SHE’S FINALLY READY
Last month, the Glenlivet Nàdurra Triumph 1991 finally hit shelves. The single malt is made from a single-source grain—the Triumph barley—and was distilled and casked in Speyside in 1991. What’s that mean? This 18-year-old is mature enough to party and ready for all of us to enjoy. $85.

BEAUTY YOU CAN AFFORD
Thanks to the fact that we’re all broke now, it’s okay to drink stuff that might have carried a stigma just two years ago. It might have been Veuve all the way during the boom years, but now your taste leans toward delicious tinged with a dash of practicality. So check out Stellina di Notte Prosecco, $13, for all your bubbly needs. Made with delicate Prosecco grapes from the northern Veneto region of Italy, in the foothills of the Alps, this Prosecco is light, affordable, and fun.

SHINE ON YOU CRAZY VODKA
Same great Belvedere, even better bottle. Belvedere in 750ML and 1.75L bottles are available through the end of December with a little holiday cheer. A mirrored background gives the bottle a sleek, modern look that makes this great gift one that doesn’t need any wrapping paper. Even the advertising reads: “Guaranteed not to be regifted.”

LEGAL ALIEN
Smooth move for a smooth tequila produced by Casa Herradura—their Antiguo Tequila, a super-premium brand previously only enjoyed in Mexico, is being distributed in U.S. as of almost now. Antiguo was launched in 1995 to commemorate Casa Herradura’s 125th anniversary, and since then, it has become one of the fastest growing tequila brands in Mexico. It’s lighter bodied, exceptionally smooth, and priced at about $25 to $30 for Blanco, Reposado, and Añejo.

EL LABEL ES MUY WELL-DESIGNEDO
By the end of this year, you could confuse your bottle of el Jimador Anejo with their Reposado. Why? The #1 tequila in Mexico is redesigning the Anejo’s bottle to look more like the Blanco and Reposado packages. How will you be able to tell the difference? Look for a silver background on the label. Jimador reps say this “will radiate the quality of the 12-month aged 100% agave tequila inside,” whatever that means.

SEND IT WITH A SPUTNIK
If you’re traveling internationally, you’ll notice a nice addition to the vodka aisle in Duty Free—Russian Standard. Parent co Rémy Cointreau Global Travel Retail (GTR) is ensuring the global brand (and number one selling vodka in Russia) is carried along by passengers, no matter where they may be going.

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Here’s a heavy thought for you: What if Roka Akor meant to simply offer up an affordable bar menu but what they stumbled into was an absolute snapshot of our societal and economic zeitgeist?

How high were you at dinner? you might ask.

We seem to be eating this way in a lot of places now, we say. It must mean something.

So it’s officially a trend—these bar menus of $2, $3, $4 items. Ordering from a menu with prices like that does more than free our minds about the check. They let us remember what it was like to order with reckless abandon, share in a way that’s less about trendy tapas and more about feeling the communal experience with the people at our table. And, you can now try things you wouldn’t otherwise order. These incredibly aggressive bar menus are all about “downscaling the upscale,” essentially making the best of the best available to the masses.

Roka’s new Izakaya Menu, offered in the lounge every day from 5pm to close, has all the elements to make you feel like a baller while ordering, yet a smart deal-seeker once paying. Some of our faves:

3-ounce burger: $2
5-piece salmon avocado roll: $5
Tenkatsu fried pork belly: $6
Grilled hamachi collar: $5
3-pieces of butterfish tataki with white asparagus and yuzu: $6
AND THE WINNER: Sweet corn tempura $5

Izakaya includes 14 food items at $2 to $9, and drinks—$6 wines & cocktails, $4 beers, $10 carafes of sake, and $5 to $6 shochus. So apparently, all of these small things are kind of a big deal … you know, in a culturally significant kind of way.

Roka Akor
7299 N. Scottsdale Rd.
Scottsdale, AZ
(480) 306-8800
www.rokaakor.com

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Ah, Chompie’s. When we think of you, we think comfort, we think corned beef, we think streudel and knishes. Chompie’s, you represent a pre-social networking time in our lives when a loud deli counterman yelled “wadda ya want?!” Way before the word twitterati even entered our sordid vocabulary.

But this Twitter stuff is like the blob. No one is safe. Not even an order of lox.

Yep, Chompies is on Twitter. (http://twitter.com/chompiesaz). Now don’t get us wrong, we’re HUGE Chompie’s fans and nothing will keep us from eating there, but wow, tweets from the Chomps. It’s a strange day indeed.

However, what’s nice about their twats is that they’re all business–which is actually what we want from restaurant tweets. Specials, discounts, offers, and news … all tweeted in their best Yiddish accent.  Mozzletweet!

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“Although I laugh and I act like a clown,
Beneath this mask I am wearing a frown.” ~ John Lennon

With dual debuts–one of a multi-million dollar restaurant/kitchen renovation, and another on a new Food Network series (“Worst Cooks in America”), one would think that Beau MacMillan’s name was toplisted on the good side of Santa’s 2009 “Naughty or Nice” register. He seems to be receiving everything he could possibly dream of … or is he?

While building a new über-kitchen at elements restaurant has been a dream of MacMillan’s for ages, becoming a TV star was not — it’s something that, in his words “just sorta happened.” EATERAZ watched a sneak peak of the new show with MacMillan last week, so we asked him about his first three thoughts after viewing the cut. In true Beau Mac form, he rifled back: “I was blown away by how fat I look, how bald I am, and if anyone will like this show.” (To that point, humility like this has landed him the recognition of being named “Culinary Chef Extraordinaire” by the non-prof Scottsdale League for the Arts, for his outstanding charitable contributions in his community.)

Because of the show, MacMillan’s been the focus of almost all local press over the past few weeks (maybe they all picked up on this story: http://www.eateraz.com/?p=4395). But his prevalence has made us wonder about the truth behind the old cliché: “any press is good press.” What would Tiger Woods say about that right now? We tried to contact Woods for comment, but his mouth was duct taped shut by his publicists. So we asked Beau, and surprisingly he gave us quite a bittersweet summation:

“I love that I am getting all this positive press at the moment, it’s great,” says MacMillan. “But I have to say that when they allude to me being a ‘chef/entertainer’, that is less flattering. Listen, I am grateful to be noticed at all, but I have been working my butt off in the Valley for close to a decade to be known for my food. I am a chef. And suddenly it seems, all people want to write about is that I am on TV, implying that I am now moving away from being the thing I have been working at since I was 14. Suddenly I am an ‘entertainer’,” he continued.

“I never went after a spot on Iron Chef,” he says; “they picked me (thankfully). Then they asked me to audition for two other shows. A year and a half later they offered me an audition for Worst Cooks in America. I’m doing this stuff to of course promote myself, but also Sanctuary and Arizona. It’s a new stage in my career and who knows where it will go, if anywhere. But whether it does or doesn’t, I am a chef first.”

So Mr. and Mrs. local press, let’s all remember that although it’s tempting to write about his entertaining Boston accent, it’s more important to write about his deftness as a top chef.

PS–Want more than a picture of his kitchen renovation? Watch the video below.

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Anybody that knows the behind-the-scenes of the great Oz known as EATERAZ, knows that it’s run by two infamous gents—Rick Phillips and David Tyda. While Phillips is mad about the Menorah, Tyda spends his time celebrating Christmas with the fam back in Chicago. He encountered something strange upon walking into his parents’ house yesterday—a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau. Yep, we said, Beaujolais Nouveau. See, Tyda’s mom is always chatting up the wine aisle guy for funky wines few people know about. She’s always up for a bottle of adventure. So Beaujolais?! Come’on Mrs. Tyda, are you feeling okay?

“Well, I’ve discovered that I have a lot of friends who drink a lot. And by a lot, I mean I think they’re alcoholics. So really, who cares what kind of wine I give ‘em? This crappy Beaujolais is just fine. I’ve learned to keep a couple bottles on hand for impromptu stop-by’s and last-minute gifts. And don’t worry, son, we’re drinking Spottswoode Cab tonight.”

Moral of the story: Mom always knows best. And by “best”, we mean wine.

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It’s that time of year again — holiday season. A time for food, parties and gift (cards.) While we all scramble to come up with clever presents for our loved ones, one thing we don’t need to have brain damage from is what to drink during this Joyeux Noël.

For us, it’s simple — champagne. And for that, we’re grateful to Veuve Clicquot for making that one less decision. If you don’t agree, read our five damn good reasons below. Maybe you’ll see it our way.

1. Because a bottle of Veuve is still a luxury within reach. And we all need as many of those as we can get these days.

2. It’s universally loved. Find a person who doesn’t like the taste of Veuve and we’ll find someone you should immediately un-friend.

3. It needs no explanation. You spend all year telling your friends about some obscure Pinot yadda yadda yadda you scored while visiting yadda yadda yadda. On New Year’s, relax – let the yellow label do the talking.

4. Because President of the Champagne House is a woman—Cécile Bonnefond—and yes, she’s the kind of woman you want to have a glass of Champagne with.

5. How do we know? Because when we met her, we asked “What do you love most about Champagne?” Her answer: “Because you never drink it alone… it always starts with two people.”

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Today, we’d like to put something up for discussion. New York Magazine recently excerpted a chunk of “Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It),” a new book that analyzes (among other things) how we are all tricked (or should we say, swayed) by restaurateurs to order a certain way.

Priceless’ author deconstructed Balthazar’s menu and applied certain theories of suggestion, design, and all-out trickery, to illustrate his point. Check out the NYM excerpt here: http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/62498/

So we ask: can you think of any local menus that illustrate these points? Maybe you know of a place that uses heavy bracketing? Maybe you’ve been stuck in “menu siberia” or column hell? Take a read and let us know! We’ll follow up.

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Yep, we were the kids who claimed the dog ate our homework. So today, we’re claiming that we were too damn busy to write a post. But busy with what, you ask? Oh, you know, making history.

A funny thing happened back when we went in for our first meal at St. Francis. Or hit the bar at Posh. We really hated both restaurants on paper. They seemed pretentious, high-brow, and not sensitive to the current “We’re all goddam broke!” zeitgeist. But you spend 5 minutes with Francis’ owner Aaron Chamberlin, or Posh’s Josh Hebert and the story changes. These guys have created restaurants based on solid philosophy and they themselves are just a blast to talk to. THEY are what makes the story all come together.

So it gave us the idea to produce a series of films called “Chefographies.” We built a studio to video interview about a dozen chefs to talk less about the spice in their puree and more about the spice in their lives, how rough the hours can be, and all the behind-the-scenes crap that makes their business so maddening yet addicting. The filming has taken three days and now the story will be edited together.

So really, this post is for those 12 chefs. We laughed, we cried — Cats!

Thanks so much for your candor and taking the time to visit our little home in the hood.

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If you decide to head out to the Mesa Arts Center tomorrow night to catch Guy Fieri and his Roadshow, don’t forget to ask him about his new deal with NBC to host a game show called “Perfect 10.”

Mr. “Big Bite” will be part of the show from soup to nuts (pun intended) meaning from the casting process through production. Auditions for contestants will be held at Fieri’s Roadshow events (starting Thursday visit to Los Angeles’s Wiltern Theater).

“Guy’s enthusiasm is infectious,” he said. “He’s a true gamer at heart and his excitement for this show will inspire both the competitors and viewers at home to join in on the fun,” says NBC reality chief Paul Telegdy, who greenlit “Perfect 10″ earlier this fall.

Here’s how NBC describes Fieri’s role and “Perfect 10″:

Fieri will serve as master of ceremonies and will be the competitors biggest cheerleader. In each episode, Fieri will lead competitors through a series of simple, yet nerve wracking games that can reward them a $1 million prize. Over eight one-hour episodes, competitors will face 10 challenges that escalate in level of difficulty. Created using everyday household items, each game has a 60-second time limit and failure to finish the task on time will eliminate the contestant. One slip of the hand and you’re out.

NBC is expected to premiere “Perfect 10″ later this season or over the summer.

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