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The celebration of Valentine’s Day brings out the deals

BY ALISON STANTON

To help celebrate Valentine’s Day, several East Valley establishments are offering a variety of tempting and tasty deals. Check out the following scrumptious meals, spa packages and more that would make Cupid smile.

Papa Murphy’s

From now through Valentine’s Day, all of the Papa Murphy’s in the Valley, including the one in Gilbert, are offering a special HeartBaker Pizza. The heart-shaped pizza is topped with red sauce, mozzarella cheese and pepperoni and is available for $8. Take the HeartBaker home, pop it in a 425-degree oven and the pizza will be ready in 12 to 18 minutes. Papa Murphy’s is located at 1385 E. Warner Rd., Suite 104 in Gilbert. For more information, call (480) 632-7171 or visit www.papamurphys.com.

Cuisine and Wine Bistro

Gilbert’s Cuisine and Wine Bistro will offer patrons dining options from a special menu on Valentine’s Day, as well as a unique champagne-based Cupid’s Cocktail. The menu offers a choice of one appetizer, one entrée and one dessert. Choices for the appetizer are either lobster risotto, paired with a Sauvignon

Blanc from Napa Valley, or smoked duck breast salad with a Pinot Noir from Santa Maria Valley. For their entree, customers may choose between grilled swordfish with lemon butter paired with a Chenin Blanc from France or a 16-ounce grilled New York Strip served with a trilogy of sauces and paired with a St. Emillion Grand Cru. For dessert, select from chocolate souffle served with raspberries and paired with a Merlot from the Columbia Valley or tarte tatin served with mascarpone cream and an Orange Muscat from Lake Country. The three-course menu with the wine pairings is $105; without wine, the threecourse meal is $65. Cuisine and Wine Bistro is located at 1422 W. Warner Rd., in Gilbert. For information or reservations call (480) 497-1422 or visit www.cuisineandwinebistro.com.

Isabel’s Amor

Diners who are looking for tasty Mexican fare with a special Valentine’s Day twist can head to Isabel’s Amor in Gilbert. On Valentine’s Day, the restaurant is offering a three-course dinner featuring bold Mexican flavors. Guests can begin with a shared starter like Mexican street corn, Baja shrimp cocktail or Frijoles de Amor, and follow up with a selection of entrees like Pescado de

la Parilla and Puerco en Salsa Verde. Shared desserts include flan, churros con crema or sopapillas. The cost is $42 per couple plus tip and gratuity. Isabel’s Amor is located at 1490 E. Williams Field Rd. in Gilbert. For reservations, call (480) 290-7060 or visit www.isabelsamor. com.

Zappone’s Italian Bistro

Starting at 4 p.m. on Valentine’s Day, Zappone’s Italian Bistro will offer a special three-course menu at a trio of price points. Diners will start their meal with a choice of lobster bisque or pear salad, and then select an entree of either filet and lobster tail with truffle whipped potatoes for $50; an

8-ounce filet with truffle whipped potatoes for $36; or a stuffed A-line chicken breast with herb risotto for $28. For dessert, select from chocolate pot de creme or a raspberry Napoleon. Zappone’s Italian Bistro is located at 1652 N. Higley Rd., Ste 103 in Gilbert. For information or reservations call (480) 218-2338 or visit www.zapponesbistro.com.

Crowne Plaza San Marcos Golf Resort

Hungry diners can enjoy a relaxing Valentine’s Day brunch at the historic San Marcos Golf Resort in downtown Chandler. The meal includes everything from a chefattended omelet station, eggs Benedict and waffle station to chef-carved prime rib,

Pizza lovers can celebrate Valentine’s Day with a heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy’s in Gilbert. Submitted photo

pan-roasted salmon and decadent desserts. The brunch, which is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Valentine’s Day, is $27.95 per person and $15.95 for kids 12 and under. Reservations are suggested. Crowne Plaza San Marcos Golf Resort is located at One San Marcos Pl. in Chandler. For information or reservations, call (480) 857-4422 or visit www.sanmarcosresort. com.

Ocotillo Health Club and Spa

The Spa at The Village, located inside Ocotillo Health Club and Spa, is offering pampering packages throughout the month of February. For $94 per person, the chocolate mousse and strawberry body treatment includes an exfoliating sugar scrub followed by an Eminence Chocolate Mousse hydration mask. After the mask is removed, strawberry moisturizing cream will complete the treatment. For $125, patrons may select a dermaplane or microdermabrasion along with the chocolate mousse and strawberry body treatment. On Valentine’s Day, the spa will offer complimentary sparkling wine and mimosas, a long-stemmed rose and chocolate-covered strawberries for all spa guests. Ocotillo Health Club and Spa is located at 4200 S. Alma School Rd. in Chandler. For more information, call (480) 656-0045 or visit http://villageclubs.com/ locations/ocotillo.

Eklectic Pie

Both Eklectic Pie locations close to Gilbert—one in Chandler and one in Mesa— are offering a Valentine’s Day special. For $19.99, patrons will enjoy two 11-inch pizzas, two drinks including beer and wine and a special dessert. Enjoy classic love songs and a free rose for the ladies while supplies last. Eklectic Pie is located at 2990 E. Germann Rd. in Chandler and 1859 S. Stapley Dr., Suite 106 in Mesa. For more information, visit www. eklecticpie.com.

Salut Kitchen Bar

A special three-course menu will available Saturday, Feb 13, and Sunday, Feb. 14, at Salut

Kitchen Bar in Tempe. The prix-fixe menu will be in addition to the regular daily menu and is available from 5 p.m. to close. Diners may start their meal by choosing from hummus nachos, quinoa fritter or grilled Mediterranean shrimp, and then select one of three entrees: pistachio-crusted salmon; osso bucco with sun-dried tomato and saffron polenta or grilled chicken with Mediterranean quinoa pasta. Dessert is a choice of s’mores, or fruit sorbet. The meal is $45 per person and includes a glass of champagne. Salut Kitchen Bar is located at 1435 E. University Dr. in Tempe. For more information, call (480) 625-3600 or visit www. salutkitchenbar.com.

Tempe Mission Palms Hotel

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with a romantic staycation at Tempe Mission Palms Hotel. The Valentine’s package includes deluxe accommodations, and sparkling wine and chocolate-covered strawberries delivered to the room. A $30 food and beverage credit is also included for guests to use at Harry’s Place lounge, for room service, or at Mission Grille restaurant. The Valentine’s package is valid from Thursday, Feb. 11, through Monday, Feb. 15. Use promo code EVDAY0. Tempe Mission Palms Hotel is located at 60 E. Fifth St. in Tempe. For reservations or information call (480) 894-1400 or visit www. missionpalms.com.

RA Sushi

All of the Valley RA Sushi locations, including Ahwatukee and Tempe, are offering a special dinner for two for $35. The meal is available all day from Friday, Feb. 12, to Sunday, Feb. 14. Diners may select one appetizer, one entree and one dessert. Entree choices are a Viva Las Vegas roll, tunacado, ultimate shrimp tempura, spicy chicken teriyaki udon and chicken teriyaki.

RA Sushi is located at 4921 E. Ray Rd., Suite B1 in Ahwatukee and 411 S. Mill Ave., Suite 103 in Tempe. For more information, visit www. rasushi.com.

Couples can enjoy a romantic staycation at the Tempe Mission Palms Hotel. The hotel is offering a Valentine’s Day package which includes a $30 food and beverage credit to use at Harry’s Place lounge (pictured), room service or the Mission Grille restaurant. Submitted photo

Comfort food in beautiful surroundings at MJaye’s Pub and Eatery

BY KATHY KERBY

Melanie Jaye Sartain always loved to cook. In October of 2015, she leaped from corporate America (consultant to Honeywell) to open her own restaurant, MJaye’s Pub and Eatery, in the JD Homestead building on south Gilbert Road. The name of her homey new restaurant was a blend of her name and those of her father and daughter.

The spacious interior at MJaye’s has high ceilings with fans, a massive granite bar mounted on stone, booths along both walls with tables and chairs in the middle, and several televisions. There is also a small stage area for live music. The most appealing feature, however, is the inviting outdoor patio. This patio just screams “come outside and enjoy the beautiful Arizona weather.” Seriously, there is enough room for a small wedding reception or a big family party. The wrought-iron tables and chairs, with bright red umbrellas surrounded by grass, trees and fl owers, create a lovely atmosphere to enjoy food and friends.

On a recent Saturday evening, my husband and I made the short drive to MJaye’s. We were greeted by Jordyn, who told us that she was really enjoying working with her mother in this new enterprise. She handed us the onepage menu. Sometimes it’s nice to have

simplicity rather than the four- or fi vepage menu which is the norm. We made our selections from a nice variety of starters, salads, burgers, sandwiches and entrees, and chuckled at some of the fun names like “Rajin Cajun,” “Vampire Killer,” and “Jerky Boys.” As we waited, Melanie dropped by our table and explained that almost everything on the menu is made in-house and that the menu is constantly evolving as she and her staff try new recipes and seek customer input.

For our appetizer we chose “The Montana, Tony Style ($8.)” We are not certain what the name means but we are certain that the four mini Cuban sliders with roasted pork, ham, cheddar cheese, Dijon and pickles were very tasty with just the right about of heat. My husband, Lou, wanted to sample the Sonoran Burger ($9) and “Reuben the Great ($9.)” The burger was layered with guacamole, pepper jack cheese, purple onions and bacon and was expertly seasoned and grilled. The Reuben, with slow-roasted corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and a house Greek thousand island dressing, was an explosion of textures and fl avors. I ordered “Jaye’s Choice” ($13). The centercut sirloin was cooked perfectly, as were the garlic mashed potatoes and yummy roasted peppers and squash served on the side. The Jack Daniels au jus enhanced

the fl avor of the tender beef. For dessert, we couldn’t resist “Myrtle’s Turtle ($6).” This was the Grand Canyon of brownie sundaes. We barely made a dent in the moist brownie, covered with luscious ice cream and topped with caramel and candied pecans. We took the rest home for a midnight snack.

Melanie’s dream is “to be a neighborhood, family-owned, pub where people can come enjoy comfort classics in a relaxed and casual environment.”

MJaye’s Pub and Eatery

323 S. Gilbert Rd., Suite 111

Gilbert 85296 (480) 307-8477

MJaye’s Pub and Eatery opened in the fall of 2015. GSN photos by Kathy Kerby

Melanie Jaye Sartain named her new restaurant after her dad and her daughter.

The Sonoran burger, “Reuben the Great” and “Jaye’s Choice” steak tasted as good as they look.

The thick burger is layered with guacamole, pepper jack cheese, purple onions and bacon.

“Reuben the Great” was an explosion of textures and ﬂavors.

The Sante Fe omelet features sausage, tomatoes, red onions, Swiss cheese, guacamole and sour

Breakfast is a feast at Gilbert’s

Henhouse Café

BY KENNETH LAFAVE

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Chances are, after eating breakfast at Gilbert’s Henhouse Café, it will also be the most delicious meal of the day.

“Food is a passion for me,” said Maureen “Mo” Grebe, who owns Henhouse, a breakfast-and-lunch restaurant, with her husband, Brett Grebe.

Those are easy words to say, but the food at Henhouse proves them true. If there’s any doubt, try Mo’s Texas Eggs Benedict ($9.29)—with cornbread instead of English muffi n, carnitas-style pork in lieu of Canadian bacon, and Hollandaise spiked with smoky Hatch chiles—or the strawberry cheesecake-stuffed French toast ($8.29). Of course, just to be sure, stick around for lunch and try the chickenfried chicken ($8.99) or one of Henhouse’s half-pound burgers ($7.99 to $8.99).

“I’ve always been good at cooking, and with fi ve kids, I had to be creative,” Mo Grebe said.

That creativity has become her trademark.

“I have to contain myself and keep from coming up with too many dishes. If I didn’t, we’d have a fi ve-page menu,” she said.

As it stands, Henhouse’s three-page menu is stunner. Combining familiar, hearty fare with a sophistication born of Mo’s love for French cooking, it offers such unexpected contrasts as a biscuits-andgravy breakfast where the gravy is fl ecked with chorizo (with two eggs and potatoes, $7.99), and a lemon-blueberry pancake topped with mascarpone, the Italian dessert cheese ($5.49).

Henhouse’s menu presents only two problems. One is that the portions are

big enough to share. And the other is that Mo is ready to come up with something new as soon as the meals on the menu are exhausted.

“She’ll wake up at 3 a.m. and say, ‘Honey, I’ve got another idea for a special,’” said Brett of his wife’s creative urges.

“Then she’ll stay up researching ingredients until the restaurant opens.”

The quality of ingredients is just as important to Mo as her highly original recipes. She bakes her own cornbread, grinds her own sausage, cooks Henhouse’s distinctive green chile cause, and prepares the restaurant’s maple syrup every morning by boiling maple sugar in an enormous coffee urn. She buys only organic coffee beans, and the orange juice is squeezed daily from fruit grown locally.

That fresh, warm maple syrup tastes amazing on one of the menu’s most astonishing creations: Mom’s Homemade Pancakes ($8.49). It’s a short stack, just two pancakes. But each one is 15 inches in diameter. Bring a friend—or three.

“My job is to run the fl oor, shake hands and pour coffee,” Brett said. And there are a lot of hands to shake. Henhouse Café opens at 6:30 a.m. daily and by 6:40, Brett said, as many as four tables or booths are already occupied. On a recent Tuesday morning visit, eight of the restaurant’s 14 tables and all seven of its booths were occupied by hungry patrons.

Though Mo worked in restaurants as a teenager, and her brother had worked as a sous chef for a French restaurant, neither she nor Brett had ever run or owned a restaurant as of seven years ago. Just how did he, a former professional athlete with

cream. GSN photo by Tim Sealy

Historical Museum gala to raise funds for new operating model

BY SRIANTHI PERERA

Gilbert Historical Museum’s signature fundraiser gala is coming up.

“A Night at the Museum—Gilbert Comes Alive” is scheduled at 6 p.m. Saturday, March 5, in the decorated museum courtyard amidst old agricultural implements.

The evening features cocktails, a buffet dinner catered by Brio Tuscan Grille of Gilbert, live and silent auctions, music and dancing. “Music Through the Decades,” an intergenerational singing and dance performance, will be presented by youth from Actor’s Youth Theatre and Gilbert residents ages 12 to 76 years.

Guests may also view Gilbert Visual Art League’s exhibition and the museum’s annual quilt show, on the theme of the Colonial Revival Period.

Since its inception in 2013, the gala has been netting much needed fi nances for the nonprofi t. Funds go toward maintaining the historic school building that dates to 1913—it’s Gilbert’s only building on the National Register of Historic Places—and preserving the treasures of the town’s past.

This year, funds will also go toward adopting Gilbert Historical Society’s new model called Communities for All Ages.

The plan is to “provide a new intergenerational approach to programming in areas such as history, arts, culture, science and technology,” stated Kayla Kolar, executive director of the museum, in a letter to the business community.

“The new mission of the Gilbert Historical Society is to be the vibrant cornerstone of an intergenerational community that celebrates the past, inspires unity of all people and cultivates life-enriching collaboration,” she further wrote.

To that end, Kolar said that several enhancements are to be made to the property, including a new building in the back courtyard, a sculpture garden, more indoor and outdoor facilities and meeting space to augment the community room available on a short-term rental basis.

Programming topics will include research on family history, technology, art, culinary and nutrition.

The story of the history of Gilbert,

“A Night at the MuseumÐGilbert Comes Alive” is scheduled at 6 p.m. Saturday, March 5 in the decorated courtyard at the Gilbert Historical Museum. Submitted photo

sprawled across most spaces in the building, will be rearranged to fi t three rooms, Kolar said, to ensure more space for changing exhibits.

The museum is located at 10 S. Gilbert Rd. If rain or cold weather persists, the gala will be moved to the fourth fl oor of the St. Xavier University at 92 W. Vaughn Ave.

For tickets to the gala, sponsorship information or to donate to the auctions, call (480) 926-1577 or visit www. gilbertmuseum.org.

‘The Art of Quilting’

The Gilbert Historical Museum is inviting the community to bring in quilts for its 11th annual “The Art of Quilting” show, to run from March 1 to May 30. Quilts may be machine-made or hand-quilted and tied, and be of any size. They must be delivered to the museum, at 10 S. Gilbert Road, from Feb. 2 to Feb. 20. More information at (602) 291-1142 or kolaraz@ msn.com.

Gilbert Food Trucks

Food trucks rolled into Gilbert once again at the Gilbert Town Square event, featuring a variety of foods and dishes. Guests were entertained by Children’s Ever After Entertainment. GSN photos by Kimberly