash donation to its Christmas in July food drive this month and receive 10% off your kitchen bill at Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa.

🍺 Wicked Brews Bites and Spirits in Ahwatukee is offering a July ‘‘Drink the Heat’’ special: Your first Wicked pint will be what the day’s high temperature is projected. (If the forecast is 113, you pay $1.13).

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🇨🇦 Myke’s Pizza in downtown Mesa is celebrating Canada Day by teaming up with Scottsdale-based Frites Street for a Poutine Pop-Up from 7-10 p.m. Saturday. Pizzeria owner/chef Myke Olsen, who lived in Canada, will be selling poutine (pictured) for $12.

📺 Olivia Fierro, the longtime anchor who just left Channel 3, has joined Scottsdale-based Tequila Corrido as executive vice-president of communications and governance. Her husband, Tony Boyle, is one of the company’s owners.

🍔 Zipps Sports Grill in Ahwatukee is celebrating its 10-year anniversary with several dine-in specials –$10 wings, $10 burgers, $10 domestic beer pitchers, and $10 buckets of five domestic beer bottles – from July 1-31.

🍺 PHX Beer Co. is offering a $1 pint of its Monsoon IPA to customers every time Phoenix Sky Harbor records measurable rainfall. The offer is good through September at the Phoenix taproom or the Scottsdale restaurant.

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🍸 Little Rituals at the Residence Inn/Courtyard by Marriott in downtown Phoenix, recently named one of four finalists for Best U.S. Hotel Bar in Tales of the Cocktail’s annual Spirited Awards, has introduced the most extensive overhaul of its cocktail menu since it opened in 2019. Check it out here.

🕙 Tex-Mex chain Z’Tejas announced it will close on Mondays, starting next week. The decision to close on Mondays was carefully considered after evaluating customer feedback and analyzing dining trends in the industry,’’ according to a press release.

🌮 Sponsor Forty8 Live announced the 12th annual Rockin’ Taco Street Fest will return to downtown Chander on Sept. 23

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🥗 Gilbert-born drive-through concept Salad and Go launched its 48th Valley location Tuesday on the southeast corner of Cactus and Reems in Surprise. It’s now grown to 105 locations in four states since its 2013 debut.

🎡 Beer Research Institute in Mesa will complement four types of carnival food with four beers in its latest all-day pop-up pairing Thursday (while supplies last). See the menu here.

🏅 The Chandler Chamber of Commerce has honored The Hidden House, which opened in 2019 in downtown Chandler, as the city’s medium-sized business of the year.

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🍳 One day after announcing its seventh Arizona location would open June 28 at Verde at Cooley Station in Gilbert, brunch favorite Hash Kitchen (pictured) has pushed the date back to July 5, citing ‘‘an unexpected delay in construction.’’

☕️ Oregon-based Black Rock Coffee will celebrate the opening of its 33rd Arizona location on the southwest corner of McKellips and Lindsey in northeast Mesa with $2 medium drinks Friday. Arizona now is tied with Oregon for the most Black Rock stores. Open 5 a.m.-7 p.m. daily.

🥗 Gilbert-born Salad and Go announced two upcoming openings – June 20 at Grand Avenue and the Loop 101 in Surprise and July 9 at Baseline and 35th Avenue in Laveen Village – giving it more than 55 Arizona locations.

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🍳 Hash Kitchen, one of the Valley’s most popular brunch spots, opens its seventh Arizona location Wednesday, June 28, at Verde at Cooley Station on the southwest corner of Recker and Williams Field in Gilbert.

🔒 Santé, a high-end organic-focused restaurant and ‘‘grab-and-gourmet’’ marketplace from EVO founder Nick Neuman, has closed after 18 months in north Scottsdale.

🍗 Twin Peaks is holding a customer appreciation day today with a chicken wings deal: Buy six bone-in wings, get six free. That’s a dozen wings for $9.99. Available at all five locations.

😬 Yesterday’s MXSW newsletter mentioned the ‘‘Summertime Tapas’’ cooking class at Tracy Dempsey Originals in Tempe will be Saturday, June 27. It’s actually Saturday, June 24. Sorry about that.

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