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Il Posto
9832 N 7th St., Phoenix
One of the Yelp group decided that happy hour would be a cool thing to do here. She arranged to get happy hour pricing for the group all evening. It was the rolling out of their new line of specialty pizzas and the group of 20 or so must have bought like a dozen different ones. The weather was in the 70's and the entire evening was great. It was also Fat Tuesday so there were plenty of beads but none of the women were willing to "pay" for them. :-(
Here is also a copy of my Yelp review:
That has got to be one of the coolest patios in town for a get together. I was another of the Yelp group (and friends) in attendance last night for happy hour. We had a long table reserved for us. The bartender was also our waiter for the evening. To my knowledge, with all of us moving around, I don't think he screwed up a single order of food or drink. The manager, Matt, came by to check on us several times. I arrived fairly early and before I was tempted to work my way through multiple baskets of the wonderful bread and pesto I ordered a serving of crab cakes. They were quite good, certainly not enough volume to replace an entree. I was offered several choices of pizza slices and accepted a bruscetta one which was delicious. Of the many pizzas ordered I did not hear one person that was less than satisfied. I do of sort regret not trying the white pizza but I was at that not full but no longer hungry point where I should, but don't always, stop. We did cause one hiccup in the evening, many of us decided it was time to go at the same time and with all the separate bills to figure out at once it swamped the entire staff to the point a couple of people at the bar complained they couldn't get a drink. Most of the night we ordered as individuals or pairs as we saw fit so we never overwhelmed the kitchen or the server. I have yet to figure out why groups of people (non business) that are going to be there for a couple of hours anyway have to all order and get served at the same time. We must have at least looked like we were well behaved, Matt invited us back.
6003 N 16th St., Phoenix
This place has been on my bookmark list for a while. I wanted comfort food last night and Wednesdays the dinner special is liver and onions. I can make liver and onions just fine at home but then the apartment smells like liver for a week. Got there about 6:30 and the place was packed. I had a choice of waiting at the bar or just eating there anyway. I chose to eat there and I had a good view of the basketball game on the TV so all was good. For $9.00 I got 3 good sized slices of liver, a bunch of bacon, a mound of onions, mashed potatoes and gravy and a small salad. For what I paid the food was quite good and plentiful. The service was excellent. I still don't care for skins in my potatoes but the option was wedge fries with skins on. At some point I will come back to try the chicken fried steak.
After several decades of street widening on Bethany Home and 16th st the parking lot is not big vehicle friendly. The bartender said after the bank closes to the North most folks with trucks park there, including her.
8275 W Lake Pleasant Pkwy, Peoria
I get to blame Ayesha for this one. :-) Once again I ventured alone into a restaurant that I had never had the style of food before and had no clue what it was supposed to taste like or how to properly eat it. I too like non chain places if they have something to offer and she made it sound like it was worth trying. I was out that direction to go to Walmart and put a stop here in the itinerary.
Walked in just before 7 and the owner (?) was sitting with friends in the corner. He gave me a minute or so to read the menu and came over behind the counter. I said I would like the sampler platter appetizer ($6.49) and he looked at me strange and said "there is no meat in that". This is something that is mostly a guy thing, When cooking for somebody else the meat is the signature of how many of us cook. Doesn't matter if the rest of the food is under/overcooked or the cat stole the cheese, the meat better be right. In a small restaurant like this where much of what is served has to come from purchased stuff with some seasoning modifications the only chance the cook thinks he has to show off is in the preparation of the meat entree and I had just taken that from him. Never the less I stuck to my original order.
I was started off with a hot bowl of lentil soup, I don't think this was part of what I ordered but I was the only customer in there and he was bound and determined to find a way to show off. The plate came and included hummus, baba ghanoush, dolma, falafel. He took the time to explain what I was being served. On the side was naan and a dipping sauce for the falafel. On the plate was also tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce. The presentation could have come on real dishes from a restaurant at a much higher price level, I know the dish could have been take out but a lot would have been lost. Other than falafel all of the dishes were new to me and I had a fun time exploring the different tastes and serving combination's. About halfway through the owner came over to see how I was doing and answered some further questions I had about what I was eating. I only made it through about 2/3 of the whole meal before I was full.
I enjoyed the meal and clearly the owner is all about making the experience a good one. If you are not familiar with the area it is easy to miss. 83rd Ave turns into W Lake Pleasant Pkwy at Beardsley going North and takes a gentle curve West. Guessing, I took the first left into a strip mall I could and landed right where I wanted. Not bad for a guy at night without a navigator. :-)
I tend to keep stuff in stock so I can create a meal for almost anything I feel in the mood for. For instance I have 4 or 5 different cream soups most of the time. I usually have onions (how can you cook without onions?), several meats, a half dozen bags of frozen vegetables, rice, noodles, spaghetti, potatoes and various sauces and stuff to make sauces from. Last week I was in the mood for chicken and I didn't feel like grilling or frying it. The only chicken I normally keep is boneless skinless breasts which need to be baked in something to flavor it. Unlike a regular split breast which gets some flavor from the skin and fat.
I lined the bottom of a small baking dish with sliced onions, topped them with 2 breasts sliced into large strips, covered that with ground garlic and poured a can of mushroom soup over the whole thing and baked it for about 50 minutes. Simple entree, for more servings just add more chicken and another can of soup. I lazied out and didn't make a vegetable but I did cook up some noodles and toss them with butter, Italian seasoning and garlic.
As a note, I have also done a similar dish with pork chops.
McTeacher
This was held last night and a fellow Yelper asked the group if they would "dine" at McDonalds for her school. What a zoo! :-) The place was packed with parents and grandparents and kids and teachers. But it was a fun atmosphere. There is a reason I don't care to drive across town in rush hour traffic but I made it on time for Julia's shift. First time I can recall using a urinal where the plumbing was tied down with cabling to keep it from being stolen.
Metrocenter loop, Chinese
Met a bunch of Yelpers here Sunday at 10:30 for Dim Sum. Good thing we got there early, about an hour later the place started to pack in and we would have had trouble seating our group of 12 + two little ones. This place does Dim Sum a little differently in that there are no carts. The restaurant is not really big enough to seat the hundred plus people it takes to make the carts work. In addition to an order card there is a picture menu of most of the items. The system worked very well and each item was brought to our table as it was ready. Being only my second Dim Sum experience I was still sort of at the mercy of the others to choose what gets picked out but next time I have enough ideas that I will have some input. I've decided I prefer many of the baked items over similar steamed ones, just don't ask me to name any of them. As a group I think we decided the quality of both the food and the experience was better here than the Great Wall. And it was cheap, we each tossed in $10 like we had last time and the wait staff came out pretty good as the tab with tax was only about $6.50 per adult. Just before we were done the owners of Sweet Republic came in with some friends of theirs.
At the Herberger, produced by Arizona Theater Company, 2/5/09 - 2/22/09
Ok, I'm going to cheat here and copy my Yelp review and some of the play info from The New York Times.
"Lorraine Hansberry's powerful drama of family, hope and the struggle to realize dreams...
A gripping and explosive tale of one family living and learning together on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950s, A Raisin in the Sun was the first authentic voice of an African American playwright to hit the Broadway stage. In this award-winning drama, the Younger family searches for a way to grab their piece of the dream, even in the face of prejudice and discrimination. Since the play's premiere exactly 50 years ago, Lorraine Hansberry's towering masterpiece has moved audiences and broken down barriers wherever it has played. "The play that changed American theatre forever...a seething interplay of past and present, of wisdom and passion."
- The New York Times"
Last evening I got to attend opening night of A Raisin in the Sun. As I am coming to expect the presentation by the supporting crew was flawless. The play itself was well done and held my interest. While parts of it were specific to African Americans,and thus one of it's original acclaims 50 years ago, most of it could apply to any working family. You could hear smirks and giggles flowing around the audience as a person recognized "I have a sibling, parent, grandparent, whatever that acts like that" or they had been in a similar situation. It is drama and sometimes moves slow just like any drama so if getting involved with characters in that type of venue isn't your thing then you might not like it. The actors (and script) do a real good job of building the characters.
As usual the staff of the Herberger very organized and professional.
And I got to meet 4 more Yelpers!
So why am I bringing this up in February? Last night I finally finished the bag of miniature bags of M&Ms peanut that I bought to hand out and no kids came. Did I mention I don't eat a lot of sweets? What is sort of interesting is I do not consider peanut butter a sweet but the Skippys I eat has as much refined sugars as some candy. At least it doesn't have corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup.
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