The Unvegan

Recent Posts

10 Years of Unvegan
A Quick Bite at Burrito Express
Serendipity at Northern Waters Smokehaus
Twerks and Burritos at Casa Amigos

‘Arizona’

11/26/2012 Scottsdale

Cowboy Burgers at Greasewood Flat (CLOSED)

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A little state pride.

“My Other Ride Has Tits,” says the back of a man’s bright orange muscle shirt. That’s how you know you’re in a special part of Scottsdale, a place where Arizona cultures collide. It’s called Greasewood Flat and the parking lot is filled with Lexuses and motorcycles. Suit-types and the type that wear the shirt above bump elbows here to get a bite of their famous burgers. It looks more suited for cowboys, but maybe we, a bunch of guys out to lunch before my wedding, are just the cowboys of the new old west.

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11/21/2012 Scottsdale

Almost Sporty at Don & Charlie’s

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Pile ’em high.

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.

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11/20/2012 Scottsdale

Getting New Mexican at Carlsbad Tavern

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Green chilies? How surprising!

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.

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9/28/2012 Cave Creek

Rehearsing El Encanto

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Looks Mexican to me.

By now you are probably tired of me referring to my fiancee. Well, be tired no more, because she will soon be referred to as wife. In fact, one step in that process was a visit to El Encanto in Cave Creek, Arizona. You see, El Encanto has been chosen as the location of our rehearsal dinner. But before that dinner could happen, we decided to take the place for a spin to see what the rehearsal would taste like.

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9/26/2012 Scottsdale

Good Morning, Mr. Zipps

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Golden Zipp.

There are few things in this world that go better together than football and wings. So when I was taken to Zipps Sports Grill in Scottsdale to watch Michigan play some football, I decided that wings were the only things fit to go in my mouth. Well, wings and fries. Zipps offered a few different wing flavors, and I ended up going with one that looked pretty interesting – Golden Spicy.

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9/24/2012 Phoenix

Pizzeria Bianco at Last

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A sight for hungry eyes.

Finally, the inevitable has happened. You’ve probably been wondering how many trips to Phoenix it has to take for a food blogger to tackle Pizzeria Bianco and the answer is far too many. Pizzeria Bianco, for those who are not in the know, has regularly been recognized as the greatest pizza in the country and that is no small claim, especially considering we are talking Phoenix here and not New York or Chicago. With that title, as expected, the place is nearly impossible to get a seat at, at least during normal eating hours. During abnormal hours, like 4:45 on a Thursday afternoon, things are a little different and we found multiple open tables and took one for ourselves.

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9/20/2012 Cave Creek

Blackened by Brisam’s

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Blackened and blued.

Pretty much since I first started visiting my fiancee’s parents in Carefree, I’ve had Brisam’s and their supposedly amazing burger pointed out to me on nearly every trip through Cave Creek. Finally, I had enough and demanded we go so I could check out the burger for myself.

Brisam’s is essentially a sports bar and things probably get pretty crowded at night, but we ended up going for lunch and got a quick seat and a quick look at the menu. While their signature Brisam’s Burger probably attracts the most eaters, I couldn’t get into it due to the pile of mushrooms it claimed to have. Instead, I opted for the Blackened Burger, which had some Cajun-style spices and was topped with blue cheese. It came with lettuce, tomato and onion on the side to add to the burger, but I told the waitress that they didn’t need to waste those veggies on me. On the side I had a choice of a couple salads, cole slaw and fries and went with the obvious choice of salad. Err…I mean fries.

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8/30/2012 Phoenix

A Happy Lunch Hour at Windsor

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Strong start.

Until my most recent visit to Phoenix, the only Windsors in my mind were a Canadian city across the river from Detroit, a castle in England and way to tie a tie. But now I know better, because the Windsor in Phoenix that Heather and Albert brought me to rivals all of the other Windsors combined. Why? This Windsor has possibly the most productivity-annihilating happy hour I’ve ever experienced. From 11 am to 5 pm, Windsor offers wine, cocktails and mini beer pitchers for the low price of 5 bucks. In other words, lunch break becomes drunk break.

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8/27/2012 Phoenix

Keeping Classic at Delux Burger

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Looks good enough to eat.

In Phoenix and in need of anything not called cold cuts, I found myself at Delux Burger. With a pleasant blue-colored theme, the look of the restaurant was almost cooling in the sweltering Arizona summer. The air conditioning didn’t hurt either. The three of us each took a stool at the counter that runs through the middle of the restaurant. Strangely, the stools were nailed to the ground and I found myself sitting much closer to the random dude next to me than I would have liked, but figured he was a good man and burger lover due to his being at Delux.

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2/26/2012 Phoenix

No True Food of Mine

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False Food!

Friends, Romans, unvegans…what is true food to you? Is it gluten-free? Is it meaty? Is it kale? The answer is likely all of the above, because true food is what you make of it. Yet, a growing restaurant chain is trying to change all that. Calling itself True Food, it already has an air of pretension about itself. True Food tries to follow Dr. Weil’s anti-inflammatory diet, which actually isn’t as bad as it sounds. Yes, it mistakenly loads a ton of vegetables into foods, but at least the menu at True Food had some remotely meaty options, even a Bison Burger.

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