BEST RESTAURANTS 2012

B RESTAURANTS 2012 S T

There are three main ingredients that go into a great restaurant: food, service and ambience. In our fifth-annual roundup of the state's best eateries, we feature 15 places that can deliver all three. Places like Cibo in Phoenix, Downtown Kitchen in Tucson and Garland's in Sedona. Among others. We'll tell you about all of them, and we'll even throw in a few of their signature recipes. Eat Here!

By Nikki Buchanan Photographs by Paul Markow

15.quince JEROME

Raised in Taos, New Mexico, chef-owner Vladimir Costa grew up on red and green chile, which he generously ladles over the New Mexico special-ties he serves at his colorful, art-filled cantina named for the mystical number 15 (pronounced keen-say) in Spanish. Because he lives in a mining town famous for being haunted, Costa also adds scorching ghost chiles to an appealing menu mix that includes three excel-lent house-made salsas, half-pound sirloin burgers, local beer-battered fish tacos and guacamole studded with pomegranate seeds. Margaritas may not actually put the fire out, but Quince-lovers quaff with abandon just the same. 363 Main Street, 928-634-7087, www. visitjeromeaz.com

Bill's Pizza on the Square PRESCOTT

Before opening his small, cash-only pizza shop, Bill Tracy traipsed across America and Italy learning pizza-making styles and techniques from the masters, including Chris Bianco of the legendary Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix. Customers may order specialty pies or create their own coal-fired, brick-oven masterpieces, choosing among premium toppings such as caramelized onion, fresh basil and imported sheep's milk feta cheese. Either way, each lightly charred, chewy pie will be made with premium ingredients. No wonder Road Food's Jane and Michael Stern named Bill's one of the top 100 pizzerias in the U.S. 107 Cortez Street, 928-443-0800, www. billspizzaprescott.com

Cibo PHOENIX

Ensconced in a wood-floored bun-galow built once upon a time - in 1913, to be exact - this cozy pizzeria has a fairytale setting, but don't let the gabled roof, twinkling lights and flowers fool you. Cibo is more than an idyllic urban haven, and it's just right for chilling over Prosecco on the leafy patio. Italian-born chef and pizzaiolo Guido Saccone is ardent about sourcing top-notch ingredients, which he uses to excellent effect on wood-charred Neapolitan pies, antipasti, Italian-style sandwiches and handmade pasta - the latter being offered on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Luscious dessert crèpes and house-made limoncello provide the happily-ever-after ending to a perfect meal. 603 N. Fifth Avenue, 602-441-2697, www.cibophoenix.com

Cornish Pasty Co. TEMPE/MESA

Pasties are savory turnovers traditionally filled with meat and vegetables, the standard hand-held lunch of Cornwall's tin miners back in the day. Figuring these modestly priced belly-fillers washed down with good UK beer would appeal to American college students, Cornwall-born-and-bred Dean Thomas opened his first pub-like opera-tion in Tempe in 2005, expanding to Mesa four years later. His perfect pastry comes stuffed with everything from carne adovada and lamb vindaloo to roasted turkey with sweet potatoes and stuffing. Spectacularly good Banoffee pie should forever dispel the myth that Brits can't cook. 961 W. University Drive, 480-894-6261; 1941 W. Guadalupe Road, 480-838-4586, www.cornishpastyco.com

Cibo Tagliatelle Arancia e Guanciale

Fill a large pot with water and add salt to taste. Bring water to a boil, then add pasta and cook for approximately three minutes fewer than the cooking directions if using bagged pasta. In a large nonstick skillet, sauté the onions with butter and add chopped guanciale (or prosciutto). Let cook until slightly toasted and set aside. Using tongs, transfer the tagliatelle from the pot to the skillet. Toss, over medium heat, with grated Pecorino-Romano, the orange juice and half of the orange zest. Add pasta water and allow the mixture to cook for two minutes until it becomes creamy. Add chopped parsley. Garnish with aged ricotta salata, black pepper and the remaining orange zest.

Cornish Pasty Co. Banoffee Pie

Melt butter over low heat in a medium saucepan. Add graham cracker crumbs and stir. Place the crumb mixture in an 8-inch pie pan. Press the mixture with the back of a spoon until it's firmly compressed. Place in freezer. To make caramel, place the unopened can of sweetened con-densed milk in a pan of boiling water. Keep at a steady boil for three hours. Make sure that the can is completely submerged. (Note: If you allow the can to boil dry, it may explode.) After three hours, remove the can from the water and allow it to cool. Remove the graham cracker base from the freezer. Spread the caramel over the graham cracker base as liberally as you'd like, then place in the refrigerator to chill. Whip the cream until it forms peaks, then pipe or smooth the cream over the caramel. Slice the bananas and layer to the edges of the pie. Sprinkle with chocolate shavings or almonds as desired.

Diablo Burger FLAGSTAFF

"All about local" is the motto at this cash-only gourmet burger joint, where juicy 6-ounce patties come from grass-fed, antibioticand growth hormone-free beef, raised on two historic Diablo Trust ranches near Flagstaff. Topped with Black Mesa goat cheese, chimi-churri, house-made sauerkraut or beets from Phoenix-based McClendon's Select, each build-your-own or specialty burger is a delicious lesson in the joys of eating local. Fans rave about crispy, herb-dusted Belgian frites and the cool "db" branded English muffins that sub for burger buns. Meanwhile, regional wine and Arizona-brewed craft beer, enjoyed on the patio, make the locavore thing mighty easy to swallow. 120 Ν. Leroux Street, No. 112, 928-774-3274, www. diabloburger.com

Downtown Kitchen TUCSON

Food-fanatical Arizonans associate Janos Wilder with Southwest Cuisine and Latin Fusion as it's deliciously expressed at Janos and JBar respectively. When this James Beard Award-winning chef decided he needed a new playground, he opened DK an airy, art-filled and distinctly urban space to celebrate America's culinary melting pot. His exotic but approach-able menu which features griddled gnocchi with grilled vegetables and burrata, Hawaiian ahi poke and Ras al Hanout marinated chicken is literally all over the map, and that's the fun of it. Craft cocktails and mixology classes prove Wilder's got his finger on Arizona's culinary pulse. This is who we are and what we want now. 135 S. Sixth Avenue, 520-623-7700, www.down townkitchen.com

Garden Café YUMA

When the weather's nice, there's no more blissful place to be than this lovely, family run café. Open October through May, the café was built around a terraced garden lush with trees, vines and flowers. Chirping free-roaming birds, as well as those from the café's aviary, become the seductive soundtrack for charming breakfasts, lunches and Sunday brunch, featuring signature dishes such as South-west quiche, strawberry-turkey salad, house-made muffins, the city's best tortilla soup and Yuma Spice iced tea, a specialty blend customers may buy to brew at home. White layer cake with coconut-cream filling and whipped cream is named Torture Cake for good reason: It's torture to leave it alone. 250 S. Madison Avenue, 928-783-1491, www. gardencafeyuma.com

Downtown Kitchen Pot au Feu

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Season the short ribs with salt and pepper and sear well on all sides. Remove the short ribs from the pan and add half of the roughly cut vegetables and red wine. Reduce the wine and add 3 quarts of the beef stock, thyme and short ribs. Cover and roast six to eight hours until very tender. In another roasting pan, season the brisket (with the fat cap on) with salt and pepper. Sear the brisket and add the remaining beef stock. Cover and roast six to eight hours until very tender. When the brisket is done, remove it from the oven and remove the fat cap, as well. Combine the red wine and beef stock, and degrease, strain and reserve. Cut both the brisket and the short ribs into 2-ounce pieces. Blanch the remaining vegetables separately in heavily salted water. Heat the meat and vegetables in the reserved beef stock. Garnish with gherkins, horseradish cream and whole-grain mustard.

Garland's Oak Creek Lodge

Overnight guests of this lovely, historic lodge are treated to hearty breakfasts, afternoon tea, predinner cocktails and elegant evening meals, all wrapped into one set price. With a little luck, however, it's possible for outsiders to snag seats (by reservation) at a shared table for a fabulous prix fixe dinner prepared by longtime Garland's chef and cookbook author Amanda Stine, who puts out a completely different menu of homemade bread, soup, salad, entrée, dessert and coffee six nights a week. Stine gathers fruit, vegetables, herbs and fresh eggs from the trees, gardens and chickens on the property to make food that's simple, sophisticated and well worth planning a weekend around. 8067 N. State Route 89A, 928-2823343, www.garlandslodge.com

Java Blues

The blues are the very last thing you're likely to get at this cute coffeehouse, which has slowly morphed into a fullblown restaurant and bar with free Wi-Fi and occasional live music. In the beginning, locals came for great coffee drinks, smoothies and plain orfancy breakfasts. Now this beloved Springerville fixture is equally famous for its burgers, sandwiches, salads, pastas, steaks, catfish platters and house-baked pies, which sell out every day. As for the wildly original blueberry-sausage cake (pecan-crusted and drizzled with blueberry syrup), let's just call it a coffeehouse perk. 341 E. Main, 928-333-5282

Maynards Market & Kitchen

Housed in Tucson's historic railway depot, this charming upscale market and dark, romantic restaurant designed to replicate the plush dining cars of another era - have become both East End hub and food-geek destination, wrapped in one delicious package. Locals laud the excellent wine shop, weekly farmers' market on the plaza, pristine locally sourced products in the market and, of course, Chef Addam Buzzalini's seasonal, French-inspired menu, which often features classics such as poutine, raclette, steak tartare, bouillabaisse and choucroute. Insiders make early reservations for the five-course Farmer's Supper held on Sundays. 400 N. Toole Avenue, 520-545-0577, www.maynards market.com

Moose Henri's LAKESIDE

You don't have to be the outdoorsy type to appreciate Doug Wetmore's laidback bar and grill, adorned with snow skis, snowshoes, water skis and moose in every conceivable representation. But it helps if you love life's simple pleasures — say, an 8-ounce, spice-rubbed and charbroiled Moose Burger served with jalapeño coleslaw and a cold beer. The menu is limited to all-day burgers and sandwiches, a handful of dinner entrees, 20-plus wines by the glass and 24 beers on tap, half of them Arizona microbrews. Lots of bang for the buck here, including a monthly pig roast so popular customers start lining up before the doors open. 4207 White Mountain Boulevard, 928-368-5127, www.moose henris.com

Santiago's BISBEE

Holy Molé! That's not only the name of chef Karina Franco-Batty's popular chicken enchilada dish, but also the exclamation customers are inclined to make when they taste the complexly seasoned, not-too-chocolatey molé sauce that smothers it. But utterances of surprise and delight are commonplace at this cute, colorful Mexicanfood favorite, particularly for the tableside guacamole, Rocky Point tacos, diablo shrimp and sopaipillas. Seasonal fruit margaritas, tequila flights and a 55-bottle tequila selection make downtown people-watching all the more fun. 1 Howell Avenue, 520-432-1910, www. santiagosbisbee.com

Satchmo's FLAGSTAFF

Jamie Thousand, who named his downhome, New Orleans-themed barbecue joint for jazz great Louis Armstrong, modestly calls himself a “home cook who grew up on barbecue,” but he thinks like a chef, smoking brisket over hickory (because beef can stand up to hickory's intense smoke) and chicken over apple or cherry wood (because its delicacy requires something lighter and more aromatic). Besides turning out fantastic barbecue and sides, Thousand smokes anything edible, including nuts and cheeses in the cooler months and spices all year-round, which add layers of flavor to rubs and a handful of Cajun specialties such as gumbo and jambalaya. This Missouri boy is wildly inventive — just like old Satchmo. 2320 N. Fourth Street, 928-774-7292, www. satchmosaz.com

Satchmo's Red Beans & Rice

Rinse beans and soak in a large pot of water overnight. In a skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Cook onion, garlic and celery in butter for three to four minutes. Rinse beans and transfer to a large pot with 3 cups of water and smoked ham hock. Stir cooked vegetables into the beans and season with bay leaves, thyme and Cajun seasoning. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for two to three hours (or until the beans are tender). Carefully remove the ham hock from the mixture, allow it to cool, then cut off the meat and return it to the pot. Meanwhile, prepare the rice. In a saucepan, bring water and rice to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve beans over steamed white rice.

Sirens' Café Lemon Soufflé

Combine sugar, flour, salt and butter. Add lemon juice and peel. In a separate bowl, combine well-beaten egg yolks and milk. Add sugar and flour mixture to egg yolks and milk. Fold in egg whites and pour into greased custard cups. Place custard cups in a large pan and fill the pan with hot water about halfway up the sides of the custard cups. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes. When baked, each dessert will have custard on the bottom and sponge cake on top.

Sirens' Café

KINGMAN Former So-Cal gals who once lived on a boat, mother-daughter team Denise McMillan and Carmella Hynes named their small, intensely blue deli and catering company Sirens' and, for grins, gave it a mermaid theme. But they spend their days at the stove, not at sea, turning out creative sandwiches and quiches, lovely soups and off-thehook cheesecakes, making everything from scratch (including their insanely popular artichoke spread, mixed with house-made ricotta, Parmesan and fresh dill). The mermaids know 90 percent of their customers by name and often grant requests (with notice) for specific dishes. How's that for a siren song? 419 E. Beale Street, 928-753-4151, www. sirensinkingman.com

Wisdom's Café

TUMACACORI Decorated with family heirlooms, antiques, photos, paintings, trophies, farm tools and gifts from customers, this funky Mexican-food roadhouse, named for the multigenerational Wisdom-dom family who owns it, brims with character. But ask legions of snowbirds and locals why they visit so often and you'll get a slew of food-related answers: shredded turkey chimis, fantastic tortilla soup, tampiqueña and, of course, the fabled cinnamonand sugar-dusted fruit burro desserts, ordered before dinner. And just so you know, it's a wise customer, indeed, who drinks only one of Wisdom's deliciously potent margaritas. 1931 Ε. Frontage Road, 520-398-2397, www.wisdoms cafe.com AH For more recipes and to search our database of Arizona restaurants, scan this QR code or visit www.arizonahighways.com/travel/ dining.asp.