New: The Parish
The Parish bar and restaurant has opened at 6453 N. Oracle Road in the space that formerly held Game On Sports Grille. It’s a joint venture by former Cup Café manager Steve Dunn; Travis Peters, the former executive chef at the Cup Café; and Bryce Zeagler, who operated The French Quarter restaurant. The menu focuses on dishes from Southern locales—such as gumbo, pork belly and grits—with little twists here and there. The place is also working the cocktail angle, offering a selection of custom drinks made from liquors infused with various spices and herbs.
Taste Film, Talk Food
The Taste Film, Talk Food event at 3 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 20, features films about farming; food made with vegetables grown by Sleeping Frog Farms in Cascabel; and an opportunity to talk with the people who own and operate the farm. The films to be screened include The Greenhorns, a documentary about young American farmers, and a short film about Sleeping Frog Farms. The event starts at The Screening Room (127 E. Congress St.) and finishes at Borderlands Brewing Company (119 E. Toole Ave.) with food, beer and the Food Conspiracy Co-op’s new locally roasted signature coffee, Conspiracy Coffee. Tickets are $15 and are available at the co-op, 412 N. Fourth Ave.
Big Breakfast
Bacon and Craeggs, a new breakfast joint at 601 N. Fourth Ave., has posed an eating challenge that is already knocking down the challengers. The restaurant will buy your breakfast if you can eat 10 strips of bacon, six sausage rounds, six eggs, two pieces of Texas toast, four pancakes and four potatoes’ worth of home fries in less than an hour. Got what it takes? Visit baconandcraeggs.com for more information.
Closed: Red Velvet Cupcakery
The Red Velvet Cupcakery at 943 E. University Blvd. closed last weekend, and the location at La Encantada (2905 E. Skyline Drive) closed about six months ago. The store debuted in Tucson in 2009 and was one of the first in town dedicated solely to cupcakes. It won a staff pick for Best Cupcakes in the 2010 Best of Tucson® awards.
Doughnuts!
A new Dunkin’ Donuts store has opened in the former Krispy Kreme location at 7805 N. Oracle Road in Oro Valley. It offers both walk-up and drive-through service.
This article appears in Nov 17-23, 2011.
The Cajun food at The Parish on Oracle would be excellent if they cut the hot pepper by about 70%. Diners can always add more pepper if they want, but diners can’t remove pepper!
The majority of diners don’t want to have enamel burned off their teeth and their tongues stripped of skin by hot pepper.
The only bad dish I tasted there, except for the excessive pepper in almost every dish, was the hush puppies.
Hush puppies are supposed to be lighter, not hard, burned little rocks of death.
The gumbo is very good, but way too much pepper.
The Parish is a down home cozy little place in a neighborhood that needs a casual hangout and I hope it is a great success. Prices are reasonable too.
The construction menu is still in effect, the kitchen is not fully equipped yet, but from here The Parish can only get better and better, if they cut the pepper.
Live crawfish season is coming up in a couple of months, and The Parish staff says they will be flying in live crawfish from Louisiana instead of the frozen Asian crawfish they serve now, and crawfish season is a big event that coincides with Mardi Gras. Big doings ahead. Don’t miss this celebration.