Monday, June 15, 2009

Joe's Farm Grill: Amazing Food, Great Atmosphere.


Our latest adventure brought us to a Joe's Farm Grill, a ranch style home turned mid-century modern design of a burger stand (according to the website), located on Ray just west of Higley. It was a very mild June Saturday, and burgers were on our mind. After a quick perusal of the menu I settled on the Fontina burger (Roasted red pepper, grilled mushrooms, arugula, farm-made pecan pesto, Fontina cheese) hold the mushrooms. I also took the opportunity to upgrade from the regular fries to the garlic fries, order a Dark Chocolate shake, and to top it off I ordered Chocolate Coconut Fritters which Joe's had been twittering about and made my mouth water just to think about.

We finished ordering, got our buzzer - oh those modern conveniences - and went outside to stake out a picnic table. That's right; al fresco dining is one of the attractions because you are literally sitting in the middle of a farm. The freshest ingredients make the best food.

So our order was up and we went to the window and collected our food, then sat down to survey the meal. The buns looked perfectly toasted, the pickles homemade, the veggies fresh and crisp, we could tell that this would be an enjoyable meal.


When I bit into my burger, there was an explosion of flavor, the slight sweetness of the red peppers mixing with the bite of the arugula and red onions, herbiness of the pesto, and of course the meat it's self. I don't know if they grill over an open flame, but I have to think they do, because this meat had a delicious char to it that you really only get from a true flame. The Fontina, arugula, pesto and peppers perfectly complemented the beef and led to a burger that I could not wait to devour. But alas, duty called, I needed to sample the rest of my meal.

When I bit into the garlic fries, I was literally in heaven. These fries had a great crunch to them, and an unbelievable flavor. The mix of garlic and Romano was something you would expect from Garlic bread served with your pasta at an Italian restaurant, not from fries.


As my mouth was now full of food I turned to my trusty chocolate shake. "You better be delicious", I thought and I was not disappointed. Now I won't say this was the best shake I have ever had, it was serviceable as shakes go, but this shake had a great consistency, I wasn't stuck sucking and sucking at the straw to get a drink, and the chocolate flavor went great with the meal. Overall I was glad I deviated from my normal strawberry.


Now, dessert. Let's see here. Chocolate, coconut and batter, deep fried and topped with chocolate sauce, whipped cream and an orange cherry. Hmmm. I had to try some of those. When I bit into the first fritter, the light crispy outside left me completely unprepared for the chewy, gooey, chocolatey inside. These fritters literally melted in my mouth. I tried to snap a quick picture between bites to show the great mix of chocolate and coconut:

It wasn't just a fritter rolled in coconut and fried, but rather it really and truly was a chocolate coconut fritter with everything mixed together. As a dessert freak, er aficionado, I was delighted to finish my meal with such a wonderful treat.

Altogether, Joe's Farm Grill has great atmosphere, you can sit under a tree and eat or walk to the farm stand and buy fresh produce, or sit at a table and enjoy the company of friends, but what really makes Joe's special is the quality of the food. The freshness of the ingredients and pride in their product comes through with every bite. This is one place that I cannot wait to go back to. I rate Joe's Farm Grill as a 4.5

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Organic Ranier Cherry Shake

Joe's Farm Grill was tweeting about the Organic Ranier Cherry Shake that they had this week. Since we were already driving back from Queen Creek, we decided to stop in and try one. It was very refreshing! I had heard their shakes were very thick, but this was not thick at all. It had a perfect consistency, a Vanilla Bean base with real cherries mixed in, topped with whipped cream and a blue cherry. That's right, a blue cherry. The cherry flavor was maybe a little too subtle for my taste - the vanilla bean was very prominent - but when swirling the cup around and taking an immediate drink, the flavors of vanilla and cherry and the whipped cream all come together with a refreshing and delightful blend. My only regret is that we had already eaten and did not get the opportunity to pair it with some of the wonderful food that you could smell from the parking lot.

Next time, there will be no such regrets!

Monday, June 8, 2009

Delux: A Burger Experience



Burgers. The All-American Meal.

After reading an article in the local newspaper, we decided to begin sampling the "best burgers" in Phoenix. Now this is all subjective of course, but that is what makes it an intriguing journey. On a recent weekend we caught a movie and intent on beginning work on the list of restaurants, made the sojourn to delux, located at 32nd Street and Camelback Road to try a burger that I had been hearing about for several years, the delux Burger. The menu touts it as a blend of premium, all-natural ground beef, topped with arugula, a caramelized onion and applewood bacon mixture and maytag and gruyere cheeses on a demi-baguette.


First off I ordered the house sweet potato fries with ketchup and house aioli. They had a nice crunch and a light salting that complemented the potato’s natural sweetness perfectly. Then it was time to order the burger. Now, full disclosure, I am a medium, medium-well guy when it comes to burgers, but the menu said best served medium-rare, so I decided to go for it and ordered the delux, medium-rare.


My first impressions upon the food arriving was that the burger was more of a loaf shape rather than the traditional circular burger. Next, to me, the arugula overwhelmed the burger, which in my book is never a good thing. I like a burger in which the meat is the attraction. These features lent the burger more the features of a hoagie than a burger. Thoughts on the first bite: the meat was very mushy, a byproduct of ordering medium-rare, I suppose. The onion and bacon mixture came through with every bite and had a great sweetness from the onion that mingled with the slight bite of the arugula, which even though I thought there was too much green, led to a very pleasant taste. The description says that the burger is topped with gruyere and maytag, but I never noticed it. Perhaps it was the other flavors overwhelming the cheese, or maybe the restaurant just skimps, but the flavor just didn't come through. Another shortfall was that we were there on a slow lazy Saturday afternoon and several times we were left with empty drink glasses as we tried to enjoy our meal.

Overall the burger had a great flavor, the ingredients mixed extremely well, but that is to be expected from a boutique restaurant. To me, the experience was slightly disappointing, especially after all of the rave reviews I had heard. I would be willing to give delux another try, and order the burger slightly more well done, but I am wary of the level of service.

In the end I would give delux a 3.75 out 5 with the caveat that the rating could rise upon a second visit.