EDITOR'S LETTER

editor's LETTER Hash Browns, Javelinas and Hard-Core Adventure

Matt's Big Breakfast. If I had all the time in the world and the metabolic rate of a broad-tailed hummingbird, I'd begin every day at Matt's Big Breakfast. The food, the atmosphere, the service ... it doesn't get any better than Matt's. That's why people line up for hours, even during the triple-digit infernos of summer, for the Salami Scramble, the Griddlecakes and the crispy hash browns. Especially the crispy hash browns, which are moistened with olive oil and heaped on the plate - there's enough there to fill up a linebacker. Like everything on the menu at Matt's, the hash browns are delectable and the portions are massive. The restaurant itself is a different story. At most, the place holds about 25 people. It's always wall-to-wall, and ever since Guy Fieri featured Matt's on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, it's even more crowded. Don't let that deter you, though. As Nikki Buchanan writes in Best Restaurants 2011, "the food is better than Mom's," and she's right. "Mmm ..." doesn't even begin to describe it. Another great thing about Matt's is that owner Matt Pool uses local ingredients: bacon from The Pork Shop, bread from MJ, jams from Cotton Country and coffee from C4. To paraphrase Ms. Buchanan: It proves that eating local leaves a good taste in your mouth.

If you haven't been to Matt's, plug it into your GPS. The same goes for the other 24 restaurants in this month's cover story, including Criollo Latin Kitchen in Flagstaff, Screaming Banshee Pizza in Bisbee and Simon's Hot Dogs in Sedona. As always, the 25 places on our list are there for various reasons: charming décor, delicious food, friendly service. Not every restaurant excels in every category, but according to Nikki, the state's most-respected food critic, they're all worth a visit. She's done the fieldwork; all you have to do is hit the road. And when you do, watch out for wildlife. Arizona ranks third in the U.S. in terms of biodiversity, behind only California and Texas. That means Mother Nature spends a lot of time in our state, showering it with a wide range of plants and animals, many of which are featured in this magazine on a regular basis. Although landscape photography is the soup du jour in most issues, it's the wildlife images that generate the biggest response. In fact, it was an e-mail from a biology student at Oregon State that prompted this month's portfolio. She was responding to an image of a mountain lion and her cub in our June 2009 issue. "Incredible photograph," she wrote. "I'd love to see more of that kind of stuff. More wildlife."

Thanks for the great suggestion, Libbie. In Oh, Babies!, we do just that. It's not just wildlife, though. It's wildlife in its infancy. Kits, fawns, lambs... babies. The young skunk and the baby bighorn sheep will generate the most oohs and ahhs, but even the newborn javelina will make you think, aw, that's so cute. We're pretty sure this is what Libbie was looking for, but the best way to see wildlife is out in the wild, in a place like the Sierra Ancha. There are no guarantees, of course, but the Sierra Ancha, which is remote and rugged, offers as good a chance as any of seeing mule deer and mountain lions. Among others. It also offers a Ph.D. in archaeology, but very few have ever earned it. Nick Berezenko is one of the few.Recently, Nick and two other photographers headed into the mountains. They were on a mission to find Pueblo Canyon and the ancient dwellings of the Salado people, who occupied the area from 1278 to 1324. "We stumble into a giant alcove that shelters the main compound," Berezenko writes in the present tense. "Ochre walls of plastered mud and stone stand silent in the hollowness. Ten? Twenty? Thirty-five rooms in here? Hard to tell. Many of the second-story walls have fallen, and now lie in blocks at the base of the ruin."

In Treasure of the Sierra Ancha, you'll read about their adventure, and by the time you're finished, you might be inspired to follow in their footsteps. The urge is understandable, but keep in mind that trekking into the Sierra Ancha isn't for everyone. It takes a great deal of training and a great deal of endurance. The rewards are worth it, though. Kind of like waiting in line at Matt's Big Breakfast. The obvious difference? There aren't any good hash browns in Pueblo Canyon. Not as good as Matt's, anyway.

ROBERT STIEVE, editor

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