Restaurant Week: Blanco

Our tour goes a little Mexican today as we discuss the food and drinks at Blanco.  The concept for this restaurant is clean, fresh Mexican fare and great tasting mixed drinks.  The bar is the centerpiece of the layout of this eatery.  The industrial glass garage doors let lots of light in during the day, contributing to the fresh, clean vibe. 

They were running a special the day we visited including 2 margaritas and 2 "appetizer" entrees for $25.  We bit.  Drew had the margaritas and said they were pretty good.  We settled on the braised short rib and avocado cheese crisp and the nachos con queso blanco.  The braised short ribs on the cheese crisp (much like a quesadilla, but better) were phenomenal in the flavor department.  They were just the right texture and combined very nicely with the avocado and generous sprinkling of cilantro.  It was so good, we almost forgot to take a picture.  The nachos were nothing really special and left us wishing we had ordered another option of cheese crisp (the chipotle shrimp and corn sounds really good). 

We stopped in for lunch and were surprised by very large portions!  Very great lunch spot, but we will have to go back for dinner sometime.  The Restaurant Week menu looks amazing!

Restaurant Week: Culinary Dropout

Apparently one of the places to see and be seen in Scottsdale on a Saturday night or Sunday morning is Culinary Dropout (evidenced by the high number of groups of people asking the staff to take pictures of them, maybe the paparazzi had the night off).  Drew found this restaurant through some online research and it sounded interesting to him.  The concept: laid back vibe, no uniforms, comfort food.  The resulting experience: a place that says it doesn't want to be fussy, but ends up being a fussy type place for hipsters to hang.  Don't get me wrong, it was just right, just not the "underground, subversive, aren't we so different" place one might think. 

We started with an order of house made potato chips with onion dip, some olives, and prosciutto.  The chips are wonderful, but the dip tastes more like a ranch dip than onion dip.  The olives and prosciutto are part of their "make your own meat and cheese platter" antipasti menu and I love this concept!  They could not have picked two greater suckers for this, we could have eaten solely from this part of the menu. 

I ordered the artichoke salad with asparagus, endive, and Parmesan.  Let's just say this salad was divine!  I love a good salad and crave them quite often.  The downside to ordering this salad is that I have a new crave-able salad and no way to get it when the craving strikes!  The vinaigrette on this salad makes it out of this world, but they could leave a little off because the salad gets a little soggy after it sits for a little while.  Drew ordered the pork belly Cubano sandwich and was very pleased with the results.  He didn't find the pork belly as salty as he was expecting. 

For dessert, our server brought out their salted caramel custard, my new favorite.  I haven't stopped thinking about this dessert since I had it.  The dessert comes topped with house made caramel popcorn - wow!  The caramel topping is the perfectly prepared caramel sauce, salted and just the right thickness.  And the custard itself - sublime, creamy, not at all eggy.  Oh, I need some more of that, stat! 

You too can enjoy one of the carmel custards as part of Culinary Dropout's Restaurant Week menu.  They have a 3 course meal for $58/couple including a glass of wine each.  Sound's like the perfect date night to me!  It's a great way to check out Phoenix magazine's Best New Restaurant for 2010.

Note: sorry there are no pictures to ogle.  The Dropout's outdoor lighting was less than perfect for photo-taking.

Z'Tejas: the Phoenix Edition

An entire post ought to be dedicated to the reason we stop in Phoenix every time we drive home from Texas.  There are many places to stop along the way, but this restaurant is what draws us to Phoenix. 
Z'Tejas is a "chain" in the sense that there are many locations around the southwest (and one in Seattle).  But it is truly something special!  It was started in Austin Texas and serves food that is decidedly Texan in flavor. 
This time around, Drew stated, "I hate this restaurant because everything tastes good."  Each time we go we struggle to decide what to order, but because we go so infrequently, we end up ordering the same thing. 
We started with the Texas Trio - a set of chips and dips to put all others to shame - hand-hacked guacamole, queso, and roasted pepper salsa (their house salsa).  Our waitress was generous to bring one of the daily salsas -  green chile with avocado - the best green salsa I have ever had!
For the main course, we got the usual.  Green Chile Barbacoa Enchiladas for Drew, Santa Fe Smoked Chicken Enchiladas for me.  There was ample sharing between the two of us.  The Santa Fe Enchiladas can best be described as "Texas on a plate."  The Green Chile Enchiladas are a very simple flavor combination, but the flavor really works, while the Santa Fe Enchiladas are a complex blend of flavors that leave you hungry for more.  Oh, for three stomachs to try all the other items on the menu in one sitting. 
We also ordered dessert - Cobbler with Ice cream on top.  Superb - loved the ground pecans in the skillet...mmmm.  I think I could just eat pecans and warm fruit from a skillet with ice cream on top and be a happy woman!
Drew also endulged in his customary Margarita trio.  He always starts with their house margarita (6th Street), then moves to another "new" one, and finishes with his favorite.  He would have to tell you all about the flavors because you couldn't pay me to take up room in my belly with anything but the food at this place.
Z'Tejas, we know you well.  Thanks for the great food!