There’s nothing like fresh-grilled steak, right off the fire and onto your plate.
So what if you could have that backyard barbecue experience — sans the bugs and with a decidedly Korean twist — in a restaurant?
That’s the premise and theme of Sonny and Kim Chu’s newest Korean barbecue venture Meat the Sizzle, to open early next year at 4699 E. Speedway.
Each of the restaurant’s 33 tables will have its own gas grill and a server to prepare Korean style meats.
“Any meat you cook right there on the grill, it tastes so good,” said Kim Chu, who owns the restaurant with her husband Sonny. The couple also owns the popular Azian Sushi and Korean BBQ at 15 N. Alvernon Way, off East Broadway.
Kim Chu said the couple later this month will begin an extensive build-out of the Speedway building, which last housed Sir Veza’s and has been home to several restaurants over the years.
Work includes installing grills at the tables and hoods for each of those grills, she said.
The couple hopes to be open by mid-January.
Speaking of canning/bottling Tucson craft beer
Last week, Sentinel Peak Brewing Company began canning their flagship Mexican amber beer, but they are not alone in Tucson’s growing craft brew community.
The 3½-year-old Iron John’s Brewing Company has been bottling its full line of brews since the day it opened, said brewmaster/owner John Adkisson.
“We produce a rotating seasonal selection of over 40 different beer styles released weekly in 500 ml bottles available at our brewery and in over 50 locations across the state,” he said in an email. “We have received national acclaim for our unique products incorporating desert ingredients as well as our first-in-Tucson line of Belgian-style cask-soured ales.”
Iron John’s has a tap room in its brewery at 245 S. Plumer Ave. that’s open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.
Next up in the canning universe: Thunder Canyon Brewery downtown, which bought the equipment and is expected to roll out its canned beers sometime this month.
National pizza month is why we love October
Americans outside the West in places like the Carolinas, Illinois and Pennsylvania are basking in the change of colors this time of year.
We are basking in the idea of cheap pizza.
Hey, leaves don’t change color around here unless you go high up on a mountain, but you can get a deal on pizza throughout the month of October to celebrate National Pizza Month.
Here’s one we found that we plan to sink our teeth into: Grimaldi’s Pizzeria at 446 N. Campbell Ave. has 16-inch cheese pizzas for $10 on Mondays in October. If you dress it up with extra toppings you’ll pay a bit more.
The offer is good every Monday for eat-in or takeout. And lucky us, October 2017 has five Mondays; you have three more left to indulge. Details: grimaldispizzeria.com
And while we’re talking pizza, check out revamped Michelangelo’s
Six weeks after closing for a major renovation, Michelangelo’s in Oro Valley is back with a new name, a new attitude and a new way of looking at Italian food.
Bottega Michelangelo opened Wednesday, unveiling a decidedly casual interior, menu and price point, said owner Guiseppe Ali.
The white tablecloths and formal decor that carried through the first 32 years of the Ali family’s Italian restaurant at 420 W. Magee Road in Oro Valley are gone, replaced by bare tables and a wood-burning pizza oven in a corner of the dining room.
“You can see the guy making pizza, and you can see him put it in the oven,” Ali said Thursday. “We also have all our homemade desserts on display.”
Those include momma Ali’s famous cookies.
The Ali family’s move came after they concluded last last summer that their restaurant’s reputation as a special occasion destination was outdated.
Bottega Michelangelo also has a new culinary direction, leaning more to the family’s roots in the Calabria region of Italy.
“We are geared more now toward southern Italian food,” Ali said, meaning more red sauces, and “some of the foods are more on the spicy side.”
And although Michelangelo’s had pizza on the menu, Bottega Michelangelo seems fully vested in the fare given the expense of the new ovens.
Pizzas run $9 to $15, and entrees start at $14 for the spaghetti marinara to the most expensive dish on the menu, the lamb chops in a port wine reduction for $34.
Bottega Michelangelo is doing something the Ali family never did with Michelangelo: It’s opening on Sundays. Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 11 a.m to 8 p.m. Sundays.
Details: michelangelotucson.com
