TORTILLA FLAT – For more than a hundred years, thirsty travelers have flocked to Tortilla Flat. Once a popular stagecoach stop along the Apache Trail, the saloon anchoring this tiny and resilient community still serves up libations to tourists seeking a slice of Old Arizona.
TUCSON — Dillinger Days are held in this city on the third Saturday of each January, giving the locals and visitors a chance to dress in pinstripe suits, felt fedoras, flapper dresses and moustaches. The annual event at the Hotel Congress commemorates the arrest of John Dillinger, the notorious gangster who became the FBI’s first Public Enemy Number One.
Few cocktails come in as many varieties as the margarita. I thought I had seen them all (and tasted most), but Chef Josh Herbert of POSH Restaurant in Scottsdale has found another way to transform the happy hour staple while staying true to the bold flavors of Mexican cuisine. His inspiration: mole.
If there’s any doubt that Max’s Sports Bar and Restaurant is actually a sports bar, the suspicions are allayed immediately after entering the establishment and meeting the Jocko Bird.
It is a fierce-looking creature with the head of an eagle and the body of a beer-bellied athlete who wears football, baseball, golf, hockey, bowling, basketball and lacrosse gear while standing guard at the front door. The late Max Beyer, original owner of the place, created the “bird” in the 1970s to serve as a mascot for the sports fans who gathered there.
To anyone familiar with the nightlife scene at Arizona State University, this shouldn’t come as a huge shocker. The behemoth university has once again gained notoriety as one of North America’s top party schools, according to media giant PLAYBOY. The Wildcats were left out of the fun this year, but I do recall them landing the honor in the past.
PLAYBOY says the rankings were determined by student surveys and interviews, social media and feedback from PLAYBOY campus representatives. They also took male-to-female ratios, academics, winning percentage of sports teams and “proximity to beaches, ski slopes and lively music scenes” into account.
