Scottsdale Sushi Fans: Good News!

Some years ago, I had the very good fortune to visit Shinbay, an incredible one-man show of a sushi restaurant, run by chef Shinji Kurita. This was one of the best meals I've had anywhere. I still remember a number of the delicious tastes even years later. Then one day it closed up, and aside from a short stint at Autumn Court, little was heard of chef Shinji Kurita again. I still wondered about his whereabouts here and there. Well, wonder no more. Late last night, a couple of anonymous comments were left on an old blog post here that Kurita-san is bringing back Shinbay in a couple of months, this time in the Scottsdale Seville shopping center on the northeast corner of Scottsdale Road and Indian Bend. A quick look at the Scottsdale Seville website confirms the news.

Sushi lovers, this is possibly better news than when Nobuo Fukuda opened his eponymous restaurant at Teeter House. Part of me hopes the exclusive service style (the original restaurant served no more than six guests at once, and almost exclusively served omakase dinners) will remain, but another part of me hopes I can just drop in whenever I want instead of making a reservation a couple of days in advance.

Went to Sprinkles today

One of these days I'll write another real article, I swear.

One of the managerial folk at work had his last day today, so I couldn't resist springing a mess of cupcakes from Sprinkles on the whole gang.  I figured it would be a good excuse to try out the cupcakes that chowhounds all over town have been swooning over.  The setup in the store is simple.  Behind a wall of glass are wooden cupcake racks holding the day's 11 flavors of the 21 that they make throughout the week.  To the right of that is the counter where you place your order, and to the far right is the cash register hiding behind wood paneling.  On the side wall is a selection of retail items, including DIY cupcake mix ($14 for enough to make a dozen) and T-shirts ($25 to $40, ouch!)  Six flavors are made all week long, and the rest have a regular rotation, always appearing the same days every week.  So far, I have tried the Cinnamon Sugar, Red Velvet, and Peanut Butter Chip, and can say that these are some of the best retail cupcakes around. Their Red Velvet borders on legendary.  They're very moist cupcakes, almost *too* moist: After a couple of hours in the box, the fat in the cupcakes managed to soak through not only the wax paper cupcake liner, but also the waxed paper lining the box, and the cardboard box itself.  I'm starting to think that their recipe starts with lots of butter, adds just enough sugar to make it sweet, and then only adds enough flour to keep everything held together through the oven.  A few minutes after eating one, I feel sort of like I just ate a stick of butter.

Alas, Sprinkles falls squarely into the same trap as gourmet peanut butter sandwich purveyor PB Loco: The price is absolutely ridiculous.  It's $3.25 for *one* cupcake.  If you get a whole dozen, they have the decency to drop the price to $36, only $3 each!  If it was, say, $2.50, you would likely find me there two or three times weekly.  At their prices, once a month tops.  I'll leave Sprinkles to the chichi Scottsdale Desperate Housewives crowd with their bleached blonde hair and oversized sunglasses with white plastic rims, and just make my own cupcakes at home.

Review: My Big Fat Greek Restaurant, Scottsdale AZ

Something I recently noticed is that absolutely *nobody* on the Chowhound message board makes much mention of the local chain My Big Fat Greek Restaurant.  Maybe it's the cheesy name, maybe it's that they have enough locations around town to look like they've already gone national, maybe it's that they use sigmas in their signage so that the name actually reads "My Big Fat Grssk Restaurant".  Who knows.  All I knew was that I was getting hungry, and a couple of friends had just invited me along for the trip.  Who was I to refuse good company?

The decor of the restaurant is generic, with standard-issue laminate topped tables, silverware rolled in Aegean blue napkins (have I mentioned how much I despise rolled silver?  I'm coming to your restaurant to have you do the work, SET THE TABLE!) and a mural of a Greek village along one wall.  Don't look at the mural too long, you'll realize the artist had no idea how to do perspective drawing.  Or maybe they wanted to get the picture from lots of different viewpoints at once.  But I digress, this is about the food, not the art on the walls.  Perusing the menu, I noticed they had a decent number of classic Greek dishes such as spanakopita, moussaka, bacon cheeseburgers, BBQ chicken pizza, and fish & chips.  I'm used to seeing one or two out-of-left-field American items at ethnic restaurants to appease the poor fool who doesn't like eating interesting food but got dragged along anyway, but when well over a dozen items on the menu are American, it's time to start thinking about changing the name of the restaurant.  I also noticed a number of typos peppered about the menu, including a drink "fit for the GOD'S" (their capital lettering, not mine) and an "Agaen" wrap that I'm pretty sure was supposed to be Aegean, but instead was a clear lack of attention to detail all over Agaen.

We got things started off with a bunch of appetizers.  The first to arrive were dolmades (stuffed grape leaves) and fried calamari.  The calamari was one of the better ones I've had.  The meat was for once succulent and tender, and the breading was light enough that it didn't overshadow the calamari.  The dolmades left something to be desired.  Four tiny dolmades came on the plate (they were the size of nigiri sushi, to give you a frame of reference) and were quickly devoured, mostly because there wasn't all that much on the plate.  These were... bland.  You could tell there was seasoning in there, but apparently downtown Scottsdalians are either frightened by proper levels of seasoning, or haven't realized yet that eating garlic on a date is taboo only if done by one person.  A moment later, the waiter arrives with our saganaki (kefalograviera cheese flamed tableside).  An "Opa!" from the staff and a quite impressive fireball later, we dug in.  This is one of those dishes that no matter what you do to it, it's exactly what you expect.  It's cheese, they set it on fire, what more could you ask?

We were almost done with the appetizers when out from the kitchen come our Greek salads.  We move our appetizer plates over to the side, and see in front of us a plate of Romaine lettuce topped with chopped tomato, feta, and green bell peppers.  The lettuce was glistening from the dressing, but the dressing just didn't taste like anything.  I searched the dish high and low for some kind of flavor at all, and all I got was a little sweet from the tomatoes and bite of the peppers.  The feta and dressing just sort of snuck around hoping that they wouldn't get noticed.

After a short wait which would have been unnoticeable had the waitstaff not rushed our salads out of the kitchen, our main courses arrived.  It would have been nice if the waitstaff had thought to clear the appetizer and salad plates before the mains came.  With their full hands, they ran into quite the traffic jam as we moved our first course plates off to adjacent empty tables so they could put our main course down.  My choice tonight was the Aegean Spaghetti, pasta with olive oil, garlic and a blend of mizithra, feta, and parmesan cheeses.  As far as pasta dishes go, this one was a disappointment.  The spaghetti was overcooked, the feta melted into a congealed blob at the bottom of the dish, and again everything was just bland, bland, bland.  There should have been the nuttiness of the mizithra, the sharp tang of the feta, but instead it might as well have been just noodles in olive oil.  I've had better versions of this dish at Old Spaghetti Factory, seriously.  It isn't that hard of a dish to make.  Everyone seemed halfway pleased with their dishes, but there certainly wasn't any rampant enthusiasm for any of the dishes on the table.

The dinner for four came out to about $96.  For what we got, it seemed like it was right where it should be.  However, there are much better choices for Greek food in town, namely just about any mom-n-pop joint you can think of.  My Big Fat Grssk, er, I mean, Greek Restaurant just glides along in its mediocrity, refusing to pay attention to the small details that would make it great, almost proud to be as dull and mainstream as any other chain restaurant out there.

Jester On The Go: Olive & Ivy, Scottsdale AZ.

Today, I did a common thing when I'm scheduled to go in to work later than usual... I went in at the normal time. I suddenly found I had 45 minutes to kill, and felt like grabbing a small nibble of some sort. I almost went to the Nordstrom Cafe, but the mall was absolutely jammed. It was a nice day, what were all of you people doing going to an air conditioned building? I went out and looked for another option, then remembered about the new Fox restaurant, Olive & Ivy, on the other side of the Nordstrom parking garage.

Olive and Ivy is a very pretty place, with soaring ceilings, dark woods, sleek surfaces, and nice partitioning so it doesn't feel like a warehouse. It is split into several sections; the standard bar and restaurant areas, plus a to-go counter that features coffeehouse offerings (espresso drinks and baked goods) plus several flavors of (Oh God, Not Again!) gelato. The split layout means they can be open all day long without feeling like half of the place is closed: The counter is open for breakfast and lunch; the restaurant is open for brunch, lunch, and dinner; and the bar is open at lunch, dinner, and for late-night nibbles. I spent a few minutes perusing the cold case in the counter area, stocked with overpriced beer, mini bottles of wine, and soft drinks. They had an excellent selection of exotic and familiar offerings. But two bucks for Vitamin Water that costs two thirds that at a run of the mill convenience store? Aie.

I stood eyeing the gelato case for a minute or so; the two people behind the expansive counter preferred chatting with each other and straightening the adjacent espresso machine area to other activities such as... oh, I don't know, how about greeting the puzzled looking guest in front of you?! They may have made eye contact once or twice. I don't remember. It was certainly not the first impression I wanted. I doubt I'm going to try them again.


Olive & Ivy
7135 E Camelback Rd Ste 195 (Scottsdale Waterfront complex)
Scottsdale AZ 85251
480-751-2200

Open for: Breakfast, Weekend Brunch, Lunch, Dinner, Late Night
Atmosphere: 5 (Absolutely gorgeous)
Service: 0 (there was none, not even a hello. Inexcusable.)
Food: Not Reviewed
Value 2 (items in cold case were overpriced)
Kid Friendly: 2 (upscale, no hint of kids menu; upscale kids will be pleased with the small plates)
Overall: No Rating due to no food tasting. Overall impression is that it's the archetype downtown Scottsdale restaurant- very pretty, costs more than it should, and the customers serve as an interruption to the employees' social hour. I see no reason to return.