- I'm Chef Mark Tarbell.

Welcome to "Check, Please Arizona."

The show where Arizona foodies recommend their favorite restaurants.

Coming up, we have guests who are passionate about their picks.

They've dined at all three, and are ready to share the reviews with each other and with you right here on "Check, Please Arizona."

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- We thought it was about the food.

I'm Chef Mark Tarbell.

Welcome to "Check, Please Arizona."

In this episode, we're checking out a brunch spot, a brewing company, and a twist on southwestern cuisine.

Let's meet our diners.

Andrew Kolikoff is a business consultant.

He spends his free time golfing, and is obsessed with the mystery of Bigfoot.

Natalie Gentry is an orthopedic nurse.

She and her husband have two kids, and Natalie loves to swim and run.

But up first, meet Abby Jones.

She's originally from Arizona and competed in Miss Teen Rodeo, Arizona.

She's a busy realtor now with three kids.

Her recommendation is a family-friendly spot serving up comfort food.

This is Henhouse Cafe.

- Henhouse Cafe is a family owned business.

My wife and I started it.

My wife Maureen came home one day with box in her hand and said, "I got laid off."

So I was like, "Well, what are we gonna do?"

My advice was, "You can cook, so let's do something within cooking."

We just wanted families to show up and enjoy, you know, home cooked food.

On the menu, people find traditional breakfast, they will see a little thing called chicken fried, Benedicts, we have sweets, griddles, so griddle thing, pancakes, French toast.

We have an on the border menu, which is mostly morning breakfast Mexican food.

I think we have the range of just about everything.

We make our sausage in-house, we make our own house seasoning, pancake batter's made in-house.

So I guess we've taken traditional the side of breakfast and kind of did it the Henhouse way.

The number one seller outside of two eggs is the green chili pork skillet.

Served in the skillet dish.

It's a bed of potatoes, slow roasted carnitas, eggs your way, and then we make a green chili sauce that goes on top of it.

My favorite is Morning Meatloaf.

This is the first thing my wife made at our dinner date.

Best meal I've ever had.

All of our decor is from local stores, local shops.

A lot of the furniture that we have here is made from all local vendors.

My wife called it shabby country chic.

Well, my guests coming here, I want them to get the top quality of food they can get, service at its best, and just to have a good experience.

It's all about family.

It's all about residents that come in.

Spend time with us and our family and we just want to give the best service we can.

- So, Abby, what do you like about Henhouse Cafe?

- We love that you can take the kids there, you can have breakfast, they can get a little bit rowdy 'cause we get a little bit rowdy, and it's always feel good food.

It always feels good.

- Rowdy?

Tell me what rowdy looks like.

- Oh.

- That's all you need to say.

I got it.

So what'd you have?

- [Abby] I had the bananas fosters French toast.

It was so good.

It came with big chunks of banana.

They had a little bit of a crisp to 'em because they were a little bit fried.

I mean, there was just this really great brown sugar butter glaze on top of it.

- We'll stop right there.

Brown sugar butter.

- Oh my gosh, it was so good.

Yeah, and I mean, I ate almost all of it by myself.

- What was the French toast like?

Was it big, fluffy?

'Cause I didn't have that one.

- Yeah, they were good sizes.

I think it was like a Texas toast, a French toast.

Yeah, I didn't even have to put syrup on it.

It was so good, it was so, so good.

But it did leave me wanting something a little bit more savory so I'm glad that my husband had the country fried chicken 'cause I was able to kind of take a bite of that and then counteract it.

- So you had bacon with it.

For me, bacon.

Was it crispy?

Was it crispy?

- [Abby] You have to.

You always make sure it comes extra crispy.

- [Chef Mark] Has to.

- [Abby] You have to say that, extra crispy.

- So Andrew, what did you have?

- We went the whole savory route.

So, you know, breakfast, you either go savory or you go sweet and so we had two savory dishes, which one of them was spectacular.

- What was it?

I'm waiting.

- [Andrew] It was morning meatloaf.

Something I would've never ever considered.

It was a signature dish on the menu, and it was recommended.

It was a memorable breakfast, and I'm pretty discerning.

- But I'm curious on this meatloaf.

Was it on mashed potatoes?

Was it- - It was on Texas toast.

- Okay.

Texas toast.

- With eggs on top and a very light cheese sauce.

You would think a cheese sauce would make it too rich and too heavy, but there was a lightness to it and I wasn't able to talk.

I just kept shoveling it in my mouth.

- I love that.

- I'm glad you said that about the cheese sauce 'cause I think that if I read the cheese sauce came on top of it, it would've probably turned me off in the morning.

Like, that early.

- Not me, I can do cheese sauce anytime.

I hope there's cheese sauce in here.

Is there any cheese sauce in here?

I'm liking it.

- It was just beautiful and I loved it.

We ordered something else too.

- What else?

- [Andrew] I got the homemade corn beef hash, and it was very good.

I felt like it needed a fat even though corned beef can have- - Yeah, it can be rich.

- Fatty in it or some kind of a sauce.

I really appreciated that it was made from scratch and that it was homemade.

- Yummy.

Yummy.

I'd just take those little packets and put bads of butter on it.

I'd fix that right up.

Natalie, what'd you have?

- I ordered the Texas Benedict.

So I really like eggs benedict as it is, and I mean, I think it's kind of like a test for chefs 'cause you got your Hollandaise sauce and can you make an egg?

- Super hard.

- [Natalie] You know, kind of basic cooking, but I liked that on their menu they had different, you know, different plays on eggs benedict, and so I ordered the Texas Benedict.

It had barbecue pork.

- Oh, okay.

- Yeah.

- [Chef Mark] So Texas barbecue.

So was it sort of East Texas sort of smoky?

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- Really?

Oh.

- It was good.

- I'll have to try that next time.

- That East Texas barbecue is some of my favorite.

- But then yeah- - So your husband's from Texas.

Did he approve?

Did he say it was good?

- Yeah, I think so.

But he ordered the green chili skillet, which also had that same slow cooked pork.

Yeah, and so we kind of traded back and forth, but it was very good.

- So Natalie, tell me about the decor.

How's it feel in there?

- You walk in and it feels like almost like a country diner.

It's very cozy.

- There's country music playing and I love that, and I love the breakfast counter that they have a counter you can eat at.

- I sat at the breakfast.

- Oh, you did?

- Oh, I went seven o'clock in the morning on a Saturday early.

So there was like only one other or two other people in the whole place, and so I got lots of attention sitting at the counter.

- [Chef Mark] Love that.

- And it was great.

I got to know Danielle and the manager so it was really nice.

- Yeah, they're great people and they do a lot for the community and they do a lot for the military.

Offer discounts and discounts for service people.

So it's cool.

So Abby, this is your place.

What's your pro tip or takeaway?

- Get there before nine.

That is my pro tip for sure.

I mean, we got there when we ate it was like 8:30 in the morning and we walked right in, and by nine o'clock it was line was at the door.

There were people waiting.

- Get there early.

- It's kind of like you could go there dressed up, but you could also one thing I like to do is go running with my friends and then go out to breakfast and you could come in there sweaty and in your running clothes and you'd be comfortable, I think.

- They highlight on the menu their signature dishes, and one of the two dishes that we ordered was a signature dish and they were right.

- Okay, they picked the signature right.

If you want to try Henhouse Cafe, they're located near Lindsay and Pecos Roads in Gilbert.

An average meal is about $17 and they do not take reservations.

They also have three other locations in the Phoenix area.

(gentle upbeat music) Up next, we have Andrew.

He's always on the hunt for new places to try, and he says this central Phoenix restaurant with its eclectic twist on Southwestern Fair is not to be missed.

This is Valentine.

- I'd describe Valentine as a modern Southwest restaurant.

The reason why we call it Valentine is for Arizona's birthday, February 14th.

We get very inspired by what Arizona has to offer, also the things that have helped make Arizona what it is today.

So our menu's kind of broken up into different parts of the day.

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Breakfast and lunch is more of our like morning pastries, breakfast sandwiches, morning bowls.

Our general menu's kind of evolving always as well.

A few stand out dishes that we keep in rotations, the Hiramasa Crudo with tomatillo vinegarette.

People kind of know us by that, but I think also more so the elote spaghetti is like what we're really known for and could never take that off the menu.

It's kind of an all hands on deck dish that's like looks like a plate of spaghetti.

Our pastry team handles the pasta dough, our prep team handles all the grilling of the corn and some of the side accoutrements, and then our chef team they assemble it at nighttime and execute it.

So our beverage program is kind of like our food program.

It uses notes of the Southwest desert, incorporating them into different cocktails, as well as small batch producers and kind of runs the gamut.

The vibe was going to be like just a casual, fun neighborhood restaurant.

Somewhere where you could pop in, grab a coffee in the morning, come back, maybe have a bite to eat, and have a drink in the back bar here.

I didn't think we would be where we are today.

Just celebrated four years.

It's been a great ride.

We're just trying to enjoy it, you know, whatever comes our way.

- So Andrew, how did you find Valentine?

- Well, I go regularly so I find it very suiting to.

Yeah, I'm from the New York City area and there are a lot of eclectic neighborhoods in New York where you have to enter in the back and it just makes sense to me.

It's very eclectic, but the attention to detail in the food and even the fact that there's a vintage furniture store in the back, and there's a speakeasy, which most people that go there many times don't even know that's there in the back.

- I think you're right.

I never thought of it that way, but it is that there's funk, but integrity and all that.

Yeah, it's cool.

- [Andrew] Yeah.

- So what do you have when you go there?

- Had the Hiramasa Crudo, which is a yellow tail and they make like a vinegarette out of tomatillo.

- Yeah.

- And it's citrusy, and then this relish of yellow golden raisins.

I wanted to dive in and I took my spoon.

I mean, 'cause not only do you take the fish and eat the fish, but I kept using my spoon almost like it was soup 'cause it's so good.

- They do have a twist.

There's that Asian thing there with their tater tots, you know.

That's just delicious.

- Oh, I saw the tater tots come out.

- You did?

- I didn't have them, but I saw them.

- Yeah, you went a couple times, didn't you?

- We did.

We had to go twice.

- Yeah, couldn't help yourself.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- You went twice?

- Yeah, we went twice.

The first time I just wasn't feeling great and so I wanted to go back again and try it again.

- That's commitment, right?

- That was sweet.

- Kudos to you.

- Thank you.

- But you went for brunch, right?

- We did, yeah.

Both times it was brunch.

- What did you have?

- The tamale bowl, which was different.

- Different's an interesting word.

- I felt like it might've been missing something too.

Maybe like some kind of sauce.

- [Chef Mark] What was in it?

- [Abby] There was like a blue corn masa on the bottom and then- - [Chef Mark] Like a carrot mole or something like that, which is really interesting.

- [Abby] Yeah, and it was a different texture than I've ever had before.

So it took me- - In the masa you mean?

- In the masa, yeah.

So it took me a little bit to get used to, but it was actually really tasty, and then it came with maybe like, some pickled vegetables on top of it, and then some like fresh sprouts.

- [Chef Mark] And grilled avocado.

- [Chef Mark] Oh, the grilled avocado was really good.

- [Andrew] I have not had that.

Now I gotta go back for that.

- And then I had two like good ramen eggs in it, which is just like a hard boiled egg but the yolk is a little bit different.

I've never seen it before, but that was really good.

I liked it, but my sister had the avocado toast with the squash bread and I like that better so I almost took hers.

But I mean, they were both really tasty but it was outta my comfort zone so I really had to like, really had to try, which is why I wanted to go back because I really wanted to give it like a fair shot.

- Nothing there is like, between the uprights and traditional.

It's their very artistic way of presenting an idea.

- Yeah, like a sort of a pastry, if you will, with squash and sage, which I thought was really that's what I had.

They're really interesting.

I think you were there for brunch as well, right?

- Yes, I think just even reading the menu, it's an exciting menu and I would say, you know, there's all these different cuisines from different areas of our country.

I feel like this is truly Arizona.

- Yes.

- To me.

And there I love that there's unique ingredients together.

The food blew us away.

I had the tacos trio, and it has eggs, and bacon, queso, and Nepalese hash, and so it's just like kind of what you expect but then something you don't expect and they give you three little tacos.

- [Chef Mark] And they charred those tacos up.

They were really good.

So it's not crispy.

It's like soft tacos.

- Yes, yes.

Very good.

And I also got the churro waffle.

- [Chef Mark] Anyone else have that?

I didn't know .

- I did.

- [Natalie] So it was gluten free, right?

The churro waffle.

- Yes, it is.

- And I'm not brave enough for like the gluten-free stuff just yet.

I mean, 'cause I like everything to be- - Gluten.

- I didn't know.

- [Abby] I love my gluten.

- I didn't know it was gluten free and I would not have known.

- No, actually the, you know, the chefs sent me to try it and I was like eating it, I'm like, "Oh, this is really great."

And they're like, "Yeah, and it's gluten free."

And I was like, "Really?"

- Yeah.

- No clue.

And, you know, which is a positive thing, right?

- I think you said it best though.

They really make it very Arizona.

Like, I had elote pasta, which is like their Arizona version of cacio e pepe, right?

And it's homemade pasta and cacio e pepe is just cheese and pepper.

- Just cheese and pepper.

- But they have like a little Arizona twist to it.

It is actually very different than cacio e pepe, but it makes you think of it because it's so simple and basic.

But it has crunchy elements in it with crunchy corn, and believe it or not, your first hit with this slight ever so slight bitterness on the first bite.

But then on the second bite and the third, it's like, oh my goodness.

So yeah, it does have that.

I never thought of it that way.

It does have that little Arizona.

- Not Mexican, it's not new Mexican.

We finally have, being from Arizona, I appreciate that.

- But in a way that's super authentic and real, and they're trying to do something with their own unique vision, which is really cool.

What is your pro tip for Valentine?

- I particularly love that the waitstaff there, they're so expressive about the menu and their energy about it.

So if you have any questions, just don't ask what's in it.

You know, tell me about it.

And they literally just open up and tell you about it.

- Abby, your pro tip.

- Same.

Don't hesitate to ask 'cause there's a lot of stuff on this menu that you may not be familiar with, and so ask questions.

They'll explain it to you, they'll help guide you through it.

Well, if I were to go again, I would wanna try the dinner menu and I would make reservations.

- If you wanna try Valentine, they're located near seventh Avenue and Indian school.

An average cost of a meal is $35 for breakfast and $75 for dinner, and they do take reservations.

(gentle upbeat music) Our last restaurant is Natalie's favorite.

She enjoys her beer and a good burger to go with it, and it's a winning combination at this spot.

This is Helluva Brewing Company.

- The Helluva Brewing Company, suds and smoke is our concept.

So we do a lot of beer-infused foods as well as we're an onsite brewery.

We have some of the classics as far as burgers and chicken sandwiches and wings and such.

We also have different stuff as far as smoked tri tip, the smoked wings is definitely unique.

So over the years our menu has changed a little bit, and then when we had our chef come in, Chef Jim, he really elevated to that next level and we're very lucky to have them.

We have 18 to 20 beers on tap, and we have about six flagship beers that we have continually, and then we have anywhere between 10 to 12 that we have as seasonal beers.

The beer that I'm most proud of is our Juices Loose from England IPA.

I must have changed the recipe about 17 times along the years until I got it exactly the way I wanted it.

It's our most popular beer as well.

Inside of our restaurant, industrial-themed concept modern.

Our patio is definitely dog-friendly and we actually have a mural on our patio of several dogs, and actually two of the dogs that are on the mural are my personal dogs.

Me being a local to Arizona, I wanted to come up with something that was a local theme name.

We were on our second bottle of wine, my wife and I, and she said to me, she's like, you know what?

Whatever name we'd come up with, it's gonna be one hell of a brewing company.

And so right there she had ended up naming Helluva Brewing Company.

I wanna get my guest to experience a feeling of togetherness, warm comforting, and just an experience of having good food and good beer.

- So Natalie, how'd you find this place?

- I lived near there so I was driving by, and anytime there's a brewery, especially close to my house, I have to check it out.

And then found out they had good food and that it's a family-friendly place as well.

- You get the same burger there every time you go.

What's the name of it?

'Cause I want it.

- The bourbon barbecue burger.

It's my favorite.

- Wait a second, bourbon barbecue burger.

There's three reasons now to go.

(group laughs) - Yes, I mean, I've tried other dishes there, but this is my go-to.

It's got their peach ale is in the sauce.

- [Abby] That sounds good.

- And then you got cheese if you like cheese, it comes with that, and then some onions.

So, classic- - Wait, cheese.

I think yes is the answer.

- Yes.

- Okay, good.

All right.

- And so it's just like a classic barbecue burger, and I get the fries of course, but I would say the secret is the secret sauce.

- Cool.

- I like to dip the fries in their garlic aioli sauce.

That's my favorite.

- That's your favorite?

What'd you get for an appetizer?

- [Natalie] We like to get the pretzel bites there.

They're easily shareable and you get mustard and cheese to dip those in.

- Cheese again.

All right.

- Yeah.

We like cheese.

- Abby, what did you get for an appetizer?

- We got the fried pickles.

- Now, you were there with 10 people.

- Oh wow.

- Yes.

- We have a whole group.

- How many thousand appetizers you got?

- We only ordered one fried pickles and my kids just their hands were like all over 'em.

But they came in like the spheres so they weren't like- - [Chef Mark] Oh really?

- [Abby] Yeah, so they weren't like the little pickle bites.

- [Chef Mark] They weren't chips.

- They weren't chips.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- [Chef Mark] Interesting.

- [Abby] But like, they had this really yummy, peppery garlicky taste to 'em.

They were so, so good.

- They were good.

- So yeah, so we had to kind of fight the kids off for 'em.

- Because you had one for 10 people.

(group laughs) Next time.

- You know, we definitely under ordered on that.

- I mean, I need to go back for the burger and these pickles.

I didn't- - You didn't know.

What'd you get for your app?

- I had the chicken wings and I had them split the order in the Korean red chili pepper and then the peach barbecue.

- [Chef Mark] Yeah, bourbon barbecue I think it was, I think its the same sauce.

- [Natalie] The same sauce.

- [Andrew] And I had both and they were wonderful.

- [Chef Mark] And the wings were smoked a little bit.

- [Andrew] Yes, they were.

It actually says it right on the menu, smoked wings.

- [Chef Mark] I remember you can get 'em boneless and- - Yeah, I had 'em in bone and they were super yummy, and I went by myself so I couldn't eat the whole order.

I took them home and I gave them to my neighbor, and my neighbor was like, "Where did you get these?"

- Yeah, they're good because of the smoke thing.

I've never had the smoke thing.

- Right.

- It was good.

What did you get for a main course?

- I had the Tennessee hot chicken.

- [Chef Mark] Oh yeah.

- And I have never had Tennessee hot chicken, but I wanted to try something different.

I asked the waitress, and it was good.

It reminded me, and maybe it is authentic to what Tennessee hot chicken is.

- It's usually Nashville hot, but I think they wanted to include Memphis in this.

- It had a buffalo-ness to it, and I wasn't expecting that 'cause I had never had Tennessee hot chicken, and I've had a lot of things.

So I wasn't expecting that little buffalo maybe Frank's hot sauce.

- Yeah, the vinegary.

- Kinda vinegary kind of thing.

But it was very good, and I had the onion straws with it, which, you know, I had to pile that in there and it was so good.

- Abby, what'd you have for entrees?

- Did you have one for 10 people?

- No, no, we all had, we had a good assortment.

We had vegetarians with us, and then my kids and my husband had a Tennessee hot chicken too, and I don't know why he thinks he's like pro at like Nashville hot sandwiches 'cause he's never been.

He liked the Tennessee hot chicken sandwich a lot.

Yeah, he said it was one of his favorites.

I had the chicken Caesar wrap, and I had half of it and then my child took the rest of it.

So, but he eats like a bird so he devoured this, but I like that it was grilled.

So the tortilla is grilled so it adds even like more of a crunch.

- That little char on it.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And so I've never had one like that before and I liked it, so I was like sitting there watching my kid eat it and I was like, I'm not done with this.

- Drinks and desserts?

- My favorite is the Ain't That Peachy ale.

I always like to try that one, but they have, you know, their usuals and then they do some seasonal.

And if you sign up for their text alerts, then they'll text you, hey, there's a new beer.

- Yeah, that is a pro tip.

That's a text you're gonna read.

(group laughs) So Andrew, you had dessert?

- I had the creme brulee cheesecake.

I do have to say though, I wanna talk about the brewery though a little bit, the beer.

- Sure.

- Because I'm a beer guy.

Look, I love whiskeys and different things, but I got to really have a in-depth conversation with Joel, who's the brewmaster there and they know what they're doing.

I'm always partial to Belgians, and his take on the Belgian Tripel was just phenomenal.

- Well, I'm stuck on this cheesecake thing.

So tell me about it.

So the creme brulee and cheesecake are two different desserts.

They're classic desserts.

Cheesecake is a very New York thing, and creme brulee obviously is French, but what they did was they caramelized the top of the cheesecake.

So you could actually crack the top of the cheesecake, and it was phenomenal.

- Yeah, it was really good.

- Was there any left for you to have?

- Once again, we didn't order enough of the desserts to really make the rounds, but it was really tasty.

- So, Natalie, this is your place.

Pro tips or takeaway?

- My pro tip is to order the garlic aioli sauce with the fries.

Try that.

And then one of my favorite things about this place, I mean, not only is it great food and great beer, but the service is outstanding so it's definitely worth checking out.

- It was such a great place to have the family.

We were all able to, they were able to accommodate a big crowd and get more extra appetizers apparently.

- Order more pickles.

Pro tip.

- Yeah, order more pickles.

My pro tip is gonna be more universal.

If you ever go to any brew pub, always ask to speak to the brewmaster, and that's when you really understand their passion, their art, and have a conversation with them, and it really elevates the overall experience.

- If you wanna try Helluva Brewing company, it's located on the northeast corner of Ray Road and McClintock in Chandler.

An average meal is $26 and they do take reservations.

I wanna thank Natalie, Abby, and Andrew for joining me at the table, and thank you for joining us at "Check, Please Arizona."

If you'd like to share your favorite restaurant, head to our website, azpbs.org/checkplease and nominate your must eat at spot.

Who knows?

You could be joining me at the table.

Be a part of the foodie conversation in Arizona on social media using the #checkpleaseaz.

Join us next time when three new guests make their recommendations right here on "Check, Please Arizona."

I'm Chef Mark Tarbell.

Have a delicious life.

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