A new cafe in southeast Phoenix wants to be the next go-to spot for kolaches, baked offerings made of puffed-up dough and stuffed with savory or sweet fillings.
The Kolache Cafe opened in Ahwatukee at 4302 East Ray Road in early January, serving more than a dozen variations of the treats with Czech and Texan roots.
During the second week of January (when we visited), lunchtime business was brisk at the cafe The cafe still had some breakfast items available, including sausage and gravy plus potato, egg, and cheese kolaches. Diners were ordering a number of savory items everything from chicken, broccoli, and cheddar to pulled pork with jalapeno. There were also sweet kolaches: blueberry and raspberry cheesecake. Some customers took advantage of patio seating while the rest lined up for takeout orders. Employees advised to-go customers to warm their kolaches at home in their microwaves, setting timers to 15 to 20 seconds. It was a humming operation.
Four days apart in August, under the steady boot crush of the pandemic and the restaurant off-season, two ramen restaurants opened. Both are great.
The first is Origami Ramen Bar in Ahwatukee. Origami is the project Yusuke Kuroda started after being laid off in the spring from the national, reputable high-end microchain Nobu. He came to Arizona and opened a noodle bar Origami also serves donburi, handrolls, a few fried foods, milk tea, and other offerings to channel his reserves of dammed-up passion and energy that built and built in the early, idle, uncertain months of 2020.
Kuroda, an Osaka native, went to culinary school and got his start cooking kaiseki in his home city. It’s no surprise, then, that his takoyaki are first rate. Takoyaki dough spheres cooked on special trays to a brown crust, the rich product shot through with bits of chopped octopus are a food from Osaka. Growing up, Kuroda’s mom cooked takoyaki at home, and the version he makes, he says, channels t