Lauren Cusimano
The April Thunderbird Lounge Market Is This Weekend
This weekend offers yet another Thunderbird Lounge Market (710 West Montecito Avenue), happening from noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday, April 11. There will be shopping and DJs, food trucks and pop-ups. So far, Sabor a Mi, MozzArepas, My Comadres Kitchen, and Roasted Roots have signed on to attend. For more information, see the Facebook event. For more dining options in the Melrose District, see this dining guide or our recent review of Valentine.
Time for round two.
The AZ Women in Food Are Back, Babes
Order buttons are now live for another run of tasting menus from the James Beard Foundation Women of Arizona. The second collaborative series (the first was in January) of takeout dinners will run three weekends: April 16 and 17, April 23 and 24, and April 30 to May 1. Course offerings are coming from The Joy Bus Diner, Maya s Cajun Kitchen, The Coronado, Worth Takeaway, The Breadfruit & Rum Bar, and lots more. Particip
Soon, with the support of local chefs, farmers, and other food community types (including Crooked Sky Farms and Fox Restaurant Concepts), The Joy Bus became The Joy Bus Diner, a Shea Boulevard restaurant (3375 East Shea Boulevard, to be exact) whose profits fund the food-delivery campaign. The organization’s board is a Who’s Who of local food professionals including Tracy Dempsey (Tracy Dempsey’s Originals), Gio Osso (Virtu Honest Craft), and Bernie Kantak (Citizen Public House, The Gladly).
That tony board was resistant when Caraway suggested a four-walls diner. “They were reminding me how hard it is to run a restaurant,” Caraway recalls. “And I was saying, ‘Yeah, but I know that. It’s all I’ve ever done.’”