Scottsdale85251
After landing in Phoenix, the wife and I were in need of some food. She likes pickles and I like pigs, so we stopped at a place called Pig & Pickle. With a name like that, you could probably guess that it was trendy, hipsterish and had some sort of deviled eggs. Well, at least the first two are right, but I suspect deviled eggs will make their way onto the menu at some point. The menu had a nice variety of piggy items and even a few that weren’t if that’s not your thing.
It’s very rare that I require a TV in restaurant. After all, my favorite sport of college football is often finished before it’s anywhere close to dinner time. But every once in a while it happens, like when I was in Phoenix and my Tigers happened to be playing in the World Series (yes, this review is way delayed). My upcoming family recommended Don & Charlie’s, a Mecca for baseball fans and my family took the suggestion.
When I think of New Mexico, a couple things come to mind. 1) Bugs Bunny should’ve taken a left turn at Albuquerque. 2) Carlsbad Cavern is supposed to be awesome. 3) They love green chilies on everything. Well a restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona has taken a pun from Carlsbad Cavern, thrown green chilies in and somehow failed to include Bugs Bunny. It’s called Carlsbad Tavern and I went in search of a burger instead of a bunny.
EDIT: Apparently this place is now called Blitz, but still reps the state of Michigan.
A couple weeks ago I headed to Phoenix with the girlfriend for a wedding. But this wasn’t just any weekend, it happened to be the weekend of the Michigan-Michigan State game. It’s usually a pretty big game, but with both teams undefeated (at the time), it was a game I couldn’t miss. Fortunately, said girlfriend found an interesting bar for me to watch it at in Old Town Scottsdale. It was called Upper Deck Sports Grille and was dedicated to Michigan and Michigan State fans. You would think Phoenix would be big enough to host ex-Michiganders at more than one bar, but you would be wrong.
Every once in a blue moon, a restaurant comes along that you just can’t pass up. Sometimes it’s Taco Bell, and sometimes it’s a place called Bacon in Scottsdale. Although clearly capitalizing on the current bacon trend, the name sounded great to me when the girlfriend’s family suggested it. Since it was Father’s Day, we expected a long line, so we called in advance and a table was ready for us by the time we got there.
In much of the south, there is a burger chain called Whataburger. Completely unknown to people of the north and even to people in Southern California, Whataburger definitely has been cooking up burgers for quite a while. Last time I was in Phoenix (which is the south as far as I’m concerned), I made it a goal to visit Whataburger and see how their burgers stand up to the rest of the fast food world.