pork belly twanging with cider gastrique, stuffed pasta made from local flour. However, brunch might be the best meal at Lon’s, especially when the weather hits right. Highlights include huevos rancheros, customizable margaritas, and a monkey bread so yeasty and loaded with dense cream, caramel, and chocolate that you might not need to order anything else. What truly sets Lon’s apart is that the space has a kind of timeless mystique and magic. It is the kind of place, even, that has open secrets. One: Come the heat of summer you can eat down in a cool hidden room that is actually a wine cellar. Two: pulling a stool and posting up at Lon’s Last Drop is a move that can could easily melt away the hours and make your day and/or night, thanks in no small part to the Whiskey Del Bac cocktails and tajin popcorn. 5532 N. Palo Cristi Rd.; Paradise Valley; 602- 955-7878; www.hermosainn.com/dining/lons. ($$$) Salt Cellar Restaurant: The front door of this south Scottsdale seafood staple looks like it leads to a golf pro shop. In fact, it will send you down a staircase, at the bottom of which you’ll find an exceptionally classic dining experience. Salt Cellar Restaurant has been around since 1971, and its staying power stems, in part, from the atmosphere: the subterranean bar, the white tablecloths pinned by flickering candles. The menu lists seasonal seafood items from all over — Boston, Hawaii, Alaska, Chesapeake Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, Georges Bank, and New Zealand. Aside from the go-to lobster and scallop dishes, a standout is the mussels in butter sauce appetizer, an actual bucket of Blue Hill Bay mussels swimming in a broth with drawn butter. From the depths of this cellar, each bite feels sent from above. 550 N. Hayden Rd., Scottsdale; 480-947-1963; saltcellarrestaurant.com. ($$$) ShinBay: Not long ago, our food critic declared the best sushi in town to be found at ShinBay — the third incarnation of the omakase-style sushi place, now set in Old Town Scottsdale. Executive chef Shinji Kurita has made his home here, slicing and calculating near the 13-seat L-shaped bar. Shinbay hosts two seatings a night at more than $185 a ride. His omakase creations include Japanese eggplant with miso and bonito shavings, slices of halibut cured with kombu, chopped Hokkaido scallops with yuzu-miso, sashimi, and nigiri. The drink menu offers everything from a high-end sake bottle for $2,700 to rare (but less expensive) Japanese beers. It ain’t cheap, and diners are asked to allow approximately two hours for the dining experience. But the experience is well worth it. 3720 N. Scottsdale Road, #201, Scottsdale; 480-361-1021; shin-bay.com. ($$$$) The Stand: Though you won’t see the roadside, open-air kitchen built from arrowroot and cactus ribs on Instagram food feeds, or in the pages of any glossy publication, The Stand on the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Reservation is one of our favorite places to eat in metro Phoenix. Here, the seats are stumps, the ceiling is the sky, and the fry bread from cook Cindy Washington will occupy your thoughts long after the meal is through. This Frisbee-sized fry bread is shaped from dough using vegetable shortening and born from a deep fryer. It rises dripping on the tines of a long, steaming fork. It’s puffy as a marshmallow — chewy, lacy, and soft all at once. With some honey, the nuttier toasty notes of the grain awaken. Blanketed with gloppy red chile, rained with toppings, and supercharged into an “Indian taco,” you have a sub-$10 meal for one that could feed two hungry people. Though fry bread isn’t an indigenous food with roots in the deep past, people, including many Native Americans around Phoenix, still enjoy it. If you don’t, well, when you hunger for a similarly satisfying meal, try The Stand’s menudo. 3996 N. Alma School Rd., Scottsdale; 480-519-1108; facebook.com/SRTheStand. ($) Virtu Honest Craft: Gio Osso’s Italian food isn’t afraid to reach beyond the boot, or even beyond the Mediterranean. His frequently changing menu has offered rib-eye with chimi- churri and smoked swordfish belly with chorizo. But the bulk of the plates at this white-tablecloth restaurant on the edge of downtown Scottsdale are anchored in far southern Italy, though filtered through the New Jersey native’s learned, slightly playful culinary mind. There are handmade pastas, hand-shaped gnocchi. There are ingredients like the Italian green barba de frate, tender and wild under crisp-skinned branzino. There are flights of obscure, ferocious amari. There are Calabrian chiles, blood-red egg yolks given by chickens fed red peppers, and bowls of pork ragu utterly astounding and wholly comforting in their long-stewed, homey depths. Virtu is a place for somebody who prefers more formal dining, who thinks they’ve eaten all the Italian food there is, or who simply wants a reliably damn good meal. It is also an under- rated destination for drinks. A deep wine list has some nice regional Italian finds by the glass. The bar manages to make even a vodka cocktail — the Ice Queen — interesting, thanks to strawberry-white-balsamic shrub, Champagne foam, and black pepper. You can fly high with tartare and steak. You can plunge into the sea with lemon-tahini scallops or a blackened octopus that has become one of the town’s classics. Best of all, you can noodle with great pasta. 3701 N. Marshall Way, Scottsdale; 480-946-3477; virtuscottsdale.com. ($$$) IT HAS THE CHATTER FACTOR: 2021 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE L OVERLAND 4X4 I f you’ve been reading my column for awhile you know that Clutch always talks about the “Chatter Factor” (actually, I don’t think I’ve ever called it that until now but I like that so I’ll use that until I forget it again). When people make comments to me about the whip I’m in or ask me questions about it. The 2021 Grand Cherokee L definitely has some Chatter Factor and also has a little of the “It Factor” to back it up. The 3rd row seating is the main added feature in the 2021’s (for the L) and boy did Looks: Pick-Up: Handling: Comfort: Passenger Comfort: Jeep knock it out of the park. There is actually a little leg room in the 3rd row while still having some room for cargo when all the seats are up and the electronic seats make bringing up/down the 3rd row a cinch. With the seats folded, the Cherokee L is a BEAST in terms of space and in true Jeep Cherokee fashion, the finishes, technology and stylings are top notch. The Cherokee line has a real underrated luxury vibe. The 3.6L V6 engine delivers 293-hp and 260-lb-ft of torque, which is ample power but she is a little slow off the line. Maybe RATING (out of 5 McFly’s) Access to Controls: Bells & Whistles: Overall: Safety & Security: Sound System: 2021 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE L OVERLAND 4X4 Questions? Feedback? Email me at [email protected] • Follow me on 37 a vehicle of that size takes a bit to get up to speed but I do need to remind myself that one isn’t buying the Cherokee L to win at the drag strip. The 18/25 MPG is solid and the $63,915 price tag is an absolute steal for what Jeep delivers. I received several comments from guys at the valet stand as well as the valet driver and a few McFly buddies were actually talking about the L before I arrived at the Fantasy Draft. If you need 3 rows or just a little more space, the Grand Cherokee L Overland is for you. phoenixnewtimes.com | CONTENTS | FEEDBACK | OPINION | NEWS | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | PHOENIX NEW TIMES SEPT 2ND – SEPT 8TH, 2021
