I last visited Frank Lloyd Wright’s artistic compound in Scottsdale over 20 years ago with my mom and it was pouring rain with dark skies. Very different on a perfectly sunny spring day and worth the steep admission price ($44 for a self-audio tour.) Good thing we booked ahead; the place was busy. Taliesin west was the famous architect’s western retreat, studio and school where his students/disciples roughed it in the desert. Today it is a more manicured estate, at the foot of the mountains.
For lunch, I found a bohemian NY style pizza and sandwich shop, Pane Bianco Central, created by a James Beard winner.
Pane Bianco
Great atmosphere and sandwiches (the prosciutto, mozzarella on chewy focaccia: and the coffee-crusted roast beef with horseradish aioli on a thick baguette) were outstanding and too big to finish so the leftovers are on the plane with us now. The restaurant was a short backroads drive to the phoenix airport (Note to self: next time, go to the arco station near the sandwich place for the cheapest gas.)
So great to be back in Tucson after seven years or so. Of course this place always brings back memories of my parents who spent many winters here and loved it. This time we are on the northeast side of town in the Catalina foothills, which is the other side of the mountain from Oro Valley in the west, where my parents place was.
Our casita at night
We are off river road near Sabino canyon. We have a sweet little casita Airbnb in the back of a sprawling house. There’s a pool out our front door and our window has a lovely view of desert landscape with mountains in the distance and lots of birds at various feeders, including hummingbirds and little yellow warblers (we think).
We had an easy flight from Chicago to Phoenix that arrived a half hour early and the wait at the thrifty rental car wasn’t bad. (Budget had a huge crowd.) Pro tip: pre-register 24 hours in advance and you can go right to your rental car and skip the line.
Hiking poles rental!!Quesabirria at Amelia’s kitchen
On our drive in we stopped at Frost, for old times sake, and had some gelato. Then onto the Airbnb. We went to a nearby Whole Foods to get some basics. Then a stroke of luck. We found Summit Hut, a very nice local outdoor gear shop on Speedway that happened to rent hiking poles for a very reasonable $5 for 1-3 days then $2 every subsequent day. perfect! I ended up not bringing my collapsible pole because I’d have to check my luggage, at $40 per flight. No way. It’s not allowed on carryon because in theory it could be used as a weapon. The salesman at Summit Hut, we soon learned, once lived a block away from where we live in Chicago…and he and Dirck both grew up in Dodge City, Kansas. 😳
Tonight we had excellent Mexican food a 10 minute drive away at Amelia’skitchen, a small place in a strip mall with a small patio and small dining rooms with exposed brick walls and a giant mural. And as it happens it’s a James Beard semi-finalist this year. We had the signature dish, quesabirria which was new to me and delicious. It’s sort of a quesadilla version of a French dip sandwich – a crispy quesadilla filled with stringy, deliciously flavorful shredded beef, (not goat, as is often the case elsewhere) served au jus (with a little dish of beef juice) to dip it in. so good. Their salsa is award- winning too, as the engraving on the wood serving board informed us. The flan was too rich for me but delicious.
A very quick trip to Phoenix but long enough to try some creative Mexican food at the Barrio Cafe north of the Hyatt (where D. has a meeting this week.) The place was fun, lots of interesting people including a woman sitting at the bar who has written a book about fixing up a house in the “west village” neighborhood of Detroit. She and her husband moved to my hometown from Brooklyn, so I guess this Detroit renaissance is really happening. The book is called Detroit Hussle. We also met a cute young couple from Australia (Perth, as it happens, which I have a soft spot for because I had two friends from Perth at my kibbutz years ago who I ended up traveling with in Greece.) Interesting to hear the places they are visiting during a month-long trip to “see America.” They were in Phoenix because they went to the Grand Canyon. Next stop Vegas. All other stops were on the coasts.
The food at rhe barrio cafe was interesting. We liked the guacamole (made with pomegranate seeds) and the long cooked pork, the margaritas and horchata (a light milky drink that came in a pop bottle). The chicken mole and corn appetizer were too rich for me. Slow service, as forewarned but a good live band playing what sounded like merenge not Mexican music.
finally got a chance to see a little more of Phoenix after many years of whizzing past the city to Tucson (and occasionally Scottsdale). we were in the area around the Heard Museum, driving down straight flat residential roads lined with way tall Palm trees, past lovely old stucco bungalows and Spanish mini villas. we had an excellent lunch at the funky Coronado Cafe, which oozed low key charm and served a fabulous crabcake(the owner proudly revealed her Baltimore roots). also excellent key lime pie and fres lemonade. we did a quick drive through the Roosevelt arts district which had some promising looking galleries and boutiques and along 7th street and the Coronado historic district.
Also visited the famous Biltmore hotel, with frank Lloyd wright-like architecture, lovely gardens and a way cool pool.
the vig Fillmore — neighborhood tavern 1914 bungalow, fish tacos
Coronado cafe, historic district, crab cakes
Astor house – BBQ
The main ingredient – beer
Cibo – pizza
Binks midtown, veggies
The house brasserie — Scottsdale
Lon’s at hermosa house
Roosevelt arts district
The mystery castle
It didn’t occur to me that a shuttle, as opposed to a flight, could be delayed by there I am outside the Phoenix airport waiting for the delayed shuttle to Tucson. Hope it’s not more than 45 minutes behind schedule although heck, just sitting outside the airport terminal in sunny 70 degrees or so weather is a tonic for this Midwestern snowbird.
I am leaving Phoenix after two days of work meetings. We were lodged at the very nice pointe hilton tapatico resort in north central Phoenix. Nice place with more pools and hot tubs than I could count, easy access to good hiking trails, a lovely mountaintop restaurant with good food and a spectacular view, especially at sunset. The layout is very confusing with lots of stucco two story spa is buildings rambling up a hilly compound.
Didn’t see much beyond our meeting room and the bus taking us to and fro. Did have a good dinner last night at del frisco’s grill near the Biltmore.
Yes, we also had some time to kill in the Phoenix Airport on our way back to Des Moines earlier this week and there were plenty of art exhibits to pass the time. One of the odder ones was tucked away in an out-of-the-way corner near the Starbucks on Level 2 of Terminal 3 – 2″ x 2″ Thumbnail portraits, quite literally, by Roberta Hancock. They are individual oil paintings of thumbs dressed in various garbs – a Rastafarian thumb, a nun thumb, a cowboy thumb, a bride thumb. They made me laugh. The Phoenix Airport Museum’s collection has 600 works and 35 exhibit spaces scattered across six buildings. How amazing.
One of these days I’m going to stay in Phoenix when we land at the airport there and explore the city (rather than jumping immediately in a rental car and heading to Tucson, where we visit my dad). We’ve poked around Scottsdale a bit but Phoenix has always seemed more interesting yet challenging to explore. And when we do stay in Phoenix, I must remember to take a copy of the NYTimes story “Reviving Phoenix through Art” in today’s paper that talks about a once rundown downtown area that is now an arts district. In addition to several galleries, there is the Downtown Phoenix Public Market which sounds great – with vendors selling everything from produce to herbal remedies. The Asian tapas (“asian tapas?”) restaurant Sens also sounds worth a visit.
TakeBetsywithyou 