We don’t really know how to say this politely, but things got a little crazy on Saturday night. The wine flowed freely at Lunch & Learn (especially the Moet) and the crowd was pumped because this was the season’s single “Dinner & Learn”—taking place in the Views Ballroom at Sanctuary Camelback Mountain.

A jazz duet jammed as people moved through the wine pairings and watched cooking demos by Providence Restaurant Chef Michael Cimarusti, who taught guests how to perfectly sear fish and how to perfectly drink a beer while doing it. Champagne glasses clinked and guests were wowed left and right with incredible food coming out of the kitchen. Most of the crowd hit Jade Bar after, which is probably why Lunch & Learn mastermind Chef Beau MacMillan decided to end the series on a healthy note next week. (Making up for the caloric sins of this past Saturday?)

Chef Scott Uehlein, Corporate Executive Chef for Canyon Ranch Spas & Resorts, will be doing the lunchtime demo. After the cooking, guests will be treated to Roasted Willcox tomato gazpacho with crabmeat; crisp-skinned fish with brown butter vinaigrette, herbed quinoa salad and snap peas; and a dessert of blueberry cream tart.

Lunch, demos, and wine pairings cost $65. And don’t forget, you can pair a room at Sanctuary for $169. Call 480-607-2300 to make reservations.

The two winners from last week’s EATERAZ contest for Lunch & Learn tickets were actually in from Wichita, KS and staying at Sanctuary to celebrate their wedding anniversary! So if you’d like to enter for a pair of tickets to this week, simply visit this page for entry rules. But who are these people below?

Besides the creepy/stalkerish Beau Macmillan in the background, this is Lynne Beyer of Lynne Beyer Designs and her husband Richard Loope. On Saturday, Beyer was celebrating the two awards she’s holding here–a Best in Show and 1st Place Hospitality from the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) for her work designing Table XII–the private dining room at elements. You can see Beyer’s award-winning design for yourself during the Friday night preview dinner with Chefs Uehlein and MacMillan (or just read this month’s Phoenix Magazine). We think the design is sexy and dramatic, making a perfect backdrop for some of the best food you’re guaranteed to have there. To book a seat, visit this page. Meanwhile, watch Beau pump iron in the promo here:

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We won’t kid anyone into thinking that EATERAZ is a football-watching, player-following, sports-minded kind of organization. But if there’s one local football-related event we’d attend, it would be the Larry Fitzgerald & Friends Celebrity Servers Night on August 30.

Along with other players from the Arizona Cardinals, Fitzgerald will trade in the jersey for a waiter’s jacket and serve guests for dinner at Morton’s The Steakhouse in Phoenix. Expect to see Coach Ken Whisenhunt, Kurt Warner, Calais Campbell, Darnell Dockett, Bernie Wells, and others, all at your beck and call. During dinner, the players will take orders, serve food, help bus tables, and maybe even accept a tip or two.

The wide receiver has set up two beneficiaries for the dinner: one named after his mother, Carol Fitzgerald, who spent a career helping disease victims and urban youth, and the First Down Fund which supports underprivileged kids. Dinner costs $300; or $400 for an exclusive reception with the players.

Call 602-955-9577 to make a reservation.

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You can run into the craziest situations doing what we do over here. Some meetings take place in the office, some in coffee bars, some in big corporate conference rooms. So when a turf supplier and BBQ guy we’ve been after asked if we could meet him during a Wednesday “Gumba Night” at Scottsdale Cigar Club, we figured, hey, roll with it.

We weaved our way through the Scottsdale Airpark, and tucked in the corner between some no-name business and another no-name business is a little shopfront with a couple guys standing outside. One is trying his hand at the putting green. Another is showing off his new Maserati. And a couple others are sitting in Adirondack chairs. Open the doors and it’s like walkin’ into that final scene in Goodfellas. People we didn’t even know were sharing drinks, recommending cigars, and making introductions. There’s poker being played in the back, a slot machine tournament going on in one corner, and a closed-door meeting in the main office.

Since we can’t be the only two guys not smokin’ cigars, we jumped right in. Tyda ended up with some thin, girly thing, while Phillips puffed away on a fatty Macanudo. We had our meeting and all went well. So well, that we’ll definitely be back to Gumba Night. Looks like we might even make this a defacto meeting place for Taco Fest and BBQ biz … just like Scottsdale City Councilwoman Lisa Borowsky. (only she probably meets about city curfew and taxes not hot sauce and ribs like us.)

So whether or not you’re an avid smoker, we think you should check it out. If you can’t, at least give a listen to owner Brad Berko’s radio show, The Best Damn Cigar Show, at noon on Sundays, on AM 1510.

Scottsdale Cigar Club
14525 N. 79th Street, Ste. H
Scottsdale , AZ 85260
480-946-7833
http://wordpress.scottsdalecigarclub.com

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Lunch & Learn certainly has been a wild ride this summer. Perhaps the craziest adventure happened last weekend, when the a/c went down in the Sanctuary Camelback Mountain kitchen … while Vegas superstar chef Alex Stratta was preparing his 3-course lunch! You could cut the tension with a knife, but the guests never saw the chaos–just a perfectly orchestrated event. Everyone loved hearing Stratta’s tales of his early days at Mary Elaine’s at The Phoenician and his current life at Alex and Stratta restaurants in the Wynn Resort (even poking fun at the names of his restaurants, “I’m not an ego-maniac, I swear!”)

Next weekend, Lunch & Learn is actually more of Dinner & Learn, taking place at 6pm on Saturday. We’ve learned from years’ past that if you’re looking for the rowdiest one of the season, this dinner event is it. But as always, the focus will be on the food. The Chef in-town and doing the cooking demo is Michael Cimarusti of Providence Restaurant in LA. He BEAT Miromoto at his own game (blackfish) on Iron Chef back in the day. Cimarusti’s menu for this weekend goes a little something like this:

Japanese kanpachi – heirloom tomato, shiso leaf, crispy nori cracker
Wild Alaskan day boat halibut – yukon gold potatoes, calamari, manila clams, lemon
Dulce de leche panna cotta – blueberries, passion fruit, caramelized rice crispies

You’ll learn how to cook these dishes during the demo, then see how they pair with wine and spirits as you dine. Tickets are $95, and you can still cap the night with a room (plus free upgrade) for another $169. Also on the schedule, a dinner that will blow your freakin’ mind the night before – that’ll take place in the 12-seat private dining room at elements. Details are here: www.sanctuaryoncamelback.com and you can find the menu on our Facebook page later this week.

Plus, we still haven’t chosen a winner for this week, so simply visit the contest page to find out how to enter for a pair of free tix! Meanwhile, watch Sanctuary’s host chef Beau MacMillan talk to crabs in the video here. It’s pretty funny.

Reservations: 480-607-2300

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There are plenty of charity dinners out there that are worth your dough and go straight to help those in need. There are also plenty of charity dinners that pilfer most of the ticket price and serve you crap. Ed Sweet’s Sour Ball is closer to the good one.

Now in its fourth year, the Sour Ball is a small culinary event that Ed, a local copywriter, stresses “is all about the food.” Well that, and, knowing that $50 of your pricey ticket goes to support his charity of choice. Sure, it’d be nice to see more of that ticket go to charity, but fifty bucks is better than no bucks and you get a killer dinner out of it.

He’s been working with Chefs Todd Sicolo and Conor Favre at Frank & Albert’s in the Biltmore Resort to nail a five-courser that seems to have just the right balance of sweet and sour. Check out the menu below, which includes the cocktail pairings. Although that charity’s been ChildHelp in years’ past, Sweet switched over to Stand Up for Kids for this years’ event.

The Sour Ball is Friday, September 24, at 6pm. Tickets are $175 each. Call 602-738-2239 to reserve.

Amuse
Duck confit lollipop: Our version of duck a l’orange
Sour orange, port wine & chive
Drink: Kir Royale

First Course
Mango Ménage a trios
Mango Glazed shrimp, Mango shooter, mango push pop & burled lime
Drink: Fizzy mango margarita

Second Course
Not so summer, Ahi tuna roll
Rice paper, pickled vegetables, ahi tuna & sour salt dipping sauce
Drink: Asian pear Sake with candied ginger

Third Course
Crispy, crunchy, sour pork belly
Lemon grass-shitake mushroom broth, edamame & scallions
Drink: Granny Smith apple martini

Fourth Course
Filet & figs
Tamarind filet, bruled fig, smoked sour sea salt & vanilla sweet potatoes
Drink: Chili Beer cocktail

Fifth Course
The Citrus Cocktail Kicker
Blood orange panna cotta, lemon cheese cake cubes, grapefruit cotton candy & sour lime pixie stick
Drink: Grand Marnier slushy

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Somebody makes a t-shirt (above left). Then somebody else makes a cake (above right). What do these two things have in common? For Chris Cardinal, a lot. These two things led to an annual cake competition that’s taken off like, um, wildcakes.

See, Cardinal’s a local, 24-year old web developer who runs a fan blog devoted to a certain t-shirt company called Threadless. (Hey, we all have our hobbies.) He decided to ask some Threadless fans to make cakes inspired by the funky t-shirt designs. By the contests’ second year, Cardinal was flooded with 600 entries and over 9,000 photos. This year’s contest deadline is August 16 and it’s shaping up to be quite the full-time undertaking for Cardinal.

Even if you’re not going to mix up a last-minute entry and make a cake that looks like a fire-breathing dragon, peruse the gallery of entries. You’re not going to believe what you see. These fancy desserts are no piece of cake, even for confectionery pros.

View it here: www.threadcakes.com/gallery

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Have you ever been to Phoenix Cooks? It’s $%^&! crazy. There’s really no better way to describe this annual event, other than crazy. In your first 10 minutes, you’re bound to encounter a cooking demo stage or two by these guys, tables of wine and spirits, some of the Valley’s top chefs slingin’ their best, and probably a few of your friends you didn’t know we’re going.

Then there’s the five hours after that. You can eat yourself silly, maybe attend one of the many educational seminars on making great lattes, assessing wine, or simply cooking. Like we said, you’ve got five hours, so you’ve gotta move fast.

It’s not often that you hear us endorse a culinary event, so if you read about one here, you know we’d actually attend it. So we hope you buy your tickets to Phoenix Cooks now. We’d love to join you out in the crowds, but we’ll be manning a table with a giant Jenga.

Yep, you heard us. Giant Jenga. Because we have a booth to promote the Arizona Taco Festival, we needed an attraction. Tyda’s not bikini ready, so we decided to get a 7-foot tall Jenga for all to enjoy and win prizes. There might be tortilla chips, too. We’ll see.

So we hope to see you on September 4 at JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa (new location).

Cooking classes and breakout seminars are $8 each ($10 at the event, but beware, these sell out quickly). Overall tickets are $75 and well worth it.

Visit www.phoenixcooks.com to purchase.

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Anyone who starts a new company has got balls. It’s friggin’ tough out there, and no new venture should be taken lightly. Which is why we say Congratulations to a few industry colleagues who launched a new company today. Called Up Agency, the venture is led by restaurant and hospitality PR guy, Ty Largo, and backed up by Nikki Buchanan and Stacy Pearson. Buchanan, you may remember from our story last week, recently resigned as a restaurant critic from the Arizona Republic. We kinda-sorta called her next move—saying that she and Ty would join forces. Meanwhile, Pearson’s been working for a PR guy named Jason Rose. To date, she’s been more of a behind-the-scenester, but she’s definitely got the experience and database to get stuff done.

So Up Agency is definitely in a good spot. Ty’s young and charming and a self-proclaimed God amongst the Twitteratti of people who tweet about food in Phoenix. Nikki’s a solid writer who is well-versed in food, ingredients, and technique. Old people love her. And Stacy’s got the industry cred that Ty might eventually glean if he stays in the game long enough. As a unit, they certainly have as much potential as anyone else in the overcrowded world of PR and Marketing and now food festivals (ahem.)

For those of you who know us, we like to play a little game called “Fun With Press Releases!” From time to time, we receive a press release that tempts us to whip out the red pen because it’s so inane or poorly written. This game is probably the reason our inboxes have grown cobwebs lately. Today’s Up Agency launch naturally included their first press release which tempted us to initiate a round of red, but just like it’s bad form for a restaurant critic to write a review of day number one, we’ve decided to pass on the parsing of Up’s first words.

HOWEVER… (and this is why you love us … or hate us….)

We simply couldn’t resist serving you this tasty morsel of contradictory prose:

“Every new PR, marketing and ad agency press release talks strategy this, integration that, new media blah, blah, blah, unmatched experience yadda yadda. Enough.”

…and then go on to say that they are…

“…nimble, talented, experience professionals who move quickly and think differently. Up delivers, offering a complete package of marketing, advertising, media relations, social media savvy, inspired design and smart web development accompanied by clear, concise writing.”

They just listed all the stuff they said they’ve had “enough” of … in a not-so “concise writing” kinda way.

You can read the whole release here. If you’re in marketing, advertising, PR, social media, print, web journalism, or anything related, you might want to read it (even the part where they turned the word “brilliant” into a noun and describe themselves as “three celebrated brilliants”). Why? Because we ironically received a handful of messages today from PR people put off by what they thought was an overly arrogant tone of Ups communique. Perhaps they were just hoping that we would continue to be the self-appointed bullies on the playground and pick a fight (reference-in-point, PR gal Mari Markogianis playfully teased us with the following salutation at a party yesterday: “Hello EATERAZ boys, starting any trouble here today?”)

But, you know, maybe that’s the point. At the end of the day, we all know this town could use a little pot stirring. And thankfully, Up’s already bringing it.

Then again, maybe we shoulda just stopped at Congrats.

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Heading into its third week tomorrow, Sanctuary Camelback Mountain Resort & Spa’s Lunch & Learn series is just like the weather–it keeps getting hotter! Tomorrow’s lunch features Bellagio Resort’s superstar Chef Akira Back from Yellowtail. Tickets might still be available for a lucky few who call now. But if you entered our contest, you might have won a free pair (we keep telling you to enter… Have you?!)

Click the contest banner above to see who won tix to previous L&L shindigs and check out another video in the hilarious series of promos we filmed with Lunch & Learn ringleader Chef Beau MacMillan. For next week’s promo, we caught Beau in the middle of contemplating figs and he gives us the lowdown on next week’s guest (“God among chefs,” as Beau refers to him), Alex Stratta–the man behind his two namesake restaurants at the Wynn Resort in Las Vegas.

Tomorrow’s Lunch & Learn costs $65 and can also be paired with a night at Sanctuary for $169. Make a rez by calling (480) 607-2300. Or, you can try to win a pair of seats to an upcoming one by simply e-mailing contest@eateraz.com and telling us about your favorite food! A winner will be announced every week.

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It began as a joke. There we were, a couple years ago, with an inkling to start a blog about our experiences dining out and thoughts on the food scene–both local and national. We’d bounce around ideas on how to cover this chef or that place, this cocktail or that dish. One day, while doing the usual “where should we go for lunch” dance, Cheesecake Factory came up. So we went. The order? Orange Chicken, Club Sandwich, and a Guacamole to share. It wasn’t the first time we had been to Cheesecake, but the first time in a long time.

We’ve been back at least once every two weeks since. It’s #$%^ delicious! And apparently, most Americans agree. Check out the recent survey by this group. Turns out Cheesecake is the country’s favorite chain restaurant. Do we feel like we’re shunning local restaurants while dining with The Man? Hell no – just ask James, a recent server who lost his job in tech and is now using this serving gig as a way to keep his family afloat. So apparently even the devil offers a life vest now and then.

So if you can live with yourself, go check out Cheesecake. Order the Orange Chicken. And bask in the glow of big business.

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