Phoenix Downtown Food

[gymratmanaz]

Ask and ye shall receive. Here is a place to talk about food in downtown Phoenix.

[combusean]

I'm thinking this should be the Phoenix Food Thread instead. thoughts? i almost thought we had a thread like this in the past....

[nickw252]

Originally Posted by gymratmanaz

Ask and ye shall receive. Here is a place to talk about food in downtown Phoenix.

I like the thread idea.

I plan on going to Province in a few weeks before my wife and I go to Stand Up Live. Any thoughts on the restaurant?

[azliam]

[Vicelord John]

Province is hit and miss. Had some great meals and some really awful ones.

[DowntownDweller]

Strand is one of the better values down there.

[dtnphx]

Province is a mess. Went there for Restaurant Week and all 10 of us had some shitty food. There were a few good things, but mostly crap. Check out Yelp reviews and I'll bet you'll choose elsewhere.

[PHX31]

I liked Province when I went there a couple months ago. It was good food and they gave us a free little appetizer to try. Granted, I've only been there once... and the table next to us seemed to have some issues (they were complaining about something, but I think it was the wait-staff's fault).

[Vicelord John]

Originally Posted by dtnphx

Province is a mess. Went there for Restaurant Week and all 10 of us had some shitty food. There were a few good things, but mostly crap. Check out Yelp reviews and I'll bet you'll choose elsewhere.

The Yelp reviews are fairly positive. 48 reviews averaging 3.5 stars, that's better than average.

I've noticed a strong pattern of user reviews (opentable, urban spoon, yelp, etc.) that are negative after restaurant week and groupon type things. I figure lots of people who have exceedingly difficult requests bomb the restaurants for things that really are unfair, or their expectations are too high because they have never been to a place of that caliber, and then there is disappointment when they find out it's a set menu, or something of the like.

All that aside, like I said, Province is hit and miss. My first meal was awful, but the second was fantastic. My roommate and his girlfriend also loved it the first time they went, but then again they loved Local Breeze and that place was absolute garbage.

[dtnphx]

Duplicate.

[dtnphx]

Originally Posted by Vicelord John

The Yelp reviews are fairly positive. 48 reviews averaging 3.5 stars, that's better than average.

I've noticed a strong pattern of user reviews (opentable, urban spoon, yelp, etc.) that are negative after restaurant week and groupon type things. I figure lots of people who have exceedingly difficult requests bomb the restaurants for things that really are unfair, or their expectations are too high because they have never been to a place of that caliber, and then there is disappointment when they find out it's a set menu, or something of the like.

We ordered off of a very simple preset menu. Hard to fuck up. They did, in spades.

[Vicelord John]

Originally Posted by dtnphx

We ordered off of a very simple preset menu. Hard to fuck up. They did, in spades.

Not trying to say that this is the greatest restaurant or anything, but when you go to those types of dinners, you have to be aware of what is going on with staff, even at the finest of restaurants.

You have guys in the kitchen getting bored of making the same things, in large numbers, all night long. It's redundant and it contributes to carelessness. The wait staff feels like they are working a banquet, and they all know they are getting smaller tips, so they shlub off. I'm in no way saying this ok, I'm just saying it's sort of par for the course when you have a small set menu, even at great restaurants.

Hell, my favorite restaurant in the whole city served me a sub par meal recently when I was on a set menu. The other 6-8 times I've been there, I've been blown away.

[combusean]

What was wrong with Local Breeze? I agree that they had problems, I just want to get your guys' take on it.

[Vicelord John]

I thought the food was boring, bland, and uninspired. All of that would have been fine for $5.95, or if the service and atmosphere had been awesome, but that was not the case.

[combusean]

My take on its closing:

1) I think there was some personal drama with the owner, an ex-wife, and the new wife/ chef.
2) Kitchen was too small/inefficient for the seating capacity.
3) My friends complained about getting static from the chick in the dark-rimmed glasses.
4) The chick in super short shorts and was covered in catalog tattoos seemed like she could have been really off-putting to an upper-middle class clientele. She weirded out my dad and looked trashy to me and I never have a problem with that sort of thing. It's unfortunate because she was otherwise really nice.
5) Expensive food. Good, but everything was overpriced.
6) BAD marketing. Their facebook page had hundreds of people following it but they never used it save for a last minute 3-day push. Their website didn't work for the first year and their online menu is broken.
7) Poor reinvestment. I remember they were buying all these knickknacks from Ikea but never bought a draught beer setup or bar fountain. Dumb.
8) Generic, overly casual vibe. For the price, everyone who worked there should have been better dressed.
9) Not really an artsy place, which was a shame. Overplayed music, never any live entertainment.
10) Should've been able to stay open on a Monday.
11) Pita Jungle opening up took a lot of their business away.
12) Bad weather.

[PhxER]

The Strand offers new Breakfast menu and plans for curb side pick-up and delivery

The Strand will debut a new breakfast menu starting Jan. 30. In the coming weeks, the restaurant will also begin offering curb-side pick-up and delivery services.

The breakfast menu will include crepe wraps, a breakfast pizza topped with eggs and vegetables, and zeppolinis, a type of flavored doughnut that Vega predicts will be a “big commodity.”

“As for delivery, the sky’s the limit,” he said.

According to Vega, the delivery service could grow into a catering service oriented toward business meetings, weddings and other formal events. However, the Strand will deliver primarily to the downtown Phoenix core when the restaurant begins the service.

Future plans for the Strand may include adding locations throughout the Phoenix metro area and a discount for ASU students.

Vega is an ASU graduate and wants to cater more to the downtown student population.

“We want to do something for students,” he said. “We want to do what we can for them.”

Describing the restaurant’s decor as “really hip,” cashier Stephanie Cano said “the business is doing pretty good.” The restaurant ordered 30 new seats and new countertops to accommodate crowds during peak hours, which run between 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.

Read More Here

[PHX31]

Re: food discussion going on in the phx development news thread...

Originally Posted by HooverDam

Also re: gyros. Try Olympic flame, its on Thomas & 38th or so, very good. But now we've diverged & this should be in the food thread.

I haven't been there, but I have seen it and wanted to try it. I was acutally in Z's Greek (the place I'm talking about on 40th/Indian School) this Saturday and a patron told the counter person that their gyros are better than Olympic Flame (he said the meat tasted better). But who knows. Either way, they're both probably better than Olympic Gyros which is on 24th St just north of Thomas, and better than all the other places I listed before. I do know that I was in Chicago last fall and had a gyro at this little place on Division St called Five Faces that was "famous" (the fame had something to do with Playboy or something). Z's is just as good.

[Phxguy]

Have no idea if this is of any important news but here ya go anyways...

[Vicelord John]

Yes that's where Cornish pasty co. is going.

[Phxguy]

Kinda already knew that, but what I didn't know was that Cornish Pantry is attempting alcohol license.