The Copper Mule is an American casual restaurant and bar located in North Scottsdale Arizona.

They offer small plates for sharing, single pizzas, salads, sandwiches, street tacos (that come with chips and salsa), burgers, entrees, cocktails, wine and more. They have seating at the bar, table seating and patio seating that also is dog friendly.

We started with the Montauk fried blue cheese olives with sriracha ranch and lemon.

What’s not to like? Ours were fried to perfection. These are very VERY tasty. They are crisp with a meaty olive center that was filled with blue cheese. The sauce is tasty and the lemon just brightens it all up and is that just right touch here. I think that this is very detailed for what it is.

My husband had a pressed pork prosciutto Swiss cheese, dill pickle and mustard sandwich called the Havana. It comes with plantain chips but the nice server said that he could pick any side that he wanted and he went with tater barrels (tater tots).

The sandwich is really good! It has more prosciutto in it than expected. The serving of tater barrels is also very generous and they are fried to a crisp nice golden brown.

I went with the lemon dill salmon that comes with cheese ravioli and asparagus. It seems so wrong. I guess this is what you call a naughty combination……..

The salmon is prepared reasonably well and is seasoned with dill. It taste similar to most other $16.95 salmon entrees out from most places….(what that means is ……..a bit fresher than salmon from my local Fry’s, Safeway or Sprouts) I would call this neighborhood style restaurant fish…(not fish house style fish). The asparagus is freshly prepared…I was very surprised in a good way with the ravioli and cheese sauce. I figured for only $16.95 (subject to change) that the ravioli had to be from frozen…….Well I didn’t ask if the ravioli were frozen but they did taste fresh made (or might be really good purchased stuff?). The pasta seemed like just made and the inside was very fresh tasting with lots of creamy ricotta cheese. I’m so glad that the ravioli were without that filler that packaged ravioli usually taste like. The creamy cheese sauce was unexpected but was really delicious. It had that really rich American cheese kind of flavor. I could taste that this is mostly some sort of American type cheese. We enjoyed dipping the tots in it too. My husband sure didn’t mind eating two of my FOUR ravioli.

We were excited to splurge and try one of the desserts and went with the blueberry rum caramel bundt cake with ice cream. It was a nice light and fluffy cake that wasn’t too sweet embedded with some blueberries with a caramel drizzle. The ice cream seemed similar to Hagen Dazs Vanilla.

A nice sweet ending to a really nice casual meal out.

This visit was Worth a Fork!

www.CoppermuleAZ.com

Everything is subject to change these days.

Parma Italian Roots is a California coastal style Italian restaurant located in North Scottsdale Arizona. They offer high quality ingredients and a wood burning oven. The opening chef wrote the menu and worked under Brian Malarky, he also worked in Michelin restaurants and The French Laundry.

The seating is a mix of modern and blue velvet chairs, metal chairs, benches, booths, an indoor/outdoor bar and dog friendly patio tables with misters for cooling and heat lamps and personal heat lamps for those few chilly days.

Patio seating wraps around the building.

Lunch choices are sharing plates, sandwiches, pastas and salads and Pick two of either – 1/2 soup, 1/2 salad, 1/2 sandwich or 1/2 pasta.

Today I went with the 1/2 soup of of the day (tomato) and 1/2 strawberry balsamic salad with added chicken.

The soup is rich and thick with a generous amount of an Italian cheese (taste similar to pecorino to me). The 1/2 salad is a good size. I appreciate the stronger than usual balsamic flavor in the salad and the pecans were just right..and not too sweet.

My husband went with something a little more Italian.

Hot short rib 1/2 sandwich with 1/2 pappardelle bolognese made with more short rib. He kept saying that the sandwich was very good….he really enjoyed that. He also enjoyed the pasta. He said it was well made but stuck together slightly.

Here are some of the previous plates that we have enjoyed at Parma Italian Roots.

That was a little taste of Parma Italian Roots in North Scottsdale Arizona.

www.ParmaItalianAZ.com

Everything these days is subject to change.

Belle’s Nashville Kitchen recently opened in Old Town Scottsdale. They are a small restaurant with a bar. They offer a limited casual menu. Some of the items that they offer are Nashville Style Hot Chicken Sandwiches, Burgers, Grilled Mac & Cheese Sandwiches, Salads, BBQ Salmon, Tacos and Jambalaya.

We both wanted to try the Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich.

They don’t have an outdoor patio but the tables are well spaced. The atmosphere is western inspired. It all looks shiny and brand new.

This time we did take out.

We both got Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwiches. Mine came with a very large side salad. My husband got fries with his. My picture isn’t the best and it’s hard to see how unusual the fries are.

The fries are shaped almost in-between a fry and a chip. It’s like you get a fry and a chip in one.

Here is a closer look at the sandwich.

The chicken breast is moist with a crispy coating that is very cayenne and paprika forward. It is spicy but is more like medium hot instead of hot. The chicken is surrounded by a creamy slaw, pickles and a creamy sauce on an eggy soft bun.

That was a little taste of Belle’s Nashville Kitchen in Old Town Scottsdale AZ.

www.BellesNashvilleKitchen.com

The AMAZING (FORKING AMAZING) FnB Restaurant is located in the arts district by Old Town Scottsdale AZ. The chef and co-owner is James Beard Award Winning Charleen Badman. She serves an ever changing menu of global farm focused contemporary sharing plates. The menu usually features a few special obscure vegetables and is a vegetable heavy menu but always offers enough meat items to please meat eaters. Arizona wines are always featured on the menu.

Things have changed since my last visit. FnB (at the moment during the pandemic) is currently out door only dining. The patio has been expanded.

Astroturf has been installed in the courtyard between the buildings and cheerful red lights line the restaurant perimeters. Tables are well spaced and all the help are wearing masks and or face shields.

They always start you off with local Noble Bread and extra high quality olive oil.

The menu is always amazing and it’s always hard to decide on what to order. The solution to that problem is to order more than you need and take the amazing leftovers home. That’s what we always do here.

Tonight we started out with rosemary socca (chickpea) bread with cardoon (obscure vegetable that looks like a monster with teeth cloned with a celery) relish with Calabrian chiles (delicious mild heat Italian pepper).

Next was roasted beets, smoked salmon, cream cheese, chives and poppy seeds, other seeds, flower petals, and an unusual but delicious herb.

We had to share another small plate.

Delicata squash, rosemary, tepary beans, in potlicker vinaigrette.

For our dinner course we shared the Mexican Pink Grouper (from Chula Seafood), sungold salbitxadas (unusual tiny sweet extra flavorful tomatoes), iitoi onions (special green onions only found at farmers markets or farms), almonds, rice.

We had TWO really great boxes of food to bring home for latter.

These days a $20. deposit a person is required for your reservation that gets deducted off your bill.

Here are only a few of past plates we enjoyed at FnB.

FnB is always Worth a Fork!

www.FnBRestaurant.com

Every THING is subject to change.

The Craftsman Cocktails and Kitchen is an American Restaurant and distillery in North Scottsdale AZ. If you were a fan of the fine dining Italian restaurant Sassi then you might be a fan of this restaurant because the same chef is here now. This restaurant offers a big dog friendly patio that wraps around the restaurant.

They also have garage door style windows that add even more patio space during nice weather days.

Inside is open, modern and airy.

Another dining area and the distillery is on the other side.

On my last visit we did take out but I thought if I got here early that the patio would be quiet.

Two weeks back I got to order from the all day menu but they now serve brunch on the weekends.

From my take out last time I did try the AZ Hot Chicken Lollipops over blue cheese slaw. They were tender and tasty but not really hot. We also tried the wagyu pastrami sandwich and the hammer and anvil porchetta sandwich.

I asked the waitress about the fried AZ hot chicken biscuit sandwich and she said it was the same heat as the lollipops. I prefer more heat when I eat something hot so I ordered something else. I left my normal comfort zone (chicken and fish) and decided to try the Distillers porcini crusted burger with a side salad slightly special ordered. I LOVE cheese but I think cheese makes my burgers too salty so I asked for the cheese on the side so I could put it on my salad.

The burger is large and is a blend of brisket and short rib. It is topped with caramelized onion, arugula and garlic aioli and a soft fresh brioche bun. The mushroom rub gives the burger a unique taste. I like that they prepared my burger to a perfect medium like I asked for. The side salad is especially good. Everything taste very farm fresh…..

My husband tried the short rib hash.

The eggs didn’t come seasoned so my husband had to ask for salt and pepper. The short ribs in it are fatty and succulent.

This spacious restaurant is almost empty-

and suddenly three tables walk in and the hostess clusters them all around us……

That was our brunch at The Craftsman Cocktails and Kitchen.

www.TheCraftsmanAZ.com

Every THING is subject to change and your experience may indeed differ.