DINE
Phoenix, Arizona
Barrio Cafe specializes in southern Mexican cuisine, offers 200 tequilas
A fast-rising star in Phoenix’s culinary cosmos, the unpretentious, 4-year-old Barrio Cafe northeast of downtown offers a fresh and elegant alternative to standard Tex-Mex fare. It specializes in authentic cuisine from southern Mexico, served up by a chef who fine-tuned her tastes by traveling through villages in the region to build on what she had learned from her parents and grandmother growing up in the family’s Mexican bakery in Merced, Calif. The menu features such dishes as Mayan-style slow-
roasted pork tacos, roasted poblano pepper stuffed with shrimp and scallops, and duck and spinach salad with pine nuts and roquefort cheese. Don’t miss the made-to-order guacamole, prepared tableside at dinner only. The restaurant also offers a stupefying selection of some 200 brands of tequila, most displayed invitingly at the bar near the entrance. No reservations; closed Mondays. Barrio Cafe, 2814 N. 16th St., 602-636-0240
DINE
Wells, Maine
Maine Diner does a fine job with local specialties and for a reasonable price
It doesn’t get much finer: Maine specialties such as baked beans, cornbread or lobster rolls – and in a diner to boot. Head in after the “season” and you still might have to wait. Chowder ($4.25 a cup!) not overly thickened with potatoes but rich with cream and plenty of seafood; lobster pie; clam cake plate; or fresh fried clams. Lobster rolls are offered in two styles: “normal,” a cold lobster salad with mayo on a toasted bun, and also an unusual lobster roll with picked lobster meat on a toasted bun with drawn butter on the side for dipping. Service was a bit rushed, but that was to be expected, because the restaurant was very full. Do not leave without a slice of Maine blueberry pie. Open daily at 7 a.m. (until 8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 p.m. Friday-Saturday). Maine Diner, 2265 Post Road, 207-646-4441, mainediner.com
SEE
Netherlands, Amsterdam
“Vincent van Gogh and Expressionism” joint exhibit with N.Y.’s Neue Galerie
With nearly 100 paintings, prints and drawings from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Neue Galerie in New York, as well as loans from other major international museums and private collections – including works by such artists as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Max Pechstein, Wassily Kandinsky and Gustav Klimt – this show will be the first to truly explore the impact of Vincent van Gogh on German and Austrian expressionists. The exhibit runs Nov. 24-March 4 at the Van Gogh Museum. Admission is 10 euros (about $12-$13 adults) and the museum is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, 10 p.m. Fridays. Van Gogh Museum, Paulus Potterstraat 7, +31 (0)20 570 5200, vangoghmuseum.com
– Denver Post staff and wire reports
