| CHOW BELLA | t Café Regional Flavor Navajo Mike’s aims to create a barbecue sauce for the Southwest. BY BAHAR ANOOSHAHR P rior to COVID, Michael John was working as the executive chef at Sunbar in Tempe. Then, more or less overnight, the 15- year veteran of the service in- dustry found himself out of a job. Suddenly blessed with some downtime, John started experimenting with making his own bar- becue sauce recipes. Wanting to create a sauce specific to this part of the country, he drew inspiration from the prickly pear. “You got your Texas barbecue style, North Carolina style, Kansas City,” John says. “But there’s no Southwest barbecue style. With the prickly pear being the Southwest staple, I decided to try a prickly pear sauce.” Thus was born Navajo Mike’s, which is now over a year old. John does it all, from making the sauces to filling and labeling every bottle. Currently, the Tempe-based business offers three barbecue sauces: Smoked Prickly Pear; “Skoden Golden” Style, which is more mustard-based; and “Skinwalker Style” Smoked Prickly Pear, which has a spicy kick from ghost peppers. John recommends using the smokey prickly pear sauce for both vegetables and meats and letting it “color your palate with the rugged beauty of Arizona.” All bottles are 6 ounces and cost $7 at navajomikes.com. Early on, John donated some of the pro- ceeds from his sales to the Navajo Nation Covid Relief Fund. “The better my busi- ness does, the more I plan to give back to the tribe,” he says. Related to that, Navajo Mike’s was re- cently certified by American Indian Foods, a program of the Intertribal Agriculture Council that offers a platform for Native- owned businesses. The trademark protects the native producer and consumers from falsely advertised Indian-made products. According to Latashia Redhouse, AIF pro- gram director, certified products must be Navajo Mike’s made by “a federally recognized Tribal member or Tribal entity as defined by law. Or, at least have a controlling 51% share in- terest.” You can also find Navajo MIke’s at Na- tive Art Market in Old Town Scottsdale and Kilgore American Indian Art in Man- cos, Colorado. “I appreciate having stores that sell Na- The three varieties of Navajo Mike’s Southwest-style barbecue sauces. tive products only because those stores won’t sell any falsely advertised Indian- made products and the money will benefit the tribe,” says John. For updates, follow Navajo Mike’s on Instagram at @navajomikesbbq. 2021 FORD BRONCO SPORT JUICE ASSOCIATION? AFRAID OF THE T hey often say, “there’s no such thing as bad press” and you’re right. Especially in today’s social media, fake-news, 24-hour(ish) news cycle, people don’t remember exactly what they heard, they just know they heard something about you/it/ them. Well, Ford with the OJ Bronco chase & the nostalgic memories people had of the classic Bronco, Ford had an opportunity to knock it out of the park with the redesigned Ford Bronco...and they fumbled. Looks: Pick-Up: Handling: Comfort: Passenger Comfort: 28 There were numerous people asking me if I was ever going to get the new Juicemobile because they loved the classic Bronco and were excited to see what Ford came out with. After seeing the initial press photos, we knew it wasn’t going to be the actual OJ Bronco chase size but we didn’t give up hope. And then I got it. The Bronco is a total bust, I hate to say. Ford had the hype, excitement and fan fare to sell the stuff out of the Bronco but almost everyone but my friend Fordy RATING (out of 5 McFly’s) Access to Controls: Safety & Security: Sound System: Bells & Whistles: Overall: 2021 FORD BRONCO SPORT Questions? Feedback? Email me at [email protected] • Follow me on Forderton, was disappointed. The cabin stylings felt cheap. The space was cramped. It just felt like you were sitting in a Jeep Renegade or Patriot and definitely isn’t on par with the Wrangler which is where Ford was trying to compete. The Fuel economy of the 1.5L Ecoboost was around 18MPG. The price tag of $32,440 helps keep your expectations down but I think everyone would have paid a little more for the Bronco we expected. SEPT 2ND – SEPT 8TH, 2021 PHOENIX NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | NEWS | OPINION | FEEDBACK | CONTENTS | phoenixnewtimes.com
