Food, Fun and the Southwest Sun

Busy, busy, busy. Most everybody I know complains that the weekends go by so fast! And they do of course, compared to the weeks that are sandwiched in between. I try to maximize my weekends, like everyone, but some turn out to be fuller than others.

On about noon each Friday my phone starts buzzing with text messages. "What's up for tonite?" and "Who's doing anything?" start popping up and the weekend is ON. Having no specific plans, I encouraged my friends Mike, Kristy, Lissette and Paul to meet me in Downtown Phoenix to 'crash' a happy hour. Mutual friends Bella and Chrissy were planning to meet at the Phoenix Urban Market for wine to celebrate their respective birthdays. They didn't actually invite me but I saw the post on Facebook, so I figured it was as good a place to start as any. The Urban Market is a brand new store in Phoenix that offers only locally grown, locally produced foods, wine and products. They have a small counter where you can get sandwiches, salads and wine. It was not a busy place and far from a 'trendy' spot to have happy hour, but it suited us just fine for a mild spring evening. We snagged one of the two outdoor tables set up on the sidewalk and settled in. The cheese plate offered was adequate with some nice cheeses and a little sprinkling of nuts and apple slices. When that was gone, we went shopping and bought some hummus, olives and pita chips. Bella and Chrissy arrived, happy and surprised that we were waiting for them. More friends showed up and we all had a great time chatting and watching the sun go down behind the buildings.

After happy hour we decided to take a short drive around the corner to Cibo Urban Pizza, a tiny little house converted into a very authentic Italian Pizza restaurant. There was no seating inside but it was still very nice out, so we had a table under a tree lighted with a string of colorful grapes.

We shared the antipasto speciale of mozzerella cheese, roasted red peppers, prosciutto crudo, cipolle de rosa and lots of olives. Still hungry, we ordered two of the spicy diavola pizzas as well. All of us headed home after that, happy to have started our weekend on such a great note.