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Ah, winter. The stress of gift-buying, credit card debt, holiday parties, and New Year’s plans. If Calgon isn’t taking you away, just go to Houston’s for a few of local farmer Bob McClendon’s beets. For a limited time, they’re a side dish option at all Houston’s restaurants. Thankfully the chefs do very little with these beauties, letting their deep red and bright orange color shine through – and they taste the way a beet should: a tad earthy, a tad sweet, firm but easy on the teeth.

Wow, we should write Haikus.

If beets ain’t your thang, order up some brussels sprouts. Then take a picture and send it to mom – she’ll be happy you’re finally eating them.

Houston’s
2425 E Camelback Rd., #200
602.957.9700
6113 N Scottsdale Rd.
480.922.7775

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SUNDAY 10:47am
Matt’s Big Breakfast – 60 mins

Palatte – 30 mins

Ritz Carlton – No Wait

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No it’s not some new Salsa Verde pizza or a pizza with green peppers and broccoli, it’s green as in organic. The folks at Pizza Fusion in Mesa with more AZ locations promised, stands for more than a good slice.

This eco-centric restaurant, offers organic ingredients for their food, low emission hybrid delivery cars, and even a Green manifesto:

1. The support of sustainable business by seeking out environmentally conscious vendors and suppliers to partner with
2. Our commitment to environmental education to raise awareness for more sustainable approaches to living and business
3. Educating the general public on the importance of sustainable living through ecological community service, consumer education and environmental mentoring
4. Lobbying for political action to support a more sustainable future
5. The support of organic agriculture
6. The continuous evaluation of our ecological impact in our endless pursuit to minimize our environmental footprint

OK, so all that good heely feely stuff aside, is the pizza any good? Well obviously if you judge just by the quality of the ingredients, the answer is yes. But pizza is tricky business and pizza devotees are a very opinionated group. The cold war still has not ended between Chi-Town and New Yawk over Deep Dish vs. Thin Crust. Bobby Flay just recently got a beatdown on Throwdown when he challenged Chicago Deep Dish legend, Lou Malnati’s Pizza.

But we digress.

The only way to see if you like their pie is to just go try it. In this war, EATERAZ chooses to be Switzerland.

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Seriously, need we say more…Besides gifts and a healthy family, what’s better than Matzoh Ball Soup and a Pastrami Sandwich at Christmas? Leave it to Lovey and the gang at Chompie‘s to remember to feed us during the holiday. While the rest of this city looks like a ghost town, Chompie’s has a 45 minute wait. It was great to see that all the cars at the Paradise Valley Mall were there for a New York style deli! Gotta love it.

To really round out this holy day, do some Chinese food for dinner.

Merry Xmas from EATERAZ.

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In the first installment of the Bathroom Wars, we pit restaurateur Sam Fox against Chef Christopher Gross. Both have restaurants in Biltmore Fashion Park, and both have bathrooms worth booking a table for. Well, kinda.

At Christopher’s Restaurant, each guest is treated to a private room but when it comes time to sanitize, the name of the game is communal. In between the bank of private rooms is a waist-to-ceiling double-sided mirror. Underneath is a bed of river rock. Wave your hands in between the two and water starts to trickle down. We assume the premise here is an accidental rub against the hands of a member of the opposite sex, without being able to see their face. But whether there’s a Perfect 10 on the other side or not, post-potty thumb wars should be waged under your own table, not outside the pooper.

At True Food, the new health-minded restaurant by Sam Fox, we only have one thing to say: Dyson. Fox was one of the first people in town to install the DC-12, a marvel of hand drying that forms a mini tornado around your dripping digits and renders them dry in 12 seconds. On a recent visit, we even heard a little old lady exclaiming to her friends, “Those hand dryers are amazing! You’ve gotta go to the bathroom.” No joke. Be careful Houston’s, the Esplanade suits are migrating to True Food not just to mind their waistlines, but save a few seconds by using the Dyson.

And the winner is…True Food. When it comes to bathrooms, as much as we are slaves to design, we are also borderline-germaphobes, which in the case of restaurants, is probably a good thing. The sheer ferocity of the Dyson and it’s ability to “blow away” the competition, gives us comfort in the fight. Not a shabby design either…

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ON THE RADAR—If you’ve driven by the grey block building that was once Salon de Venus on Camelback Road just west of 20^th St., then you’ve noticed a sign with a lot of fine print. Artist Aric Mei bought the old Salon de Venus, began a remodel, and put up a sign that reads the long definition of the word “parlor.” Don’t bother trying to read the fine print, we had to pull about 6 U-Turns to get it all. But the bottom line: Mei’s turning the old salon into a “pizza parlor” simply called Parlor. He knows a thing or two about pizza—his parents brought Nello’s Pizza to the Valey 25 years ago. And he knows a thing or two about design—he’s keeping as much of the original wallpaper as possible, using as much of the old structure as he can, and paying homage wherever possible. Still surrounded by dumpsters and construction fencing, Parlor sounds like a delicious combination of food and design. We’ll keep you posted.

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Seems like a certain headline-happy valley chef with a penchant for pr, recently wondered into a new popular downtown Scottsdale restaurant after hours accompanied by a very inebriated date.

As the kitchen was already closed, the only way he could get food for his quickly fading friend, was to implore the owner, to let him get back in the kitchen and make her something.

As the owner granted this special request, his only fear was suffering the ire of his own chef, who surely would be none-to-pleased with a stranger cooking in his kitchen.

As the story goes, the kitchen hijacking chef began rifling through containers, jars, fridges, etc…wildly creating a few treats for his lucky lush.

Now that sounds like an idea for a new show on the Food Network — The Uninvited Chef.

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Karim Rashid‘s latest collaboration with Veuve Clicquot has resulted in the Globalight. The limited edition champagne holder (only 500 pieces created) features pure and sensual lines. This unique piece represents Rashid’s modern reinterpretation of the traditional French chandelier. This is the second collaboration between Veuve and Karim following the “Loveseat” last year. One bottle of Veuve Clicquot Rose will remain chilled for 4 hours and the LED lights will give a soft glow for the same time.

This is the latest collaboration between Veuve Clicquot and leading figures in the design world such as Andre Putman, Pablo Reinoso, Pucci, Christophe Pillet, Christian Schwamkrug of Porsche Design Studio, and Jason Bruges.

Globalight cost $1,500 and is available on www.e-clicquot.com or Click on image above for offer.

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

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Well actually they’re already here in the guise of a Brazilian Steakhouse called Fogo de Chão (pronounced fo-go dée shown). At this 11,500 sq. ft. Churrascaria, Gaucho-clad servers are afoot and armed with skewers of 15 types of seasoned meats.

The attentive Gaucho’s keep bombarding you with meat until you call “no mais”, (no more in Portuguese,) or just flip the card provided at your seat, to the red side to signal stop (the other green side signals keep the meat-a-coming.)

This Atkins dream-come-true also features a gourmet salad bar with more than 30 cheeses, vegetables and cured meats; limitless sides of mashed potatoes, caramelized bananas, polenta and Brazilian cheese bread — 30 CHEESES! Does that not scream Atkins? Meat & Cheese? FOGO DE WOW!

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