Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Out Wickenburg Way

If you should find yourself passing through Wickenburg, and your stomach is growling at you to stop and feed it breakfast or lunch, make it happy and stop at DJ’s New Frontier. You can’t miss it since it’s right on Route 60 on the south side of town. And the building is distinctive - it’s an eight-sided, sixty year old log cabin with lots of wooden cutouts of pigs and cows nailed to the surrounding fence. With cartoon topped tables, chairs upholstered in multi-themed fabrics, and signs with funny sayings tacked to the ceiling, it’s a hoot inside, too. A pair of brothers bought it recently and they’ve lavished a lot of love on both the decor and the food.
We stopped in for an early lunch, but our friend Pat decided to go with breakfast. She ordered Mom’s Classic ($6.95) with two scrambled eggs, cheesy hash browns (extra crispy), bacon, and sourdough toast.  The large serving of hash browns were a beautiful tawny color with a super crunch. Pat was swooning; she ate every last bit, along with the bacon which was perfectly cooked, so she had no room for the toast or eggs.
There are a number of omelets available, as well as platters such as the Hassayampa:
“Chunky potatoes, grilled with onions and green peppers, scrambled with 3 eggs, smothered in Homemade gravy and topped with bacon and your choice of toast or tortilla” ($8.95). You can get homemade corned beef hash, a large grilled ham steak,
or chicken fried steak, $8.45 each. Biscuits and gravy, pancakes and French toast, and burritos round out the breakfast menu.
After being told that the spiciness of the chili ($3.50, or all-you-can-eat for $5.95) was a five out of ten on the hot scale, Ken decided to risk it. He was delighted when he judged it to be a flavorful three. His chicken fried steak sandwich ($8.45) was whopping big and not at all greasy. My tuna melt must have been about an inch and a half high, but it was hot throughout, and the tuna was of decent quality. I had, of course, asked for extra crispy fries, and they were cooked  to perfection. The menu listed homemade apple, cherry, and pecan pie ($2.95 for the fruit, $3.45 for the pecan) but sadly they were all out. I bet they would have been good!!
Also on the lunch menu were burgers, including a 1 pounder ($9.95), hot dogs and links, BLT, Philly Cheese, and hot pastrami sandwiches. There were 4 salads, each at $7.95.
Having tried several of the other restaurants in town, DJ’s is now at the top of my list.
DJ’s New Frontier
442 E. Wickenburg Way,   Wickenburg  AZ    928-231-7712
Closed Sunday   7 - 2 Monday through Saturday,   5PM - 9PM Fri. & Sat. 
no website

Friday, March 19, 2010

Sophisticated Southern Italian

Thanks to Restaurant.com we discovered Il Poggio d’Italia which is tucked away inside the Pima Crossing shopping center on Shea just west of the 101. In it’s last incarnation it was Shanghai China, an overly decorated place with boring food . This time the decor suits the cuisine. Owner/chef Tom Giresi serves up sophisticated southern Italian dishes at surprisingly reasonable prices (it’s a steal if you have a Restaurant.com coupon).
This is a place with tablecloths and an excellent wine list. There’s lots of wood and stone, which is attractive but noisy. And a well-dressed Scottsdale crowd - shame on us, we were in our T-shirts and jeans. For a Thursday night, the restaurant was hopping. We were immediately served a pleasingly plated dish with sliced baguette, butter, and some caponata. The eggplant spread was less assertively tomatoey than usual and had pine nuts and raisins - delicious. We perused the menu and were surprised to find dishes like tripe and pig skin bracciole. So many things caught our attention that we decided to graze. Happily, our friend Pat was along, so we were able to order a larger than usual selection.
Pat chose the stuffed mushrooms, 5 for $4 or 10 for $8. The sausage/breadcrumb/cheese stuffing was tasty, and the mushrooms properly cooked. We couldn’t resist trying the pig skin bracciole ($6). It’s stuffing was, again, excellent, and the pig skin was succulent - maybe too succulent. I enjoyed my first piece, but couldn’t bring myself to have another, it was that rich. The marinara sauce spooned on top was light and flavorful, and also went well atop our order of polenta ($6). The polenta had been cooked and allowed to cool so that it could be cut into bars and sauteed, yielding a nice crust. Our “individual” order of broccoli rabe ($4 - as opposed to the family size for $12) was enough for the three of us to share. It was toothsome, with a nice lemon/garlic flavor. I’m pleased to say that none of our dishes were over-salted. Perhaps the thing that pleased Ken and me the most was that anchovies were available, at no extra charge, for our Caesar salad, and they gave us lots! The dressing was a little on the light side for my taste, but pleasant.
I regret that I can’t tell you about the entrees, but they sounded good, and there seems to be enough variety to please everybody. There were 3 soups, and 9 pastas which ranged in price from $14 to $21). Steaks and lamb ($20 - $25), lots of chicken dishes, a veal parmigiana ($18), shrimp scampi ($20) and salmon ($17) are waiting for your approval. The only offerings that struck me as mundane were the desserts: cheesecake,  
ice cream, tartuffo and the ubiquitous cannoli and tiramisu.
Guess how much we paid, including tip, using our coupon - $26 !!!!
il Poggio D’ Italia
8752 E. Shea Blvd.  Scottsdale     480-948-7100
Open for lunch and dinner (call for hours)
no website that I could find