Mark Tarbell, owner of Tarbell’s and Barmouche restaurants in Phoenix, can add another distinction to his plate: Favorite Valley chef of musicians Dweezil Zappa and Lisa Loeb.

Who knows better than a culinary professional the best places to eat in the East Valley?

Who knows better than a culinary professional the best places to eat in the East Valley?

The victim of its own success, Tempe’s popular and reanimated Mill Avenue district now suffers from local businesses’ increasing flight elsewhere and in some cases, closure.

Mechanical bulls are stampeding into the East Valley. A month after Saddle Ranch opened in Scottsdale, Cadillac Ranch opened last weekend at Tempe Marketplace.

As the polls closed and ballots were counted, Tempe’s mayoral race paused Tuesday night with a giant question mark. With the race too close to call, and mail-in and other ballots yet to be tallied, candidates Michael Monti and Mark Mitchell would have to wait to see who would replace Hugh Hallman and become the city’s next elected leader.

Public transportation has long had strong support from voters and elected officials in Tempe, but now one of the city’s mayoral candidates wants to at least tap the brakes on a proposed streetcar.

Tempe is sizzling this week.

It’s safe to say Tempe restaurateur Michael Monti knows what it’s like when the kitchen gets hot.

Tempe’s mayoral race ended Tuesday night with a giant question mark — a question that is ultimately unlikely to be answered until Friday.

When Chandler restaurateur Ernie Serrano Sr. passed away on Friday, he left behind a legacy and a name that many local residents will recognize.

Customers at Sandstone Cafe, a tiny restaurant that recently opened at the southeast corner of Ray and Rural roads in Chandler, will soon be allowed to wash down their meal with a cold beer, as well as liquor and wine. The restaurant is about a week away from getting its liquor license from the city.

A Whole Foods Markets is coming to the East Valley.

One hestitates to scorn the evident concern of Tempe restaurateur Michael Lopercio, whose son is serving with the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division in Fallujah, a hotbed of the Baathist/jihadi terror campaign in Iraq.

If your New Year's resolution is to eat healthier, you're probably getting pretty sick of rice cakes and carrot sticks by now. Here are five restaurants where the food is as tasty as it is healthy:

The Shops at 9400, the nearly completed boutique retail center at 94th Street and Shea Boulevard in Scottsdale, should fill up nicely after the first of the year.

Finally Mesa gets Kohl’s.

The recent Valleywide explosion of top-dollar performing arts centers — from the $98 million Mesa Arts Center in the east to the developing Peoria Center for the Performing Arts out west — should be cause for joy.

Happy Thanksgiving! Here are my “top eight things in the East Valley for which we can all be thankful.” Why only eight? Because it’ll be more memorable that way.

Family-owned Ganem Jewelers opened a second store at the Shops at Chauncey Ranch, the Whole Foods-anchored shopping center on the southwest corner of Scottsdale Road and Mayo Boulevard.

Bail bondsman Duke Barrett's grammar can be questioned, but not his sense of humor. Barrett owns Ain't Gonna Wear Pink Shorts Bail Bonds on north Scottsdale Road in Tempe. He admits that the shorts are a reference to the pink underwear Maricopa Country Sheriff Joe Arpaio makes jail inmates wear.

It’s been a rewarding three weeks for south East Valley diners who have been waiting for worthwhile new restaurants.

Shawn Willbanks walked the red carpet like a Hollywood A-lister.