I headed back south out of Prescott towards Phoenix passing the same great scenery. When I left Prescott it was barely 50 degrees. I made a stop at a rest area to program in some of my upcoming stops into the GPS and I noticed that the temp was now about 70 and I had dropped in elevation bout 1000 feet. By the time I got to my first stop I had dropped about 3500 feet and the temp was in the mid 90s!
My first stop was in the northern part of Glendale at a place that looked like the classic silver diner so prevalent in New Jersey. "Thee Pitts Again" is a barbecue joint nestled in the parking lot of a strip mall. For lunchtime the parking lot was empty and I wasn't sure if it was open or not. I was greeted and seated by the only person that seemed to be working there. I am not sure where the other patrons had parked because there were about 10 to 15 others having lunch.
This is the classic barbecue joint menu and the owners have won a number of barbecue competitions. Many of their ribbons and trophies are on display throughout the restaurant. I chose the pulled pork sandwich with a side of barbecue beans. The service there is very fast and friendly.
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| My Pulled Pork Sandwich and Barbecue Beans Lunch |
They provide a bottle of sauce on the table, but I didn't really need it as the sandwich came with sauce already on the meat. I was a good sandwich, but a bit messy so I ate it with a fork and sort made the bread a side. The beans were in a thick sauce with some pork shreds mixed in but there was a very heavy vinegar taste to it, I don't mind the taste of vinegar but to me this was a bit too much! I was able to get the waitress to sign my book and what was really cool was instead of giving mints with the check they gave Jelly Belly jelly beans, very cool! I headed off to my next stop, which I remembered was in a gas station. I had programmed the place into my GPS and it came right up, but as I got to the place, there was gas station but it was closed! Now I had researched the place online before the trip so I knew that it was still open. Not sure what to do I decided to head to hotel I would be staying at and figure what to do next.
After checking in and taking a short rest, I headed out and realized that my reliance on the GPS was not the best idea, the place had moved and I got the new address and took it from there. I headed to the town of Anthem on the northern side of Phoenix and found the place that had seemed so elusive in a upscale town center type of shopping area. "Roberto's Real Authentic Mexican Food" looked like a very antiseptic fast food joint, but don't let the look fool you. The name says "real authentic" and from my limited knowledge the name is right on the money!
I walked in and was greeted by Roberto himself. I decided to try the Chiles Rellano ala carte. This is one of the items that he cooked with Guy and I wanted to try it. Roberto brought me some chips and salsa and he came over many times to chat with me about the time Guy was there and ask me about my travels. He told me that they had recently moved from the gas station site they had been at and I told him that the GPS had the old location, he was glad to hear that so he could call the GPS companies and have them update their data base.
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| My Chile Rellano meal |
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| Roberto and one of his cooks with me |
As you know I am not the biggest fan of spicy and I thought that this might be on the spicy side, but WOW! it was very hot! I soon figured out that all of the spice came from the pepper and it's seed (I think it may have been either an Anaheim or Poblano pepper). I peeled the pepper back and ate the filling and sides and it was delicious. I was so impressed with how much time Roberto gave me as it was pretty busy. He signed my book and then we got a few pictures together and I was on my way. This is a place that is a must when in the area!
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| More Pictures with Roberto |
From there I headed back south towards Phoenix to one of the most unique places that Guy has been to. Not that the two cuisines are unique, Mexican and Chinese are very common on Triple D, but to specialize in mixing the two is pretty unique, at least to me. "Chino Bandido" is a Mexican-Chinese fusion carry-out. There is a seating area and a lot of the patrons use it but it has a carry-out feel to it. As you enter there are menu cards and you choose what you want and I think that all in all there are over 600 combinations to choose from. I chose something small and the Jerk Fried Rice sounded interesting. I got it to go, so I could go on to the next. It was very good, the Jamaican spices mixed quite nice with the rice. It s a very cool and popular place.
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| A Unique Combo Carry-Out |
I headed to my last place for the day and went to the town of Glendale. Glendale is a pretty big place, it is home to University of Phoenix Stadium, home of the Arizona Cardinals and the upcoming Super Bowl. I went to the old town area home of numerous restaurants and bars. It is a cool area, with inviting shops to check out. I parked near by and went into "Haus Murphy's". This is a little bit of Germany in the heart of the Phoenix area. The place is decorated with photos, art work and memorabilia of Bavaria.
This place is also unique that it was not only on "Diners Drive ins and Dives" but was also on "Mystery Diners". I asked my server about that and he said it was very hard to see all that went on with the family and was glad to have it behind them! The menu is full with authentic German dishes and they all looked so good, but I decided to try a couple of appetizers that really caught my eye. I chose the Sausage Sampler Platter and the Haus Cheese Tray.
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| Sausage Sampler Platter |
The Sausage Platter had two sausages, a spicy beef sausage and a pork sausage and was accompanied by a bed of house made sauerkraut and had a side of spicy mustard, sweet mustard and curry ketchup. The sausage were very tasty, I preferred the more mild pork sausage and the curry ketchup was a great side sauce. The sauerkraut was delicious!
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| The Haus Cheese Tray |
The cheese tray had 4 rolls and a cup of the house made soft German cheese accompanied with vegetables. The gherkins and pearl onions had a very vinegar taste to them. The cheese was sharp and tasty and rolls very soft. All in all I think I made a great choice! After having the server sign my book I took off and went back to the hotel for the night, I had another couple of days to go and try some new places!
After another good day I headed out very early because my next place was notorious for being small and very popular. Despite the name "Matt's Big Breakfast" is not big! I arrived a few minutes before it opened at 630a and the place looked shut down. Now I know that this wasn't the case as just about everywhere I stopped someone mentioned Matt's. There was a sign on the door, Matt's had moved, but only about 100 yards down the street and there were already people waiting to enter! I am not sure how many the old place held but after I was seated I did a quick count and figures the new place held about 50 seats!
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| Matt's Big Breakfast - the old location |
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| Matt's new location about 100 yards south |
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| Wall art! |
I was seated and pretty much knew what I wanted as it had been featured on the show. The prices were very reasonable throughout the entire menu and I chose the platter called "Chop and Chick". Pork Chop with eggs and hash browns served with real thick sourdough toast and blueberry preserves. Within a few minutes of opening the places was almost totally full!
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| "Chop and Chick" Breakfast |
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| Sourdough Toast and Blueberry preserves |
I am not a fan of eggs so I really didn't much of them but the pork chop which is marinated in a pesto like mix was great and the sourdough was real west coast stuff. In the east we seem to get thick toast and it's called sourdough, but this was the real thing! I can't say enough about the staff, they were friendly and efficient, always smiling and making everyone feel at home, they seemed to exceed the needs of the patrons. I did get he owner to sign my book but she was so busy that I didn't get to talk to her.
I headed through the city to another breakfast place called "Over Easy". I was really surprised when I arrived as it was in a shopping center and looked nothing like it did on the episode. The symbol was the same, but that was about it. I sat a small table and looked over the menu and decided to try the malt waffle with real maple syrup.
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| The Over Easy Malt Waffle |
As I was waiting the owner saw my book and asked me about it and when I told her what I was doing we got to chatting about other places in the area that were on the show, the filming and my travels. She told me that since the filming 6 years ago they had moved from the original location that had been the very first Taco Bell in Arizona, built in 1962 and I told her that I thought that it had been a Taco Bell, but I didn't want to come right out and ask it (I had been trying to figure how they had filmed it in their current location and made it look that way). I also got to meet her husband and co-owner and they told me that it was their son who had cooked with Guy. I remembered most that he had a very unique "Jazz Hands" salute to Guy.
I headed out for a break. One of the things I really enjoy is touring stadiums and ball parks and I was staying very close to Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was a very cool tour. Chase Field, which was originally called Bank One Ballpark is still known among many as "The BOB". It was the first stadium to have retractable roof over real grass and one of the features is the swimming pool suite in the outfield. Let's get 35 of us together and rent the suite for a game! It costs $3500 and includes 35 tickets, food, drink, towels and a great view from the pool! I won't bore you with all the stats but want to show you some of pictures I took during the tour
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| The BOB |
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| 2001 World Series Champions Trophy |
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| Team Symbol on the opened retractable roof |
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| The other side of the roof |
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| The Pool Suite |
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| Home Dugout and Dugout Suite |
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| The Randy Johnson hanging bar used by Johnson to relieve back pains during his time in Airizona |
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| In the Dugiut |
After the tour I went off to try a few more places before taking a rest. I headed north of the stadium to a very cool place in a part of town that is home to a large Mexican population. My next stop was "Barrio Café". I entered what looked like a plain place at first entry, but it turned out to be very nice. Linen napkins and silver service on the tables, very nice.
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| Very cool wall art |
I decided to try the Pork Torta. It is a sandwich that included a huge chopped type of salad and bread service with a tomato and olive tapenade. The pork was marinated in spices and cooked in banana leaves and topped with pickled onions and vegetable salsa. Everything was delicious! The staff was very friendly and accomdating
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| My Torta at the Barrio Café |
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| Barrio Café Bread Service |
I would have to say that the prices there are a bit higher than I would like, but the food is very good and the staff was very nice. I was able to get the chef to sign my book and I headed to Scottsdale to my last stop before taking a break. In a little strip mall on Scottsdale Road is a place called "DeFalco's Italian Deli and Grocery". This place was doing a booming business for lunch, making Italian sandwiches and meals and all kinds of deli salads. It also had a small hopping area and I decided to take advantage of that! I bough a couple of items to take with me to have for my snack on the flight home.
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| Some of the deli salads that they make at DeFalco's |
This place is so full of items in a small area that the line and seating area for meals are part of the store! With that I headed off the hotel to rest and relax before heading out for my next adventure. My DDD count was now at 373!
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