A Bloom no more......

I was driving to North Phoenix for an errand one afternoon when something caught my eye.

Actually, let me back up.....Bloom, a Fox restaurant had closed it's door last year. Thanksgiving weekend was the last time Bloom was open. I was shocked and very sad about that as they had great food, a nice ambiance and wonderful selections for flights of wines.  I wondered what happened and thought most likely the economy, though their other restaurants seemed to be doing well.

Anyway - what caught my eye was a new sign where once the Bloom sign was....though since I was driving I only got a glance and I knew the sign had words and numbers on it...lol





When I got home, I Googled to get the information I needed.  Where Bloom once was, now a new restaurant blossomed - Cask63.


Paige and I were going to a spring training game and I mentioned Cask63 to her and like a trooper that she is (ok - really I'm turning her into a foodie without her knowing  :)-   ) she said "Sure! I'd love to try that."
Such an awesome friend!





After the game, Paige and I arrived at Cask63.  We had dinner reservations but we weren't quite ready to have dinner so we decided to have a drink and some appetizers at the bar.

I told the hostess that we had dinner reservations but wanted to have a few drinks at the bar first.  She was very nice and told me "Not a problem, just let me know when you ladies are ready to be seated."

Perfect!

The first thing I noticed was the tiled wall that had their name on it and then as we walked to the bar, realized that behind the wall was actually a "private" dining room that can seat 10.

When we sat at the bar, the bartender said hello and handed us a menu.  While Paige looked at the menu, I looked at the surroundings.  Aside from the "private" room, the rest of the restaurant looked the same as Bloom.



                                                                         

While we were deciding on what to drink and snack on, our bartender, Lindsey (who was AWESOME- btw) told me the only other changes was a sheer curtain that semi-separated the bar from the dining room and the small sitting area by the bar/front entry area.

The bar has happy hour daily from 4p-7p. There's 9 appetizers that's half off, 5 specialty drinks that are $5.00 and beer for $5.00.  Only a few wines on the happy hour menu.

We placed our drink order and appetizer order with Lindsey.

Lindsey is from Chicago but you wouldn't know that.  She seemed like she's been with Cask63 forever.

I asked her if she knew why they named it Cask63 and she said " It takes 33 1/2 gallons of wine to fill a cask and there are two partners, so 33 1/2 times 2 = Cask63."







Lindsey had finished making my drink and when I took a sip - WOW!  I've had cosmos before but this was different.  I had ordered the cosmo fresh.


Lindsey told me that the difference is that they use fresh juice ~ they had squeeze the lemon, lime and orange.


While Paige and I sat at the bar enjoying our drinks I watched Lindsey and Lawrence (the other bartender) make about a lot of mojito and fresh gimlet.








I love how they display the fruit in the jars and not in the typical plastic that most bars use.  It certainly makes it more classy and fun.

I also love the fact that you can see how fresh the fruit is that they use.  And let me tell you ~ they do go through a lot!!

The bartender staff are rockstars at Cask63.  They are very friendly, knowledgeable and well.....AWESOME!!

Our appetizers that we ordered had arrived and just in time....was getting a bit hungry.  :)






So, I have to tell you that I'm a cheese lover.
Yes, I admit it!  I love cheese.  So when I saw on the menu warm brie ~ my heart sang!

Brie is one of my favorite cheese.  BUT ~ this brie is not like another. Oh...no. The way Cask63 does their brie is with a black pepper almond crust, served with a fig and pear compote and cibatta crostini.

Creamy, peppery, and oh so good!  Paige had not had brie like this and she LOVED it!


Repeat after me please ~ Yummy!!!






Our second appetizer was the calamari in a cornmeal batter, topped with a tomato gastrique and served with a honey jalapeno mustard.

I don't about you, but it's always a hit or miss with calamari.  Breading is too much, not enough, calamari is undercooked or over cooked.  Well, I've never had calamari with cornmeal batter before but more places should try it.  It's great!

For sure this is an item to share with friends.  Paige and I could have shared this with one or two more people....we were starting to realize that we were kinda getting full.  :(







We were so comfortable at the bar and Lindsey and Lawrence were so much fun to talk to we decided that we wanted to hang with them while we had dinner. (yes- we decided to have dinner)

We took a bit of a break chatted with Lindsey and Lawrence.  Talked about the D-backs and the Yotes. Lindsey being from Chicago was excited that the Blackhawks were playing the Coyotes that night.

For those non-sports peeps - D-backs = Arizona Dimondbacks, baseball, Coyotes =Phoenix Coyotes and Blackhawks =Chicago Blackhawks, hockey.






We decided that we were ready to order.

They brought out a bread platter that had pretzel and sourdough and the butters (yes- I said butters) were a mustard ,cayenne and honey.  LOVED IT!  (btw-this comes with dinner)
Yes, these girls are not afraid of carbs!!

Out came our side of asparagus with sliced almonds in a light lemon herb vinaigrette.  They were done to perfection ~smoky with still a hint of crunch. (well...except that one burnt one...I don't do burnt.)  But it was perfect with our dinner that arrived just a few steps behind the asparagus.

For our dinner, Paige and I shared the Scottish King Salmon cooked with green peppercorn and smoked sea salt, accompanied with barbecue lentils and a sweet corn demi sauce.  The salmon was cooked to perfection and I loved the sweet and salty balance.


Now, I have to mention this and give shout out to the Chef.  Typically when you share and entree, the entree is brought to you with two plates.  It was so AWESOME that the Chef actually cared about his presentation of the dish.  Me being a foodie and having an appreciation for details ~loved the meal that much more.






To finish out the night, we ordered the creme brulee topped with fresh berries and accompanied with two homemade cookies.  Not sure that the cookies needed to be on there as the creme brulee was a star on its own.  It was light and not too sweet and the sugar was burnt perfectly.

Though I am still sad that Bloom had wilted away and I am happy to see that a new restaurant has been plated to replace it.

I see a budding future for Cask63 and I can't wait to go back and try other items!

                       Food for the body is not enough.  There must be food for the soul ~ Dorothy Day

Scratch the surface to find .....

I have been wanting to try Scratch Pastries for a while now.  I read a review in the Best of Phoenix magazine and could not wait to try them especially after having tried Chez Vous.
Ok, so I really love French cuisine.   :)




Scratch Pastries is tucked in a shopping center that is a bit difficult to see and find if you're not familiar with the place.
(it's right next to the Subway)



The sign is not that visible driving by and there is an awning that makes it a bit harder to see unless you are looking at the building straight on from a distance.

It has a small cute patio that has about 5 tables that is under the awning.




They also have wifi here - so you can work while having breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Walking into Scratch Pastries, I thought  ~ this is cute.  I love the red colored wall that you see when you walk in ~ on the back wall.  They have their menu painted on that red wall behind the counter.

There was a bit of confusion as to whether we were to seat ourselves or wait to be seated.  We stood at the counter for a bit before we were acknowledged. Well.... until we were finally told that we could just seat ourselves.


We never were properly greeted when we entered or when we sat ourselves. (hhmmm... hoping it was just an off day)





Once we sat at our table staring at each other for a good 5 minutes, we were wondering why we still had not been acknowledged, waters not brought to us or menus not brought to us either.  I realized by accident that the drink menu in front of us actually had the food menu on the back.




We looked at the menu and decided that we wanted to start with mimosas.
Still no server..... (usually by this time I would have already walked out -but we were going to another event after)



We asked the girl at the counter if we were supposed to order from her or if a server was going to come by.  She said she would get the server to take our order.















Our server came over as promised and we placed our order ~ food and drinks.

Yay!!!  Mimosas arrived!!!

Mmmmmm.....food......hungry.





My breakfast arrived...... eggs florentine with hash-browns and a bed of greens.

Perfect amount of hash-browns and the eggs were wonderful.

Should have asked for fruit instead of a salad but was still good.












My friend had the eggs benedict with hash-browns and a bed of greens.

We both enjoyed the food.  The Hollandaise sauce was really good.  Sometimes you get sauce that is really thick and rich and others runny.
It was perfect!














We had checked out the dessert display earlier while we were waiting to be seated to decide in advance what we wanted to try for a sweet treat.




And though they had quite the selections for sweets as you can see ~












                                 We had ordered the Nutella crepe with our breakfast.  It was very delicious.

I'm hoping to try Scratch Pastries again and hope the service experience I had was just a fluke, that they were just having an off day because I really enjoyed the food.  Parisians pride themselves on magnificent food and wonderful service and the lackluster of service we received would have been unacceptable to them.





                           Until next time  ~ à bientôt

Ummm ~ let's try ......

Paige and I decided to try Tommy V's Urban Kitchen for dinner after a spring training game. We saw it next door to The Grapevine when we had lunch.

When you first walk into Tommy V's you may think, hmm...pricey, stuffy and hoity-toity. I mean it is in Scottsdale after all. (no offense, but let's face it Scottsdale does have a reputation)  However, I suggest never judge a book by its cover and certainly not by first glance.  Turn a couple of pages, you might just be surprised as we were.







When we walked into Tommy V's, Paige ran off (one guess to where since we just came from the spring training game ~lol) and I started taking pictures.

The gentleman behind the counter asked where I'd like to sit but since she ran off, I wasn't sure if she wanted to sit inside, outside, table, high top or bar.  Then I realized that the chef was actually asking me. ( I saw the thermometer and tasting spoon in his arm.)






Once Paige returned I let her decide where to sit.  I'm certain the chef was thinking inside his head "are they going to figure this out or not"  ;)

Paige decided that she wanted to sit at one of the high tops which was perfect.

Our server came over with waters and dropped off the menus and told us he'd be right back.







We were still a bit uncertain about Tommy V's but the wine list looked good and the menu was just as awesome.  Can't go wrong with that!

Paige and I decided that we were a bit too full to have dinner so we opted to try a few of their appetizers, have a few glasses of wine and maybe if we had room (we always make room) have dessert.

Meet our server Timothy.

He is so friendly, knowledgeable and just awesome!  The service that Timothy provided gave us such a wonderful dining experience at Tommy V's.

We told Timothy we just wanted to order a few appetizers and have some wine.  He made some suggestions based on what we told him we liked.



Paige and I ordered our wines - Duck Pond Merlot from Columbia Valley and Frescobaldi "Remole" Sangiovese from Tuscany.  While we were waiting for Timothy to come with our wines ~ I got up and took a few more pictures and started writing in my notebook.




While doing that, there was different gentlemen behind the hostess station.  I just smiled and continued taking pictures and taking notes.  He realized that I was counting and told me "there's a sign right there that tells you our occupancy."  I thanked him but continued counting and writing.  I figured he was the manager, though I did seem to peak his curiosity.









Tommy V's has two patio areas with about 17 tables and the patios are good sized too.  Inside there are about 6 high tops, 4 eight tops, 7 four tops, and a good amount of seating for just two and a semi private room that has a large table for birthday celebration, bridal shower or just for a large family.








They certainly have an impressive display case for their wines when you first walk in behind the hostess station.

I love how they have such a wide selection to choose from.  Italy, Spain, Germany, Chile, Argentina, California, Oregon and Washington to name a few.  The best part? ~ some wines you can do by the glass, 1/2 bottle or whole bottle!  How awesome is that?!

Timothy came with our wines and we placed our order for the appetizers.






This is the burrata caponata, prosciutto, and house cured olives.  It comes with a basket of bread.

Paige had never had burrata before and she LOVED it! I've had it before in Italy and it is SO different than mozzarella.

Amazing the difference water buffalo milk and cow milk make when making burrata.  By far my favorite is water buffalo milk, hands down it makes the best burrata.






While Paige and I were enjoying our snack, I was taking notes of the flavors of what we were eating.  For those that have read my "Weekend Treat" blog, you know that I'm a recent eater of olives.  Purples olives, I've never had before. Not bad....though not like the green one I had before.  But the prosciutto and the burrata ~ awesome!  Now the caponata was a new experience for the both of us.  For those not familiar caponata is Sicilian-style eggplant dish with tomatoes and a hint of sweet and sour and served chilled.  On the bread and with a little bit of burrata ~ mmmm.




Timothy returned to our table with our next snack and glasses of wine.  And perfect timing too!

This yummy looking dish is the crisp pancetta wrapped prawns with sweet gorgonzola with arugula and topped with fig balsamic.

Repeat after me .....OMG!!  YUMMY!!!

Paige and I each had a prawn and then split the third one. I was writing notes (literally OMG!! YUMMY!!) when I looked up to see Paige with a distraught look on her face. When I asked her what was wrong....she pointed to the floor with a pouting  face.

I asked her what happened (since I was writing my notes) and she went to grab the arugula with her shrimp half and she said " I watched in slow motion as my shrimp fell to the floor."

I couldn't help but giggle at her but I offered to share my half with her.  She proceeded to argue with me and then finally gave up and accepted the shrimp. (victory!! ~ lol)

We were looking at the menu to decide if we were done when the manager (or so I thought) had stopped by our table to see how things were.

We told him how wonderful our server Timothy had been but then he noticed the half shrimp sitting on the plate. He pointed and asked " you didn't like it?"  We told him the food was great but the shrimp had an accident.

Turns out who I thought was the manager was/is one of the owner's of Tommy V's.  Meet Zoran.



Zoran is so nice and very personable.  Before he came over to talk to us I watched him greet and seat customers, see if they had any questions regarding the menu and made suggestions if they weren't sure. When we spoke to Zoran he explained that his hostess had called in sick so he rolled up his sleeve to pitch in.  I told him that I had thought that the chef had sat us and he did confirm that we were in fact sat by the chef.  Zoran then took the plate with the shrimp that "took a dive" and came back to chat.




He asked if we were done or if we were going to have something else.  Paige and I stared at each other and pondered.  Then Zoran asked if he could make a suggestion.  He suggested a dish that was not on the menu.  With smirks on our face we told Zoran "Sure, that sounds good."

He then took notice that we were just about finished with our wine and asked if we'd like another glass.  We both hesitated a bit, we did just come from the game and drank and just had 2 glasses of wine but why not!

He smiled and asked if he could make a recommendation and suggested the Nativa Terra Carmenere Reserva an organic wine from Chile.  It was SO GOOD!  I loved it.

Then the appetizer that was not on the menu arrived. (drool)  Seared scallops sauteed in brown butter with a hint of sage with gnocchi in a light lemon remoulade.

OH MY GOODNESS!!!  It was HEAVEN!!  The scallops were huge and so tender ~ they practically melted in your mouth and the gnocchi, well perfect!  And a surprise ~ they brought us another shrimp!! (so sweet!!)

(he does smile ~this was his professional look)

I asked Zoran if we could see the chef.

Meet Chef Doug.  He's been at Tommy V's for about 8 months and prior to Tommy V's he was at the Boulders Resort for 4 years.

Chef Doug is AWESOME!  And I don't just mean as a chef either.  He took the time to chat with us, let me take his picture (thank you Chef Doug!) but not only that, if a customer had questions about a dish instead of the server going to Chef Doug to ask and then return to them, Chef Doug would come out and speak to them.






Zoran checked on us to see if we liked the dish.
Liked?! LOVED!! We told him that everything we had so far was absolutely amazing.

He had asked if we had room for dessert and we told him how could we not.

He recommended the cannoli with chocolate tartufo ice cream with mini chocolate chips and nuts.  OMG can't even describe this dessert.  I've had cannoli before but this one was different.  This cannoli was refreshing and not super sweet and the chocolate tartufo ~ well....speechless!!





Timothy checked to see how we were doing and asked if we liked the dessert and I asked if I could see the dessert menu (wanted to write down what we were eating) and he started to tell me all the desserts on the menu.

Zoran had done that but when Timothy got to the last one he said "And we have a limoncello sorbet."  I looked at him and  said " I'm sorry, what was the last one?"  He repeated for me.  I told him we were not told it was LIMONCELLO sorbet.

Timothy politely asked "shall I bring you?"  I smiled and said "YES, please!!"  That was the highlight of our dining experience.  The perfect ending to a wonderful fun filled day.

Zoran came by and saw we had another dessert. He then asked me about the notebook and picture taking.  I told him about my blog.   We chatted about other things such as his family, his start in the business and where he's from BUT I promised I wouldn't blog about that.  But when you go to Tommy V's, I'm sure Zoran would be happy to chat with you.

In closing, I can't say enough great things about Tommy V's because my experience there was just amazing.  I didn't feel like we were out to dinner at a restaurant.  I felt more like family visiting an uncle's house and cousin's helping out.  I noticed that the entire staff worked together.  You know how sometimes you go into a restaurant and you can tell who the server and bus person is and you can feel that somewhat "tension" in the ranks if you will or if another server walks by they just keep walking even though you may have an empty glass of water??  Well, not here.  When a staff member would walk by the would glance and nod or say hello.  We had a gentleman stop by to refill our water as Timothy was talking to another table.

I'm excited to go back and have an actual dinner and to go have lunch there.  They have a happy hour menu from 1130a -630p  ~ where they have wines for $5.00 a glass and has an extensive menu with light affairs to panni's to burgers.

To all that made our dining experience the best I've ever had - Timothy, Zoran and last and certainly not the least - Chef Doug.  AWESOME and can't wait to see you soon!



A recipe has no soul.  You, as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe.  ~Thomas Keller

One Smart Cookie in AZ .......

                Meet Israel                                                                                                    Meet Israel's mixer                      

                              Together they help mix the yummy cookies, brownies and sweets for Smart Cookie.

But Israel (theatre art nerd) and his mixer are not the only members of the scholastic team.


Other classmates include, Samantha (set design nerd) and Joey (music nerd) that assist with the geeky creations.










OH!!! And I can't forget the most important part of this class -
the professor - Macallan.

He watches over the students to make sure that everything is done with precision and care.


In all seriousness though, I had the pleasure and opportunity to talk to Israel from Smart Cookie to get the story on how Smart Cookie came to be.



Israel had several inspirations for wanting to start his own business.
Mostly his sweet tooth. (is it wrong to say sweet teeth?) ....lol  But there were other contributing factors.







His red KitchenAid mixer.

He had wanted a mixer and well..... he went out and bought one.
After purchasing his mixer, he baked his first cake.  He was excited and so proud of that cake he had made using his beautiful red KitchenAid mixer.




Hmmm...KitchenAid mixer..."light bulb"!  That created an outline for the syllabus of his self challenge.  The notes for the syllabus actually happened when one day Israel went to the Phoenix Farmer's Market.  He saw a teenager with a smoothie stand.

He thought to himself, "If he can do it, why can't I?"




So became the self challenge and excitement of owning and operating his own business.  Being able to call the creative shots and taking the risks "he /they" wanted to take.  What did Israel have to loose?  I mean if nothing else he still had his pretty red KitchenAid mixer.


When I asked how Joey and Samantha got roped into it, Israel told me that they were just excited and loved the concept.  And after having met Israel, I can totally see that.  He has a great personality and his eyes lit up when I was talking to him about his passion.  He's like the captain of the debate team.  Coming up with the strategies, giving pep talks and guiding the class onto victory.




And why cookies???

He chose cookies based on what he likes or loves and would experiment using friends as subject matters and would get their feedback on what they liked or didn't or what worked and what didn't.

I asked, "why the name "Smart Cookie" and how did that concept come to be?"
Israel told me that there were three pieces to that equation.

First part is that all three classmates are teachers.  Israel a theatre art teacher, Joey a music teacher and a sax player and Samantha a production studies teacher and set design.

Second part is that Joey wanted and needed to go see an eye doctor. Joey has bad eyes.  Israel said he knew that he should go and get his eyes checked but didn't like the idea of sticking something in his eyes -contacts and didn't want to look like a nerd/geek by wearing glasses.  But Israel went with Joey, he told himself that if he did have bad eyes (which he knew he did) then he would embrace his inner "geekness".

The third part, the kids in Israel's class.  They were part of the inspiration of the school concept.  
That smart kids = the geek/nerd stereo type.  That smart kids have great strength and they embrace being geeks/nerds.

Recipe's in place, booth in place.....(gulp!) first booth and month of business Nov 2011. YUP!!!             

I said it correctly - Smart Cookie started in Nov 2011 ~ class in session!! 

After the first day in the booth, Israel said it just felt right, that this was it.  He said " It was like owning your own lemonade stand as a kid"

Thus class began in the Smart Cookie home economics class.




Currently class is held usually once a week and for about 20hrs.


They get together to bake orders received on their website or from the Downtown Phoenix Public Market that is held every Saturday from 800am-100pm.


You can also order from the website www.smartcookieaz.com and pickup the order at the market on Saturday.

                                                         


I also stopped by the market to see Israel in action at the Smart Cookie booth.  He was talking to some customers when Jo-girl and I had stopped by to see him. (he was explaining the class attendance to customers)

I was fortunate enough to have had sampled the "Valedictorian" ~ salted caramel brownie when I met with Israel the first time and it's to die for!


Smart Cookie takes pride in using all natural ingredients, including organic and local ingredients such as chocolate from Wei of Chocolate, Absolutely Delightful Local Arizona Honey and Hickman's Family Farm Eggs to name a few.




I asked if he has plans to enroll anymore students in his current class such as a "student of the month" or perhaps a monthly "honor roll" member and he said they were thinking about it.  They had a bunch of Meyers Lemons they were going to figure out what to do with. ( I suggested a lemon honey lavender treat of some kind)   ;)  He is also thinking about treats for pets.




You will always be greeted with a smile and wonderful service from Smart Cookie.




















You certainly will not be disappointed by these wonderful treats.


Jo-girl and I split the "Over Achiever" cookie ~
chocolate chip edged with chocolate. (drool)



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Keep a watchful eye out for these students as they are looking to expand into local stores and coffee shops in the near future.  Wishing the best to the graduate class of 2011!

Smart Cookie Class of 2011