The Teapot // Phoenix, Arizona

A couple of weeks ago we went to The Teapot, a new cafe in the Roosevelt neighborhood of downtown Phoenix. It is family-friendly coffee shop, serving a few light food options and kid-friendly snacks as well. They have several corners throughout the beautifully renovated old home with books and toys for little ones. But perhaps the true gem is the backyard, with lovely shaded seating, a grassy area, and sandbox and play structure.

We really enjoyed our afternoon in The Teapot's backyard, and were lucky to go on day where the weather, which is becoming increasingly hot, was a perfect sunny and warm 75 degrees. I have quickly come to fall in love with this neighborhood and its residential architecture, and this little cafe is certainly one spot that will keep us coming back. John made this little video of our time there:



In all honesty, the coffee and food offering aren't much to write home about and could use some improvement, the atmosphere alone makes up for the menu's shortcomings. And, it is worth noting that, The Teapot just recently opened, so we are giving them time to iron our kinks in the menu and make improvements before offering any too harsh judgements.

Phoenix as some real gems, and this little spot is definitely one of them. Add it to your list if you are in Phoenix with kids.

Agritopia

We had planned to be in Durango this weekend, but when we started out on our 7 hour drive from PHX to DRO on Saturday morning, we unexpectedly turned around just under 2 hours in to the drive. On Saturday morning, Raffa had woken up with a low fever, but seemed fine. As we packed up the car and got on the road, his fever worsened a little. By an hour and a half in, poor Raffa was not feeling too hot. He was such a trooper; he wasn't complaining or whining or anything. But it was obvious that he didn't feel to great and so even against his pleas of, "I want to go to Durango!" we turned the car around and headed back to Phoenix.

It was a good decision because he rested quite a bit on Saturday, got good rest Saturday night, and felt surprisingly good yesterday. We had a slow morning and by lunchtime Raffa was definitely feeling good enough to get out. So, we got to check out Agritopia, which I have been meaning to visit since before we lived here.

Agritopia is a unique community, an agricultural neighborhood community, nestled within the urban the Phoenix metro area. Located in Gilbert, Agritopia is all about preserving urban agriculture and integrating it into a community-driven, well-designed community. The design of the community and its lifestyle focuses on simplifying life with easy connections to friends and family. Part of the community is homes, obviously, and farms. But we visited two of the commercial ventures in the community - Joe's Farm Grill and The Coffee Shop.

I have heard rave reviews for Joe's Farm Grill - and everyone else must have too because there was a line out the door, literally. We were too hungry to wait so we hopped over to The Coffee Shop. The food was fine, but the setting is what we enjoyed the most. We hung around for a few hours enjoying the patio and grassy areas between Joe's and The Coffee Shop.

I definitely want to go back to try Joe's Farm Grill. The market was not open, but I hope to visit again to check that out.

Phoenix favorites

I thought this post covered all our favorite spots in Phoenix, until someone asked me on Facebook to recommend some Phoenix area restaurants and coffee shops. I responded with a link to the previously mentioned post, but then had more than a dozen more places to recommend in addition to those!

To recap, the favorites from that post are (new notations in italics):

Le Grande Orange (photo above)
• market, cafe, and restaurant
• delicious breakfast + lunch
• don't miss the Daybreaker omelette, the Commuter sandwich, the granola + fruit, or the Birchermeusli for breakfast
• I love the tuna nicoise salad, stacked turkey sandwich, or chicken salad sandwich for lunch
• they have amazing homemade english muffins - perhaps the best you'll ever have
• get the burger on an english muffin; their pizza is good too
• you'll die over all the cute stuff in the market
• love the fun market atmosphere
• still one of our ALL TIME favorite places.

Essence Bakery Cafe
• organic, locally-sourced food make up the menu for this breakfast, bakery, lunch spot
• for breakfast, I love the French scrambled eggs
• for lunch, I love the Greek Caesar salad and their quiche is amazing too
• they have amazing daily specials, usually a sandwich or salad, and a soup
• get there early for the croissants, especially the almond croissants
• their macarons are well-known; I like the vanilla bean the best
• their original location is in Tempe, but they also have a location in Arcadia (38th and Indian School)

Pane Bianco
• a simple menu of just a couple of sandwiches and salads to choose from for lunch
• amazing bread, simple ingredients, but lots of deliciousness
• simple, eclectic, rustic decor
• simple foccaccia pizza for dinner or head over to their main/in-demand pizza + wine bar restaurant, Pizzeria Bianco
• don't miss Lux, the coffee shop next door

Arcadia Farms
• Old Town Scottsdale
• organic and locally-sourced breakfast and lunch
• super-cute cottage decor and nice patio as well

The Parlor 
inspired pizzeria with their own tomato + herb garden out front (I talked a little about this place here)

ncounter
fresh, modern cafeteria/counter-style spot on Mill Ave. in Tempe

Pomegranate Cafe
vegan restaurant in Ahwatukee

Culinary Dropout
gastro-pub

The Arrogant Butcher

NoRth
fresh northern Italian; I love the building

True Food Kitchen
organic with great atmosphere, two locations: one at The Bilmore and one at Scottsdale Quarter

In addition to all of those amazing places, I now have the following to add:

Ingo's Tasty Food
Very tasty burgers; I am a meat eater but I actually LOVE their veg burger. The chicken sandwich is also a favorite. This place is across the street from LGO.

Postino's 
Locations all over Phoenix including central Phoenix, Arcadia, and North Scottsdale (areas we frequent the most). They actually have a Denver LoHi location, too so it's a Denver favorite too.

Cartel Coffee Lab
The original Tempe location is my favorite, skip the old town Scottsdale location and make the drive to Tempe. Amazing banana bread and ginger spice bread.

The Henry
Go for an upscale brunch, lunch, or dinner, or just hit up the coffee bar (what we do most often - order The Wildflower, thank me accordingly). Great atmosphere. We love the outdoor area, and it has a great view of Camelback (photo above).

Chestnut Fine Foods & Provisions
Great for breakfast or lunch. I am not impressed with their coffee, but the food is good and I like the atmosphere. Good patio.

Flower Child
Central Phoenix, Arcadia, or North Scottsdale - healthy food, very tasty, and decent prices. I love the Mother Earth bowl and the Curry bowl.

Rollover Doughnuts
This spot has quickly become our designated Phoenix Donut Monday spot #PHXdonutmonday. Donuts are made with a brioche dough - I love the maple and the apple fritter. The drip coffee is on pointe. Nice outdoor area to hangout, or cute indoor space.

Ocotillo and it's coffee bar O to Go
I have yet to try the restaurant portion of this spot, but we love the coffee bar. They have some great seasonal espresso drinks, including cereal-infused milk lattes (fruity pebble or cinnamon toast crunch). The outdoor hang out space is totally our jam.

Giant Coffee, The Taco Guild, Gadzooks (enchiladas), Southern Rail, and Beckett's Table are all notable mentions too.

For weekend brunch on a farm, The Farm at South Mountain or Singh Farms. The Farm at South Mountain would be my first choice of those two.

There you have it! I did have a considerable number of places to add. And be sure, as I discover more, I will share those too.

phoenix lately

So, I finally caught you up on our new DEN→PHX / PHX→DEN situation and I have even posted in the past about some of our very favorite places here in Phoenix on account of my sister living here for a decade. That list of favorite places to eat and fun stuff to do with little ones remains largely the same with a couple of new additions; making a new post of favorites, at this point, redundant.

But, I would love to share what we have been up to lately here in the desert. Raffa and I have been having fun during the week, and with John on the weekends, exploring Phoenix. We keep pretty busy, but also love hanging around the house reading and building crazy trains.

Obviously, there was no question that we would continue donut Monday. We played around with location a few times, but I think we have found our Phoenix favorite: Rollover Doughnuts. The donuts are made from a brioche dough. They are tasty, the coffee is good, and they have a great indoor or outdoor space. So far it has been only me and Raffa on our donut Monday dates, but we hope to share with John soon, or take anyone who comes to visit.

I have also been taking time to get our house here organized, which I talked about a little here, specifically our living and dining rooms, but a big part of that was getting Raffa's room comfortable and fun. Mission accomplished, I suppose, because when we are at home that is where we spend the majority of our time playing. We are usually in his room building crazy trains (trains out of Legos), but his coffee shop is in the empty guest room and we are also often at the kitchen table working on projects like our Valentine's or painting.

We have also been exploring new places and special events. Raffa and I checkout Ocotillo which has a restaurant and a coffee bar (O to Go). We went for the coffee bar so I could try their Fruity Pebble latte (latte made with cereal infused milk). Well, I got to try that (delicious) and we discovered they also have some yummy overnight oats and breakfast burritos. They also have an amazing lawn (Lucy's Lawn) and outdoor space. The restaurant menu sounds awesome too, so we have to put that on our list to try.

In addition to all that, we have been enjoying the nice weather in Phoenix and also go to a weekly music class and weekly swim lesson. We are always looking for new friends at the park and we joined a Meet Up group so that we could go to some play groups and meet new people. We know a few people here, as well, so connecting/re-connecting with those people has been fun as well. Most of them have children too, some even right around Raffa's age.

We can't wait for some of our favorite people from Colorado to come visit us, though.