Top Stories Tucson

Archive for the ‘Chow’ Category

• A Steak in the Neighborhood at 135 E. Congress St.

Luke Cusack, the man behind the upscale Pearl and Zen Rock nightclubs, has opened a new downtown restaurant called A Steak in the Neighborhood at 135 E. Congress St.

Cusack is also opening a place called Sapphire Lounge in the former Heart Five location at 61 E. Congress St. It is set to open New Year’s Eve.

Cusack says A Steak in the Neighborhood works like this: The place uses nothing but prime and choice cuts for its beef dishes, and those cuts are prepared in a number of ways. You can have it as a straight-up steak, as beef stroganoff or as oriental beef and broccoli.

For those who like their beef between buns, they serve cheesesteaks and burgers, too. Also on the menu: A popular chicken marsala dish, salads, appetizers, breakfast burritos and other items. Hours: 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. Friday; and 5 p.m. to 3 a.m., Saturday.

Just down the block at Sapphire Lounge, Cusack is up to something completely different. He says dueling pianos will be featured downstairs while Las Vegas-style music and dancing go down upstairs. A “skydeck” area overlooking Congress Street offers outdoor seating on the top floor.

Cusack—who opened Zen Rock in the old Asylum location at 121 E. Congress St. earlier this year—was busy putting the finishing touches on Sapphire earlier this week.

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

• Austin’s storefront at 6129 E. Broadway Blvd.

Austin’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream, a local restaurant that opened way back in 1959, has apparently gone out of business.

Calls to Austin’s during the past week went unanswered, and a weekend visit to the eatery at 6129 E. Broadway Blvd. showed a sign taped to the window by the landlord saying that the locks had been changed because the rent had not been paid.

The eatery was originally located at 2920 E. Broadway Blvd., but moved several years back to its new location.

Attempts to reach the owners to see what led to the closing were unsuccessful.

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

• Michael Chihak

In his time as publisher of the Tucson Citizen, Michael Chihak did all he could to turn around the struggling afternoon newspaper that was put to sleep by Gannett earlier this year. Sadly, Chihak’s focus on local news and opinion wasn’t enough to save the Gray Señorita (although an electronic version lives on with an army of volunteer bloggers.)

Chihak relocated to San Francisco in 2008 to head up something called the Communications Leadership Institute, but that gig lasted for about a year.

Now he’s followed in the footsteps of former Arizona Gov. J. Fife Symington III and enrolled in cooking school.

“My life-long interest in cooking, instilled by my mom and others, has for many years included the desire to attend culinary school,” Chihak tells The Skinny via e-mail. “The opportunity presented itself, and I enrolled in a one-year culinary arts certificate program at the California Culinary Academy here in San Francisco. I am cooking in class every day and loving it.”

Chihak, who still visits the Old Pueblo now and then to visit family and grab tortillas and other Sonoran staples, has a blog, Que Aprovecho, where he shares his culinary adventures with the occasional recipe, such as roasted whole chicken with root vegetables, turned potatoes, sauce nateur and garnish.

It can be a dangerous gig: Chihak suffered an injury while practicing for a vegetable-slicing exam that sent him to the emergency room for five stitches.

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

We just heard that Pita Jungle, which has a collection of Mediterranean-smoothie fusion cafés in the Phoenix area, is planning on opening a Tucson branch in the old 58 Degrees & Holding location at Williams Center, Broadway Boulevard and Craycroft Avenue.

Andy Seleznov of Larsen Baker tells us the restaurant is optimistic about an April opening, but there’s remodeling to be done.

We dig the tasty, healthy and affordable menu. Our pals at Phoenix New Times named it Best Vegetarian and Best Restaurant for Kids this year. If you’re not familiar, get a taste here.

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

The episode of the Travel Channel’s Man V. Food that takes place in Tucson airs this Wednesday, Dec. 2. Check the show schedule here.

I can’t wait to see the show’s star, Adam Richman, take on the O.M.F.G. burger—a 12-patty behemoth—at Lindy’s on 4th. It looks like he made stops at El Güero Canelo and Mi Nidito, too.

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

• White Hots cooking alongside their more commonly colored counterparts.

Chuck Stopani dropped us an e-mail today to let us know that his restaurant, Daglio’s Cheesesteaks and Hoagies (250 N. Pantano Road) is the only restaurant in the state that serves white weiners called Zweigle’s White Hots.

I honestly thought someone was messing with me when I opened the e-mail at 4 a.m., but it must be noted that I was only on my third cup of coffee of the day, which is a vulnerable state for me. Within moments, I was embarking on a Google journey into white weinerdom that left me stunned and mystified.

Stopani says he flys the white hots—which are native to Rochester N.Y.—in about three times a year. Apparently the white color is a result of using meat that is neither smoked or cured. This made it the “poor man’s hot dog” back in the 1920s, according to some accounts. Conversely, the pale sausage is considered an upscale tube steak in these modern times.

Check out the Wikipedia entry on these colorless hot dogs here.

Check out Zweigle’s Web site here.

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

• Kimchi is awesome.

Seoul Kitchen rules, and the people who run it are nice. Plus, the owners said that if I liked the food, I should tell my friends about it, so I am.

The place opened a few weeks back at 4951 E. Grant Road. It’s a family-run eatery with 10 or so tables and a simple décor. It seems to pull in a pretty steady crowd and was relatively busy on a recent Wednesday night.

Korean food had always been a mystery outside of my obsession with kimchi, so I was flying blind. When this is the case, I just order whatever is the most fun to say. That turned out to be “be bim bap,” a variety of vegetables topped with a fried egg. I didn’t really know what to do with it when it arrived, but the owner sensed my confusion and helped with instructions on how to enjoy it properly.

The meal was preceeded by miso soup (included in the price of the meal) and came with two types of kimchi (also included). Both the kimchi, and the be bim bap (damn, that is fun to say) were hotter than summer asphalt, but in a way that was less painful than many spicy dishes I’ve tried.

The nicest touch though was that the bill came with a tiny, chilled yogurt drink that all but extinguished the spicy oral wildfire that lingered after the meal. Nice touch.

Prices are in the $5 to $12 range. Call 881-7777 for more information.

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

I challenge anyone to enter the new Hog Pit Smokehouse Bar and Grill in the old Taco Bron location at 6910 E. Tanque Verde Road without embarking on an eating binge that will leave you sauce-smothered and craving more of what comes out of the magical smoker.

I’m just going to come clean here with how this went down. I typically don’t eat meat—I don’t enjoy the flavor of it, so I typically order veggie options. Well, that changed this Wednesday when I stopped in the Hog Pit to check it out for the Noshing Around column, only to find myself devouring a pulled-pork sandwich in my car a half-hour later. I almost licked the to-go container too. I am not joking.

It’s the smell. The place is absolutely permeated with a smoky scent that is unlike any I’ve encountered. I felt entranced, intoxicated and mesmerized. It was like one of those cartoons where a scent cloud in the shape of a hand grabs the character and drags him around like a ragdoll.

The pulled pork was amazing, and judging from the happy looks on the faces of the people mowing through racks of baby-back ribs, those aren’t too bad either.

Check out there Facebook page here. Call 722-4302 for more info.

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

• A sample of produce from Sleeping Frog Farm.

The Yum! section comes out next week and in it there’ll be all sorts of food stories, including one on Sleeping Frog Farms, a small organic operation not far from the Foothills Mall.

You’ll find the whole story in Yum!, but what I’m here to rant about is the produce I recently bought from the farm. The picture above, which shows Sleeping Frog produce harvested earlier this year, is not of the bag of goodness I took home. The picture does, however, give you some idea of what caliber of color, taste and absolute freshness ended up in my frying pan on a recent night. A stirfry of purple peppers and basil mixed with multicolored eggplant was created and devoured. Taste buds danced in delight.

No vegetables I’ve tried in recent memory can hold a candle to what Sleeping Frog produces. Maybe that’s why Janos Wilder and a number of local cooks are gaga over the veggies. Maybe that’s why someone was heard telling the owners “Your parsley makes me want to sing!” on a recent morning.

Or maybe it’s because Adam Valdivia and C.J. Marks are two knowledgeable, dedicated farmers with more than 20 years of gardening experience between them, and they absolutely love what they do. Marks and Valdivia are also two of the most hardworking, courteous and friendly folks I’ve run into in years, and I’ve got a feeling we’ll be hearing more about them as their operation continues to grow.

The produce is available on Thursdays at the Santa Cruz River Farmers Market (corner of Speedway and Riverview boulevards) or Sundays at the market at St. Philip’s Plaza (corner of East River Road and North Campbell Avenue). You can also check in with them at their Web site.

And don’t forget to check out the story next week in the Weekly’s Yum! section.

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Here’s your chance to launch a career in the sport of competitive eating! El Charro Cafe is looking for contestants in its first-ever tamale-eating competition.

Details from El Charro:

El Charro Café will host the 2009 World Championship Tamale Eating Contest at the inaugural Southern Arizona Food, Art and Wine Festival this Saturday, Oct. 17.

The object of the competition is to eat as many tamales as time will allow. The event, which is set to start at 1 p.m. at Rillito Raceway Park on First Avenue and River Road, is part of a full slate of events at the weekend festival put on by

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.