When we hear the word “safari,” we either think of tigers in the African jungle or the bankrupt condo development in Scottsdale. But now we’ve got a new image to think about: avoiding the police.

Three restaurants have teamed up to offer a “Gourmet Safari” from now through October 15. For $89, you get six courses—a starter and sashimi at Roka Akor, an appetizer and seafood course at BLT Steakhouse, then a main course and dessert at Christopher’s Restaurant in the Biltmore. Not including your journey home after the last stop, you’ve got 8 miles to navigate between the restaurants, getting tipsier as you go. Or, you could avoid the streets and just call these guys. Let them be your safari guides.

For Gourmet Safari reservations: 480-306-8800

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Funny thing about the Tiki bar thing, it started in Hollywood at a Polynesian-themed spot called Don the Beachcomber and went on to even more cultural irony with Trader Vic’s who’s first location was in Oakland. Hardly the stuff of Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Well leave it to brothers Chris & Craig Delaney and local boy Dana Mule, to bring their cool new entry, Hula’s Modern Tiki, to an already cool strip center with tenants like Lola Coffee and HAUS furniture — great coffee and coffee tables, the perfect blend (had to do it.)

Hula’s Modern Tiki inhabits the building that Cyclo was hoping to snag, but never got. Local preservationists have had a cow over the owners “tampering” of the space originally built in 1965, but honestly, at least the space is still living and breathing unlike the recently imploded Beadle Qwest building.

The Sunday night preview dinner found the “King of everything local”, Craig DeMarco and his wife Kris dining with another couple, and LGO alumn Doug Robson stopping by after his shift at his Gallo Blanco with chef Patrick Fagen (no offense to Hula’s, but I wish Robson and Fagen smuggled in their Naco Torta. Man oh man, that thing is killer.)

So how about the food? Although it was a preview menu, they did offer a few signature items for all to try. We chose the Ahi Island Poke and Crispy Coconut Shrimp Rolls for apps and went with the Macadamia Nut Encrusted Mahi with Mango-Papaya sauce, and Duke’s Luau Pork Plate, slow roasted pulled pork with soy glaze, and pineapple chunks.

Poke was good, huge chunks of fresh Ahi with a nice marinade, dusted with Macadamia nuts and filled with diced avocado. The Shrimp Rolls were standard fare. Deep fried beyond any recognizable flavor. The Mahi itself was actually quite nice, but the mango-papaya sauce was its savior. The pulled pork had a deeply braised flavor to it, more like a pot roast than a pulled pork. But we at EATERAZ are BBQ fanatics, so if it ain’t smoked, it ain’t pulled pork. We asked neighboring diners about their meals and they all seemed satisfied but no giant grins (maybe they needed more mai tais.)

At the end of the day, it was a PREVIEW dinner, and surely they will get their groove on and crank out the same successful fare that they have become known for.

For now, Hula’s will be dinner-only — lunch in November.

Hula’s Modern Tiki

4700 N. Central Ave., Phoenix

602-265-8454

Hours: 4pm-10pm Sunday through Thursday; 4pm to close, Friday and Saturday.

Click here for menu – Hula’s Modern Tiki Full Menu

hulasmoderntiki.com

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If you’re reading this within an hour of receiving it, you either didn’t go to the Guinness 250th birthday party last night at the Wrigley Mansion, or are still up drinkin’ in celebration.

The good folks from Diageo put on a hell of a shindig that was packed with 103.9 listeners who scored free tix to see Alien Ant Farm perform last night. It’s not quite the Black Eyed Peas in Kuala Lumpur (who performed for their big Guinness party) but it was cool to know that across the globe, Guinness toasts were going on, many of them linked by DirecTV. The birthday is otherwise known as “Arthur’s Day” in honor of the day Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease on the St James’s Gate Brewery in Dublin. Bet the people at SouthBridge are glad they didn’t get roped into that kinda deal.

Before the madness at Wrigley, we caught up with the aptly named Brendan O’Connell, a Key Account Specialist with Diageo Guinness USA, for a little chat. Click on the video below.

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Spaghetti and meatballs! Spaghetti and meatballs! That’s just about all anyone could talk about as Fred’s heads into its final weeks before opening along with Barney’s New York at Scottsdale Fashion Square in mid-October. Apparently, all of the local staff who got to New York to meet Fred’s Executive Chef Mark Strausman, fell in love with the spaghetti and meatballs right quick. But they’re also quickly falling in love with their sexy space, an intimately scaled room of chocolate browns, backlit concrete block, and amazing views.

We snuck in to chat with Fred’s Scottsdale GM, David Jette, who offered a few thoughts on life at Fred’s so far. It’ll be a big change from his eight years at T. Cooks, but he seemed excited and ready for the new gig. Sorry we couldn’t show ya more of the place, but we do have a menu recommendation…

Click here to view Fred’s Menu NYC

* Items and prices will vary for Scottsdale.

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Men, women, children. We all love breasts. So let’s try and keep ‘em. In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Chambord has teamed up with Susan G. Komen For The Cure to have cocktail fans “Pink Their Drinks.” Restaurants and bars all over town are participating. When you order a drink made with Chambord, they donate money to the cause. But that still doesn’t give you a license to drive drunk. Telling the officer that you were drinking for charity will probably not get you off the hook.

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Campbell’s Soup. That’s what, apparently, The Most Interesting Man in the World likes to have for dinner. The infamous “Stay Thirsty” ad campaign for Dos Equis beer stars Jonathan Goldsmith, an actor with a long history of making single appearances on some of your favorite TV shows. His biggest hit to date cast him as the suave and debonair guy all the ladies love. But what happens when the public finds out he’s really not the Most Interesting Man in the World?

“I was appalled,” said one industry insider.

“Mushroom? I woulda thought for sure the guy would at least go Chicken & Stars … I mean, he’s a big Hollywood guy now!” said somebody else.

Our own Howard Seftel noted: “I give that soup four stars.”

Although The Most Interesting Man campaign appeals to the key Dos Equis consumer — adult men who live or aspire to live “interesting” lives, everyone will love the video clip above. Just click the image.

You gotta love TMZ …

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On Saturday night, Alliance Beverage’s CEO Bob Smith hosted their annual Pioneer Classic Charity event out at the Wigwam Resort. Those who attended helped Alliance reach over $2 million in charitable donations to organizations around the Valley.

Apart from the golf and great events over weekend, you can only imagine the wines that were present at the dinner–Rodney Strong Reserves, Banfi Cabs, on and on … One wine that stood out was due to one of the men in attendance — Michael Mondavi and his I’M Rosé.

This Cabernet Sauvignon is made in the Saigneé style (otherwise known as bleeding the vats, whereby a portion of the Cab’s juice is fermented separately after being removed from the barrels, or “bled”). It makes the wine stand up on its own and have more character. The grapes in question come from Mondavi’s Atlas Peak and Pope Valley vineyards in Napa.

Yes, the wine is good, but two guys at the event were particularly excited–Sanctuary on Camelback‘s GM Mike Surguine and man-in-charge, Bill Nassikas. As Nassikas ran to get us a glass to taste, Surguine let out that they will be selling this wine starting today at their Jade Bar. He was particularly excited, exclaiming “look, even the bottle top is Sanctuary Green!”

Nassikas served it over a glass of ice and even after drinking those giant cabs at dinner, I’M Rosé’s flavor still shot through. Cheers to bleeding the vats!

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It was only a matter of time before Mission Chef/Partner, Matt Carter finally found a burger recipe he would put on their lunch menu. “I didn’t want to just throw the obvious Green Chili Burger on there or something as overdone,” confided Carter.

Well he answered the call with a well-expected bang. Introducing the Uruguayan Burger. Grass fed beef with a spicy rocoto aioli, escabeche, incredible smoked onions, tomato, iceberg, St. Jorge cheese all on their amazing Torta bread.

But wait — there’s more!

He also added two more Tortas sandwiches; a Smoked Brisket and a Cubano.

The Smoked Brisket comes with habanero bbq sauce, aji amarillo, and of course — cole slaw. One word — REDONKULOUS! The smokey brisket hits your palette first but then it melts away into some very deep and wonderful flavors.

And if those two weren’t enough, introducing the Cubano Torta. Carter’s crazy-amazing pork belly with smoked  ham and swiss, sliced pickle and Dijon mustard. It would make Ricky Ricardo rise from his grave.

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Did you know that deep within the Fox Restaurant Concepts HQ is a test kitchen where chefs for Bloom, Sauce, TrueFood, Olive & Ivy, Green House, NoRTH (screw it, basically every restaurant you love) get to toy with virtually any ingredient they want to tweak their menus and try new dishes away from the madness of the front lines? Well now you do.

The offices are located in the Scottsdale Waterfront, near Olive & Ivy. We were having an iced coffee from said restaurant last week and got so friggin’ insanely caffeinated, we figured – let’s go bother the people that did this to us! So when we got inside, we found Andrew Ashmore, who’s going to Exec Chef for Fox at the new Modern Steak when it opens next to Barney’s on October 26. Ashmore’s got a lot of culinary tricks up his sleeve (we were sworn to secrecy about them, a.k.a. can’t remember because we were shaking from their crack-like coffee) and from the looks of it, Modern Steak’s gonna kill it.

He was queuing up tastings of fish for Fox and crew in the test kitchen. A stressful time, yes. But Ashmore seemed cool, calm, and prepared. Watch the vid above. Sorry we didn’t ask better questions … (Umm, Debbie, which way is the bathroom??)

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