The best new spot I tried was the daytime Latin café Malegria, located on Grand Ave in Phoenix two blocks from Bacanora. The menu incorporates Mexican, Salvadoran, and Guatemalan culinary influences, although the standard food menu seems to be mostly Mexican, with the other countries showing up in specials (like pupusas). The Central sandwich comes with scrambled eggs with peppers and onions, queso fresco, avocado, maduros (fried sweet plantains), and crema verde served on bolsillo bread, with a spicy Guatemalan salsa called chirmol on the side. I wasn’t sure about the maduros on a savory sandwich, but the sweetness was subtle because there was so much else on the sandwich, including the fat from the avocado and cheese, along with plenty of salt and acid. I had considered the Mexi Torta, which is similar but replaces the plantains with chorizo, going with the Central because I eat so little red meat, and I didn’t miss it at all. I’ve been locked into a breakfast rotation on these trips for almost 15 years now, hitting Hillside Spot, Crepe Bar, and Matt’s Big Breakfast, but Malegria is going into the mix.
I think the biggest new restaurant opening this year in Phoenix is Roman God of Fire in Tempe, tucked into a mixed-use development off Rio Salado, with a menu driven by the regional cuisine of Rome and the campagna around the city. I got there early enough to order something from the happy hour menu, getting two of the Italian croquettes called supplì, one with mushrooms and fontina and one with nduja and scamorza, for $4 each. The mushroom one was better, both were good, and despite being fried till deep golden brown, neither was the least bit greasy. The gnudi alla gricia, a gnocchi-like pasta made with ricotta rather than potatoes, with a sauce that is a carbonara without the eggs. It runs the risk of being very heavy between the fat in the cheese and a sauce that is mostly pecorino romano and guanciale (and pasta water), but this wasn’t, particularly the sauce, which was smooth and almost translucent, letting the saltiness of the cheese and the guanciale come through. My only note on the menu would be that it might be tough for vegetarians; every pasta dish but one has some sort of meat or fish in it.
As for the restaurant itself, my god, it is pretentious. The women at the host stand were all wearing dresses that evoked the idea of a toga, although none was wearing an actual toga, fortunately. There’s also a speakeasy called Mea Culpa inside the restaurant that you enter by going into a “confessional” booth and confessing your sins, which I didn’t do because I was going to a game and also I grew up Catholic and am definitely done with confession forever. I would absolutely go back to the restaurant and would like to go some time when I can try one of their cocktails, but I could do with more bread and less circus.
Il Forno Bello is a Neapolitan-ish pizzeria out in east Mesa founded by a chef who worked under Chris Bianco. Il Forno Bello’s dough style is different, somewhere between Naples and New York, without the big puff and airiness of Neapolitan pizza. Their ingredients are outstanding, though, as you’d expect of a Bianco discipline; I got the Finocchio, a fennel sausage and caramelized onion white pizza,
Babo Jumak showed up on Eater’s list of the 38 ‘essential’ restaurants in Phoenix – the word choice is odd, but I do think it’s better than saying ‘best’ because that is an impossible task – for its authentic Korean food in a bright, appealing strip-mall space. The menu was not ideal for me; it’s extremely red meat-centric, with almost no poultry at all and not that much seafood. I went with the bibimbap with spicy pork, figuring bibimbap is mostly rice and vegetables, but Babo Jumak’s version came in a bowl that’s about 10 inches wide and had at least a half a pound of pork in it. (I actually left so much meat that the server asked if it was too spicy for me, which is funny because it was about as spicy as a barbecue potato chip.) It was well-cooked, but everything was a little light in flavor and seasoning. I actually prefer another Korean place, Hodori, which is nearby and a little less fancy but I think has better food, and also has more options that don’t include red meat.
Ponderosa House is a new place in Old Town Scottsdale that pitches its cuisine as “Arizona Born Food,” although I’d call the menu a fusion of American and Mexican (Sonoran, specifically, according to reviews from writers with better knowledge of regional cuisine). It’s a broad menu, with sandwiches, tacos, two pasta dishes, a braised cabbage entrée, and several entrée salads. I ordered the shrimp tacos, which use shrimp from a local family purveyor (Chula Seafood), along with avocado and avocado-lime crema, pickled onions, cabbage, and cotija cheese. It was actually … kind of outstanding? There’s so much acidity in the dish that it gives you the flavor profile of a ceviche, but with the added flavor of the grill. I went back to Tacos Chiwas on the trip, which is still the best taqueria I know in Phoenix, and I love Gallo Blanco and Otro and Taco Chelo, so I wouldn’t say go to Ponderosa just for the tacos, but the fact that their tacos are this good tells me the rest of the food’s probably pretty good too.
I got all of my coffee for the week at Cartel Coffee or Crepe bar, except for the morning I was in Tuscon, where I tried Exo Coffee, which talked up their light roasts and single origins on their site. They don’t do pour-overs, so it’s drip or espresso, and I went with the drip to get to try a single origin option. The drip that day was a Mexican option – I think it’s these beans – and it was a little milder than I like, lacking a lot of body or strong flavor notes, although it also had zero bitterness. I’d probably try a different shop if I end up in Tucson early enough for coffee.
I barely had time to eat between the games in Tucson, and ate at Raising Cane’s for the first time, which … why are people obsessed with this place? It’s a very ordinary chicken tender with bad fries. I didn’t expect anything but fast food, but given how much people seem to love it and how fast they’re expanding, I thought it would be better. There is no scenario where I’d go there over Popeye’s for fast-food chicken.
I also hit a bunch of my usual spots, places I’ve written about before: the aforementioned breakfast rotation, Ollie Vaughn’s, Pane Bianco (the Wednesday special, a reimagined eggplant parmigiana sandwich is outstanding), and Andreoli Italian Grocer. Also, Eric Longenhagen passed along the sad news that two great spots, the Ethiopian place Café Lalibela and the sushi-and-cocktails spot Hai Noon, both closed recently.