Some fun restaurants for 2007

Even though my challenge is over, I've still hit up a ton of new restaurants this year... here's a somewhat incomplete list...

1. Pizzeria Bianco - worth the wait!
2. Café Barrio - ditto!
3. Legal Seafood - yummiest crab soup in the world
4. Chinese place in Baltimore - don't remember the name, as I was on 2 hours sleep, but I remember gooooooood foooooooooood
5. Bagel place in Baltimore - yum num num
6. The Dubliner - DC - Awesome.
7. Afghani place in Baltimore - I had no idea what to expect out of Afghani food, but let me tell you - if anyone can tell me where an Afghani restaurant is within 100 miles, I'm there. Like now. This was some of the best food I've ever eaten in my life!
8. Olive and Ivy - so yummy, we literally hurt walking out.
9. Lola Tapas - delish.
10. Tia Rosa's - Rachel's rehearsal dinner - very tasty stuff, and killer margaritas!
11. Kai - at Wild Horse Pass - exquisite fine dining, with a cool local flair - Native American history and culture touch everything here
12. Byblos - awesome Greek restaurant just off campus.
13. Chives - Restaurant at Stonebridge Manor, where Rach got married... the vanilla walnut chicken salad is to die for!
14. Sauce
15. Bada-Boom Pasta Room
16. The Stinking Rose
17. Ruth's Chris Steakhouse
18. The Stockyards
19. Baby K's Cajun Kitchen

I really did it, I swear....

Yes, it's taken me 5 months to get around to blogging the actual restaurants, but I did finish all 52 during 2006! Here's the quick and dirty as to how my year wrapped up...
36. NoRTH - I wasn't terribly impressed here, but it was pretty good
37. Greene House - the twin kobe burgers are two little morsels of heaven
38. Firebird's Rocky Mountain Grill - freaking. awesome. You get so much food at this place, it's ridiculous
39. Chipotle - sooooo good
40. Cyclo - First time I had ever had Vietnamese food
(41 and 42 were blogged out of order)
43. zPizza - Study food!
44. elements - absolutely gorgeous views!
45. Tomaso's - picked up 1000 bonus points on OpenTable for this one! Whoo hoo!
46. Sushi restaurant in Chandler -can't remember the name, but for sushi, it was pretty good...
47. The Counter - Sooooooo yummy! Nothing beats grilled cheese:















48. Phillipe's - Lamb French dip.... who knew?
49. Combo's Pizza - best drunk pizza EVER!
50. Garlic Jim's Pizza - eh.
51. Ikea - Sveedish meetballs... yaaahhhhh......
52. Manuel's - Believe it or not, I had never eaten here before! Great place to hang with the girls.....


What now? What do I do now that my year-long challenge is over? Am I up for another serious New Year's Resolution? To be honest, the commitment of this whole 52 restaurants thing was a bit much for me. But, it's definitely gotten me used to living my life with a little more variety. In the first 5 months of 2007, I find myself continuing to say - "Hey - what about this new restaurant?" or, "You know, I've always wanted to try...." And the fun thing is that it's more than just food. This year I'm planning all sorts of things that are new, and some are kind of scary, but I wouldn't do it any other way.

Delectables & House of Tricks

Posting a couple out of order, but I have a picture for one of them!


Delectables


A friend and I found this place while looking for ANYTHING to eat on 4th Ave. in Tucson this weekend. Having somehow walked right past Bison Witches, we stopped in here, and had some pretty good food. Delectables features a different lasagna of the day each day, so I tried that day's veggie lasagna. Veggie lasagna is generally something that I stay away from, but this was some tasty stuff. Russell had a salad that was so big, it actually "defeated him." This is what was left of the the salad that brought him down:



Horrible picture, I know, but all I had was my cell phone camera. Anyhow, managed to get a good meal and a cheap glass of wine, and life was very, very good.











House of Tricks


I've been driving past this place for years, and finally, with the blessed cancellation of an afternoon class, managed to sneak in a lunch there. House of Tricks is a very garden-y sort of place. As Lena puts it, its the kind of place where you expect to see four girlfriends having a lunchtime cocktail and dishing about girl stuff. True 'nuff.

Since Lena and I had actual business to get to that day, and since we don't live in a sitcom/romantic-comedy kind of world where we can get drunk at lunch and still fit in a 6 figure paying job and a date with Mr. Man-of-the-moment, we had to settle for raspberry iced tea with our girl-gossip. No worries, though - it was a very fine substitution.

Aside from the bees that forced us from our patio table to an interior table, we had a great lunch. A yummy little goat cheese/tapenade crostini appetizer, a kick ass pot roast made with cider, and a super moist rosemary herbed chicken, and we had to call in the crane to pick us up. Good eats all around.

More pictures from the birthday, just for fun...

Happy birthday to me!

Having a birthday on a Wednesday sucks, so, therefore, I felt the need to celebrate it multiple times.

On my actual birthday, I went to the Old Spaghetti Factory, which is SUCH a fun place. For one thing, you get a ton of food for next to nothing, and just about everything there is good. I got a very normal order of spaghetti, but let me tell ya, it was tasty. Plus, anywhere that includes dessert with the dinner automatically makes me a happy girl.

To celebrate my birthday the right way, I went out to sing karaoke with a bunch of friends. Come on - when else but your birthday do you get the excuse to get drunk and sing badly? Beforehand, a friend and I had dinner at Delux, followed up with some dessert at the Gelato Spot.

Yes, Delux is expensive for a burger and fries... but HOLY CRAP are they good. Seriously - the Delux Burger comes with Gruyere and Maytag bleu cheese, applewood smoked bacon, caramelized onions and arugula. PLUS, they serve a massive amount of sweet potato french fries which, I swear to God, will change your religion. The aioli that they serve them with is just... ok, you just have to go try it. Beyond words.

(Gotta love Shana's shirt here... :)

The Gelato Spot was a great way to cap off the dinner. What better to follow a non-traditional burger than some non-traditional ice cream? With oddball flavors like Panna Cotta, Grand Marnier, and Caramel Apple, alongside the traditional Lemon and Raspberry, there were like 5 that I wanted to have.... I stuck with the Raspberry and wasn't disappointed.

The listeners to my rendition of "Harper Valley PTA," I fear, were not so lucky....

Tourist Trap

I know, I know... there are certain things that you're supposed to do when you live in Arizona, and the tourists always seem to do them, but after living here for 17 years, I still haven't. Yup, I am one of those Arizonians who has never been to the Grand Canyon, I've never gone to the O.K. Corral, and up until last month, I had never been to Rustler's Rooste.

What? The Rustler's Rooste is an Arizona must-do? Ok, well I didn't really think so either, but judging by the sheer volume of tourists present, I figured that I must have been missing out on one. Between the bull hanging out by the front door (yes, a real, live bull, with real, live, bullshit to boot), and the tourist (who had to be from Connecticut, judging from the stick up his ass) walking around with a Arizona state flag bandana tied around his very new looking cowboy hat (it's a birthday thing... see picture below....), this place is a hoot.

I didn't have the guts to try the chicken-fried rattlesnake that's on the menu - blech. Instead, I opted for the fried chicken, which was very ho-hum. However, I gotta say - I probably could have fed a small Ethiopian metropolis with the amount of food we were served. Baskets of Indian Fry Bread nuggets, biscuits, corn, beans, salad.... Not to mention the three enormous chunks of chicken - I was STUFFED. I couldn't imagine how anyone could really put a dent in the all you can eat beef ribs, but they offer them anyhow. Plus, it's always fun to literally drink your beer from a mason jar.

I have no idea who this guy is, but it looks like he's having fun....

ewwwwwww - squishy sushi!

Those of you who know me know that I don't like sushi. But, the whole point of this little New Year's resolution of mine is to get out there and try new things. Since it's been a few years since I've tried sushi, I thought that I'd try it again and see how it goes. Thus, I found myself at Sapporo on a Friday night eating the squishy stuff.

It wasn't nearly as bad as I remembered (mental note: sushi at an all you an eat buffet might not be the best first place to try it). I tried caterpillar rolls, California rolls (yeah, yeah, not real sushi, I know), asparagus rolls (not sushi, either, but definitely my favorite!), and some other stuff that I can't name. It's still not my cup of tea, but hey - I gave it another shot.

Crackers & Co.

The next time that you wake up and think that IHOP is in order, I beg you to reconsider. Crackers & Co. is a ridiculously yummy alternative that I had no idea even existed until the roommate pointed it out. All I have to say is this - anytime you put hollandaise sauce on an omelet (that's already been stuffed with bacon, sausage, and cheese), you make me a happy girl.

One of these days I need to get around to putting a cardiologist on retainer.....

The Pink Taco

Ok, how could I not try this place? The Pink Taco has gotten more press since they opened up than even Jenna's girls. The place is pretty cool, with a rockin' atmosphere and a lot of folks having fun at the bar.

Now, you may be asking, Sarah, what did you order? You silly thing! Of course I ordered the Pink Tacos! The genius who created this dish made chicken tacos with - get this - red salsa! To turn the chicken pink! OH MY GOD! HE IS SO CREATIVE!!!

Yeah.

Dining al fresco in the Old Pueblo

The first thing that I can tell you about the Flying V Bar and Grill is that they have a phenomenal wine list. The second thing that I can tell you about the restaurant is..... nothing, because I overindulged in the aforementioned wine list. Um, yeah.

I will say this - the view is phenomenal... this picture does not do it justice. We had reservations for sunset, and with the mountains and GORGEOUS golf course in the distance over the lake.... I would highly, highly recommend taking a little vacation to experience this place! The restaurant is located at the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson, and with the Loews First discount program, you can get a place at a freaking steal in the summertime. If you are staying at any Lowes property, you MUST get a Lowes First membership... discounts, free stuff, late checkouts... the list goes on and on....

Durant's

So, this is yet another restaurant that I visited while working at the courthouse, but it's not quite downtown, so I thought I'd give it it's own post. Plus, it's Durant's, so it deserves special attention. Durant's is supposed to be the place to go for the traditional 2-martini lunch, and it's not hard to see why when you walk in.

To start off, I came in through the back door, which I'm pretty sure is the only door to the joint. Walking in from the scorching, blinding sunlight into the dark, mahogany paneled restaurant, and through the back door, no less, made me feel like a mobster's molly. I felt like I needed to shout back through the door, "Guido, once you've cleaned out the trunk, get back here to drive me home..." I digress.

The ambiance is definitively old-school. It's the kind of environment that requires you to leave your diet at the door, which is perfectly fine with me. Unfortunately, I had to resist the urge to either order multiple martinis or a whole bottle of wine, since the whole reason that I was there was in honor of the departure of our court reporter (who got an awesome job in California), and the entire court staff - including the judge - was present. Instead, I had to intoxicate myself with a large hunk o' beef, which is always a good thing. I had a big, fat steak, plus the requisite baked potato, and while the menu isn't remarkable (standard steakhouse stuff), I can't wait to go back and act like a 60's era lush - the way that lunch at Durant's was intended to be!

Downtown eats

22. Bubble room (Marston's at the downtown Wyndham)
23. Crazy Jim's
24. Downtown Deli
25. Tom's Tavern
26. Focaccia Fiorentina

To be completely honest, I don't have a whole lot to blog about these places.... these are all places that I stopped by for lunch while I was completing my externship at Maricopa County Superior Court this summer. I don't have all that many fun stories about the places or anything, except the first - Marston's. For some reason, the bailiff in our courtroom (Larry) insists on calling this restaurant "The Bubble Room," as in - "hey kid, wanna have lunch at The Bubble Room?" Um. That's really where the story ends. Don't know why he calls it that, he has no reason to speak of, and it's really not even a funny story.

And I'll just shut up now.

#18 through #21........ Erika's Graduation!

I was so excited and elated to be able to go back east for Erika's (oops, I mean Dr. Waters') graduation from Rutgers! Not only was it an absolute joy to see the venerable Dr. Waters get hooded, but it was also a great opportunity to try a ton of new food! I asked Erika to take me to some of her favorite places, since she would be leaving New Jersey shortly after graduation. Luckily, the food scene is the ONLY thing that Erika said that she would miss, so she had some great suggestions......

18. Stuff yer face - New Brunswick, NJ

Ok - strombolis have to be one of the best inventions EVER. Yummy pizza crust dough, filled with tons of meaty and cheesy and tomatoey goodness..... This place is a small joint in New Brunswick, near the University, and it's definitely got that college-town feel - meaning specifically that they have one of the coolest beer lists I've ever seen.

19. Jim's Steaks - Philadelphia, PA

Not specifically in New Jersey, true, but I couldn't let our little day trip to Philadelphia go without getting a genuine philly cheese steak - with whiz, of course. This place is one of the originals, with period art deco stuff everywhere, refelcting the joint's 1939 inception. I never thought I could love Cheese Whiz this much....



20. Hoysala - Somerset, NJ

I asked Erika specifically to take me out for a few types of food that were brand new to me. Our first stop was at Hoysala, an Indian Buffet that's been one of Erika's favorites in the area. The buffet was a great way to sample a lot of the different flavors that Indian cuisine offers, and, just like the first two places that Chica took me to, I stuffed myself to a pain point I have never known. Seriously - I think I must have gained about 10 lbs on this little three day trip.....



21. Makeda - New Brunswick, NJ

Stop number two on the freak-out-Sarah's-palette tour of culinary wonder was Makeda, an Ethopian restaurant. Luckily, this was as non-freaky as I could have imagined. The food was phenomenal (and YES, there was food.... insert tasteless Ether-nopian joke here...), even if the funky bubbly-bread-African tortilla thing was oddly spongy. The Tibs Wat was like a very strangely spiced sloppy joe mix, and just remarkably good. Paired with some honey wine, the flavors of the meal were incredibly unique and tasty. Besides - who doesn't love eating with their hands??

The Capitol Grille - #17

While spending the day at the state House of Representatives, I had the opportunity to have lunch with my rep at the Capital Grille (kind of a fitting name, huh?), which serves here as restaurant number 17!

(Flags over Wesley Bolin Plaza, near the House of Representatives)

Ok, if you've clicked on the link for the Capital Grille here and have noticed that their website is waaaay flashier than any other I've referenced on this blog, then you understand the difference between the restaurant itself and every other one I've been to for this little experiment. From the rolls they bring to your table when you're seated to the exquisite dessert menu (even at lunch!), this is a restaurant that was designed to impress - and it did!

And to follow the free ice cream...

We headed just around the corner to Euro Pizza Cafe, on the recommendation of the owner of the Scoop Shop we had just visited. Their food was simple, but very good - a massive chef salad, the cheesiest garlic bread I think I've ever seen, and a monster sized calzone! Both of us took over half our meals home and ate for days! With such a prolific menu and the price being right, I'm definitely headed back...

Free is very, very good!

Ok, so some may say that my #15 isn't exactly a restaurant, but to them, I say this - Ice cream is a meal, dammit!!

Nothing is better than free ice cream - Especially free Ben & Jerry's! On Ben & Jerry's birthday, they are kind enough to offer free cones to anyone who comes into one of their Scoop Shops, so that's exactly what we did! A fellow starving student and I headed down on the first day of reading period - a well needed break, to be sure! A scoop of Coffee Coffee BuzzBuzzBuzz and Phish Food, and we were two happy campers.

Ok, now that we're in order..... #14!!

Yup. That's all that was left after we all decided to celebrate our second-to-last day of classes with a well-deserved trip to the new Long Wong's!

Yes, after shutting the doors on their famous Mill Ave. location, the operators of the original Long Wong's have re-opened just down the street. Although I had been to the original to have a beer and listen to some music, somehow I had managed to never try the famous wings!

We all plowed through mild, barbeque, and even the odd-looking, yet tasty, garlic parmesan wings. I even managed to get in a Long Wong hot dog (and yes, it's as promising as the name would indicate!). While the beer and bands that originally called me to Long Wong's are gone, the wings will bring me back again and again!

And, to finally get caught up...

Another downtown Chandler restaurant - The Bistro at Kokopelli Winery!

I had the fortune of eating at The Bistro during their famous Italian-American festival, and it was a hoot! The day was marked with Councilmen playing bocce ball in the "backyard," a special Italian menu, and the place was packed full of people having a great time. We were able to bookend our great Italian lunches with tastings in the barrel room - a treat not to be missed!

Two for one...

These two restaurants can be easily combined into one post, for a few reasons. 56 East and 98 South are sister restaurants that both offer up fabulous food, wine, and ambiance.

I first visited 98 South with my mom for lunch in the afternoon. Aside from her surprise that white chili is not, indeed, very white, we both very much enjoyed the lunches that we ordered. My cream cheese and cranberry stuffed chicken was excellent, and the pinot grigio on their wine list was a great pairing - even though I don't usually like whites!

While 98 South was a fabulous lunch, 56 East was a phenomenal dinner. Starting off with the cheese plate was a delight, and following it up with the following entree nearly killed me with deliciousness:
8 OZ FILET MIGNON roasted purple potatoes, asparagus, balsamic syrup and Bleu Cheese Fondue
Oh... my.... God....
I was literally giddy with glee while I ate. This was one meal where I tried to eat as slowly as possible to try to savor every moment. With a beautiful bottle of shiraz and a jazz band playing in the corner (complete with a roaming trombonist), this was easily the best meal I've experienced in trying to complete my little resolution.

Dilly's Deli - Yum, Yum, Yum!

How to recover from a boring Property review? FOOD! And better yet, new food!!

A few of us headed over to Dilly's Deli to give it a shot - hoping that it would be a little different and a lot quicker than our favorite sandwich haunt, Bison Witches (excellent, but Mill on a Saturday afternoon? Don't think so.).

After waiting in line at the counter for less time than I had imagined on a Saturday, I managed to get one of the most bacon-y BLT's I've ever seen, and the pasta salad was a great little side. Their menu is quite extensive, so I'm definitely going to have to go back...

Ted's Hot Dogs

Ok, so how long does it have to be after you've visited a restaurant before it becomes new to you again? Certainly fifteen years is enough, right?

The first time that I went to Ted's Hot Dogs was when I was a teenager, after having spent the day at ChicagoFest - appropriate, no? I thought that since it had been such a long time since I'd eaten there (and honestly, I'm getting to a point where I could barely remember the experience!), I figured that it would be a good time to give Ted's a fresh try.

Ted's seemed like a good place for a mid-school day lunch, especially since its only a couple of miles away from campus. Our experience there was as simple as Ted's is itself. We had a couple of Ted's signature char-grilled hot dogs and an order of their phenomenal onion rings. Bringing that quick little meal out into the sunshine and pigging out right before Property class? Nothing better.

Sweet, indeed

In January, I completed another goal - I ran my first 5k! While I was very excited to have finished under my goal time (43 minutes, thank you very much!) and to not have been the last person across the line, I was also stoked to have won one of the door prizes - gift certificates to Sweet Tomatoes! So, I gathered up a fellow starving college student and we headed out to the local Sweet Tomatoes to stuff ourselves as full as possible - gratis! Whee!

I couldn't believe that I hadn't actually been to ST before, but I was very happy that I finally made it there. As my dining partner and I hit the front door, we were a little disheartened to find that it was pineapple month - normally, this would be great, but a drop of pineapple juice magically turns my poor friend into a blowfish. So, with some caution and a careful eye, we made it down the salad bar line, loading up our plates with as much lettuce, pasta salad, and baby corns as we could. Just about everything was very, very tasty - the only exception being the pineapple jell-o that I tried.... ew. I lost count on how many trips we each made up to the various bars, but suffice it to say, we practically needed a crane to get out of the booth to finally go home.

Abacus Inn

So, in an effort to find a nearby Chinese place that I haven't tried, and also to kill an hour before The West Wing was to start, I resorted to doing a quick google search. The Abacus Inn won for two reasons: it starts with an "A," so it was near the top of the list, and their menu was online at Delicious Deliveries! I know, I know, not a great way to choose a restaurant, but it worked out very well.

I stopped by the restaurant to pick up my order (again, just killing time until TWW started), and felt like I had stepped into some kind of time warp. The place is more reminicent of a seventies lounge than a hip Asian-fusion bistro. Seriously - think paisley and powder blue vinyl. However, the food was phenominal! We got a few staples - chicken fried rice and crab puffs - that didn't fail to satisfy. We also tried the Abacus Special Chicken, and while it was much simpler dish than I had anticipated, it was very, very tasty. Since we picked it up for take-out, we got an enormous tub of the garlic and onion sauce, which we wound up putting on every other dish that we had ordered. Tasty, tasty stuff.

Next time I need a huge Chinese pig fest, this is definitely the place I'll be calling to deliver....

Ok, not a new restaurant per se, but.....

Oh, yeah, the Sugarbowl. Nothin' says lovin' like two pregnant women at an olde fashioned ice cream shoppe.

Men with meat

One of the more interesting new restaurants that I've had the opportunity to try during my little experiment was Fogo e Brasa. With a visiting friend in town, Rachel and I thought this would be a great place to try - although I wouldn't recommend ice skating immediately afterward. The food was fabulous - cute latin men walk about with roasted meat on swords (couldn't make this up if I wanted to) and carve it for you at the table. With extra goodies like grilled pineapple, the oddest salad bar you ever saw, and a wine rack that they roll to your table, this is a fabulous place for a group of friends to go. Check out the price list before you go (a mistake we made) and plan ahead - but it's worth it!!

(Photo courtesy of http://www.fogoebrasa.com/)