(flickr) We went to Hanny's on Saturday night. It is aesthetically nice, as is the standard Phoenix manner of modernist restaurants. It is in an old department store and keeps some of that feel by having old designer names
on the walls. The food wasn't that great, there was fried onions on everything, including the salad, which was odd. The menu is also limited and focused more on gourmet pizza than sandwiches. I suspect the place is good for happy hour, but not so great for dinner or lunch. Considering it is the same folks as who run AZ88 it was disappointing. AZ88 is way better in menu and feel.
The food was nice. It comes out in smallish portions that are more garnished than having vegetables with them. It looks good and is stylish but we found we didn't really eat the vegetables that came with each dish. The cocktails were very strong in both taste and alcohol, so they definitely have that going for them. It has a nice feel to it. I enjoyed eating there.
(flickr) Chelsea's Kitchen is up on 40th and Camelback. It is part of the group of restaurants that includes La Grande Orange, Postino's and Radio Milano. The food is good and well priced. It's main attraction is that it has a huge patio. It looks like it used to be a house which was on the corner of the canal. Consequently parking is tough and the valet's pile cars up in tight rows that suffocate what little asphalt there is around the restaurant.
The patio stretches outside from the bar and there is a smaller patio in the front of the building as well. Inside is pretty plush with several booths and big comfortable seating. When I went there last week with a contractor we sat out in the patio. It was a bit chilly and I huddled close to a heating lamp. We went there on Friday with friends, as one of our friend's is off to Denver for a job, and we all packed into a soft and leathery booth.
The place was packed on a Friday night. We ended up waiting an hour for a table. Fortunately their bar is open and there are thin and long bar height tables to lean or rest drinks on. Unlike Blanco in Scottsdale which has no mechanism to occupy people that are waiting for a table [fail]. So the wait wasn't that bad, but we were starving by the time we did sit down at Chelsea's. We wolfed down the chips and guacamole.
Due to hunger pangs, and surviving on granola (muesli) and protein bars at work all day courtesy of production patch issues, I ordered a burger. It was pretty nice. Others had burgers, rotisserie chicken and salad garnished with steak.
Chelsea's is a nice restaurant and one that is worthy of wider rotation. Of that group of restaurants on 40th I think Postino's remains my favorite.
(flickr set) Maizie's Cafe is in central Phoenix. It is a nice casual style restaurant with excellent food and very reasonable prices. I didn't take any good photographs while there, it was a bad photography night for me.
Daily Dose breakfast place in Old Town Scottsdale. It has good breakfast food, I had a hang-over sandwich which was well done in that it didn't break and leak all over me.
We went to Geisha Au Go-Go for dinner on Friday night. Their schtick is retro Japanese with karaoke rooms - visually the place is dominated by big black and white pictures of Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Syd Vicious. The place is probably ok for parties and having a drink when in old town but the food was kind of heavy and greasy. Worse, they were in between menus when we were there so there was no sushi or rolls. In fact the menu was tiny. I wouldn't eat there again. It was expensive for what it was too.
We went to the perennial favorite, Orange Table, for coffee and desert.
Tracy took this beautiful photograph of us at
My Florist. I love it; one of my favorites. Too often we do grand landscapes or sentimental portraits rather than just the simple act of embrace or affection.
We went to
Coup Des Tartes last night for dinner. It is set in a house with an outdoor seating area. The cramped nature of the 50's style house reminded me of the restaurants in Kurmond, Kurrajong and other parts of the Blue Mountains. Far is more traditional than the light style of the modernist Phoenix restaurants. I had lamb shank. The food was excellent. Not a restaurant I would go to every week or fortnight but certainly one adding to the longer cycles.
Most Popular on South Sea Republic
The articles that have been viewed the most:
Most Popular Restaurants in Phoenix
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Most Popular Hikes in Arizona
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Alternate Australian Constitutions
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
Archives For South Sea Republic
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
Who Is Cam Riley
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
Websites Worth Reading
Websites of friends, colleagues and of interest;
