Very Good Italian Food

Last year close to this time, I posted a photo of a brand new apartment complex that opened up on Central Avenue, directly across the street from the Phoenix Art Museum.  It is called The Muse.  In that post, I mentioned that the ground floor of the building was reserved for retail space.  Since that time, several businesses have moved in to the ground floor locations.  One of the best is this Italian restaurant call Forno 301. They make outstanding pizza in a wood fired oven along with other tasty Italian treats.

The inside is modern with a few antique touches scattered about.  The best part is the food.  It's excellent.

Garden in the City

There is a patch of land on Central Avenue between Camelback Road and Indian School Road that has been sitting vacant for many years now.  From time to time there will be a sign on it with a picture of some planned building or development but nothing seems to stick.  Recently I noticed a lot of garden activity on that patch of land.  I decided to stop and see what it was all about.

It seems a nursery that is located on the far west side of Phoenix has opened an outlet right there on our central corridor.  This is an area full of high-rise buildings, businesses and multi-housing units and of course the light rail that runs right up the middle of Central Avenue.  I can only assume that it is a temporary arrangement until some type of development is finally approved for this location.  It certainly adds a lot of color to a once barren plot of land.

They lady I talked to was a volunteer working on the site and she told me that all of the rose plants I was admiring are breeds from South Africa and they are new to our area.

They were the most fragrant roses I think I've ever been near.  I could smell their sweet scent just walking along the paths between the plants.

Okay, Much Better

Okay, things are looking up again.  The clouds are breaking up and there are patches of blue showing through.  It's still about 10 to 12 degrees cooler than normal but I hear we will be gradually warming up again.  Whew!  I'm thankful for the rain but happy it's leaving for a while.

I ran some errands yesterday and stopped at the Heard Museum for lunch.  That's were I saw this Arizona chicken adorning a table across the room.  I asked the waitress if she would bring it over to my table so I could snap a photo of it and she cheerfully obliged.  It is a piece of Native American folk art as described on the tag.  I thought it was kind of cute.

And here's one last shot taken in exactly the same spot as yesterday's last shot.  The street is drying out and the patch of blue is a welcome sight.

The View from Above

I was up in Julie and Dave's office a while back and snapped a few iPhone photos out the window.  This one looks down on the Chateau on Central condo development.  I've shown you that place before from the ground level here and here.

This view is looking straight down at the beautifully landscaped grounds of the Viad Tower where the office is located.  I do enjoy a great birds eye view.

3300 Reflection

I happened to be in the right position at the right time to catch this reflection of the One Lexington condominium tower reflected in the 3300 Tower.  Those windows look like mirrors in this shot.

Moon over high-rises

I went out again last night looking for clouds that might form a sunset but I got stopped by the moon hanging over one of the mid-town high-rises.   I walked a little further to see if I could catch the moon between two buildings but, by that time the moon was too high to make the "in-between" shot.

Dinosaurs are the subject on Sharon's Sojourns today!

Whoosh...

The light rail whizzing up Central Avenue.

Magritte Clouds

It was windy and chilly on Saturday with big puffy clouds filling the sky.  I love it when we get these kind of clouds.  I call them Magritte clouds.

Rush Hour

Rush hour traffic on Central Avenue can be very busy but, I do love seeing the sunset glow on the buildings.

Framed

These towers at the Cancer Survivor's Park appear to be framing the Viad Office Tower on Central Avenue.

Cool, Clear, Water

Just an arty shot of the water in a fountain in the courtyard of a high-rise building on Central Avenue.

Thomas Road

One night last week I stopped on the way home from work to pick up a pizza.  While I waited, I noticed the light on the high rise buildings and decided to take a few snaps.  I liked this one the best with the cars heading toward me and the lower windows of the buildings lit from the setting sun.

Turret

This is a tower that is attached to the Chateau on Central condo complex that I featured yesterday.  I think it is supposed to add a European feel to the place.

Bricks & Gaslights

I don't think these are really gaslights but, they were made to look like it.  This was taken at Chateau on Central, a very high end condominium development.  This was a development that got caught up in the real estate crisis and sat empty for about two years.  It was recently purchased by a new developer who is now selling the units.  I walked around here for about 30 minutes and it looked to me like it's still pretty much empty.

Morning Sun on Copper

I was out early last Saturday morning and caught sight of the early morning sun reflecting off of the copper trim at the Park Central Shopping and Office complex.  Copper is one of the main industries of Arizona so you see it as an accent to buildings quite often in our state.

Theme Day: My Favorite Part of Town

My favorite part of town is the neighborhood I live in.  The area known as Mid-Town.  I love that I can see high-rise buildings from my back yard but it still feels like a cozy neighborhood out front.  I love that I am so close to the things I love, theatres and museums.  And, I love that I can walk to the light rail and ride all the way to Tempe for a fun lunch or dinner in that busy college town.

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Pool with a Grand View

This is where I took yesterday’s photo. It’s one of the model homes inside the One Lexington tower on Central Avenue. I did a whole series of photos on the building right out the window. You can see them here, and here, and here.

Sunset behind the White Tank Mountains

A sunset shot taken from a Central Avenue high-rise.  There was some sort of fire going on in the city.  This was taken with the little point and shoot camera because it's all I had with me at the time.

Bounty of the Market

There are two things I’m always after when I head to the Public Market on Saturday morning, fresh baked bread (lower right) and flavorful tomatoes. It’s the tomatoes that are the real challenge. Although plentiful, finding one that tastes like the tomatoes I grew up eating is the real problem. I’ve had some success shopping at the Public Market if I look carefully and take a whiff of the stem end before buying. The heirloom tomatoes come the closest to that Midwestern taste.

Speaking of “whiffs”, see that basil in the upper left corner? The wonderful aroma of fresh basil whets my appetite while I’m shopping and probably prompts me to buy even more than I had planned.

Theme Day: Open Air Market

Open air markets in Phoenix, in the summer are a bit of a challenge, but we do have several around town that are thriving. The one I go to on the edge of downtown Phoenix, uses huge evaporative coolers at the ends of some of the aisles to help keep the temperature tolerable for the vendors and the shoppers alike. A little music to entertain the shoppers helps too.

Tomorrow I’ll give you a taste of why I go almost every Saturday morning in spite of the heat.

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