Last year, I wrote a post expressing my general confusion regarding the Foodist Awards, a celebration of the (in their words) “most amazing tastes, faces and places in Arizona food and beverage.” Well, it’s been a year or so, so the Foodists, sponsored by the the Arizona Restaurant Association, are back for a second year and while seemingly the awards should reflect what’s happening statewide, there’s only one nominee from Tucson from the thirty finalists announced yesterday – the very deserving Drew Record from Playground, one of three possible winners in the Master Mixologist category.
I guess we could sort of count Sam Fox or Pita Jungle’s two locations here as well, but otherwise, it’s all Phoenix all the time. Obviously, considering our current issue, I feel there’s a lot worth celebrating culinary-wise in town, but as long as the process seems to be nomination-based, the much larger fanbase of the Phoenix area joints will likely win out.
I’ll set a reminder in my phone now…next October, let’s flood the Foodies and get Tucson on this expensive award dinner’s radar.
This article appears in Mar 27 – Apr 2, 2014.
