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June 17-30, 2017
Where to Eat
www.SanTanSun.com
Chandler restaurants offering specials for Father’s Day BY ERICA APODACA
Father’s Day is fast approaching and many Chandler restaurants are offering locals a way to tip their hats to their old man with special menus and reduced prices. Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar is celebrating Father’s Day with a special brunch from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 18. The brunch will include a variety of specialties, including eggs Benedict, crab cakes or a surf and turf of one of each. The menu also will feature filet mignon with mushrooms and a cream sauce, cinnamon apple brio French toast with bacon or California steak and eggs scramble, or a New Zealand salmon Cobb salad. For dessert the restaurant will house a New York cheesecake, crème brulee or fresh berries. The brunch is $47.95. Fleming’s is located at 905 N. 54th Street. For more information, visit flemingssteakhouse.com. Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers will be offering a Dads Eat Free entrée to all dads. Each father is limited to one free entrée.
The menu is home to numerous halfpound burgers. Some of the burgers are the Jucy Lucy, a half-pound burger with a cheddar-jack stuffed patty topped with lettuce, tomato and pickles. The Bacon Bleu, a half-pound burger topped with blue cheese crumbles, bacon, tomato, baby greens, avocado, caramelized onion and the chef’s mayo. There are also the O-Lineman, the Hangover, the Pastrami Burger and more. For the non-burger eaters, the restaurant offers gourmet mac and cheese, hot dogs and salads. This offer will be available all day, June 18. Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers is located at 1980 W. Germann Road. For more information, visit coldbeers.com. SanTan Brewing Company is commemorating fathers with an all-day Father’s Day buffet. The buffet will consist of both a hand-carved station and a buffet station. The features of the handcarved station will be smoked turkey and beef brisket.
The rest of the buffet will feature fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, beef ribs, potato salad, pub salad, buttered cream corn, sweet corn bread, apple pie bites and more. Breakfast items will be available from opening until 1 in the afternoon. The buffet will be available from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. June 18 and is $25 per person and $15 for kids ages 6-12. SanTan Brewing Company is located at 8 S. San Marcos Place. For more information, visit santanbrewing.com. El Palacio will be offering half off for all dads with the purchase of an entrée. The restaurant will debut its new menu and will be offering its new plates for the dads. This menu will consist of chicharron, which is deep-fried and sautéed in a pan with salsa verde. El Palacio will also offer salmon tacos in a soft flour or corn tortilla with grilled salmon and picante slaw. The final addition to the menu will be a torta with the customers’ choice of meat, avocado,
lettuce, jalapeño, mayo, pico, yellow cheese and chips or fries. This special will run from 11 a.m. until closing on June 18. El Palacio is located at 2950 E. Germann Road. For more information, visit epfamilyrestaurants.com. The Brickyard Downtown will have a limited edition special menu for all its customers June 18. The special menu will be offered from 1 to 6 p.m. The Brickyard Downtown is located at 85 W. Boston Street. For more information, visit brickyarddowntown.com. The Keg Steakhouse and Bar is honoring dads with a special menu on June 18. This menu will feature a choice of chicken, sirloin steak, prime rib, a seafood option and salad. These items will range from $39 to $53. The Keg Steakhouse and Bar is located at 3065 W. Chandler Boulevard. For more information, visit kegsteakhouse.com.
Two new Dairy Queen restaurants coming to community BY JESSICA SURIANO
A Dairy Queen franchisee will bring two new standalone locations to Chandler as the food service industry continues its shift away from shopping malls and commercial conglomerates. Steve Cowgur, who has lived in Mesa for over 65 years, started managing an Orange Julius store in 1976. That eventually led to his first store purchase seven years later. Once Dairy Queen bought the Orange Julius chain, Cowgur started his franchisee career with only three stores. Now, Cowgur owns 12 Dairy Queen stores, including one inside Chandler Fashion Center and one inside Phoenix Premium Outlets. Except for one in Tucson and one in Prescott, the rest of the stores are located throughout the Phoenix area. “The problem with malls is that mall business has declined rapidly since about 2005, and just continues to go down,” Cowgur said. “More malls are being closed, the sales in the malls aren’t as great, people are doing more online shopping – so it was either a case of just trying to keep as many stores open as we could over the next 10 years or reinvent ourselves to freestanding locations.” Cowgur’s two new Chandler Dairy Queen locations will be his first “Grill
and Chill” installments of the franchise, offering a drive-thru and full soul-food menu in addition to the usual iconic treats. He is not the first franchisee or business owner to jump ship from locations inside shopping malls. In fact, earlier this year, The Limited clothing company closed all 250 of its stores, citing falling mall business as one of the factors behind the decision. Other chains commonly found in shopping malls, such as Sears and Macy’s, have also been closing a significant number of their stores this year around the country. According to data collected by BigCommerce, an e-commerce software company for businesses, e-commerce is growing by about 23 percent every year, yet 46 percent of American small businesses still do not have a website. BigCommerce also found Americans in metropolitan areas are spending the most online, despite their proximity to physical shopping centers and brickand-mortar stores. These metropolitan consumers are each spending about $853 online annually compared to suburban shoppers’ $768 or rural shoppers’ $684. At the same time malls are losing
considerable foot traffic, Cowgur said, the restaurant business has become increasingly competitive, with every aspect of sales driven by discounting, especially by cheap fast food chains. McDonald’s 59-cent soft-serve cones are a perfect example of this exaggerated discounting tactic. “When you’re talking about ice cream or soft serve, Dairy Queen is really the industry leader,” Cowgur said. “Dairy Queen has been around for over 75 years, and so it gives us a competitive advantage over people because we’re just so well known.” Cowgur said lower calorie options also set Dairy Queen apart from premium-brand ice cream competition. The United States has also been experiencing its second wave of the self-serve frozen yogurt boom in the past decade or so, according to an industry report by Franchise Help, a resource for budding entrepreneurs. The first wave expanded from 1980 to about 1995, with production peaking at 152.1 million gallons of frozen yogurt being served. An estimated 121 million servings of frozen yogurt are now being served per year in the U.S., according to the report. However, Cowgur said his business has
not experienced much change because of it. He attributes the lack of significant profit changes to the difference in clientele for the two types of frozen treats. The average consumers of frozen yogurt are women ages 18 to 35, according to the report. In fact, some estimates found women comprise over 70 percent of frozen yogurt’s consumers. The resurgence of the self-serve frozen yogurt business grew from the idea that yogurt was healthier than the original indulgence of thick ice cream, and now relies on this as its hook and for its competitive edge over places like Cowgur’s Dairy Queens. Despite the popularity of these alternative chains, Cowgur is not too concerned. He said products like Culver’s custards and Cold Stone Creamery’s ice cream present more of a competition. Cowgur said Dairy Queen has struggled to stay modernized in its standalone stores in the past, but he plans on giving his new Grill and Chill stores a “facelift” about every 10 years. “I think it’s a dynamic business,” Cowgur said. “There’s lots going on and people have pretty good feelings about Dairy Queen, so it’s kind of a fun business to be a part of.”
Pita Jungle opening soon in Queen Creek BY SANTAN SUN NEWS
A popular restaurant chain in Chandler and other parts of the Valley known for offering healthy Mediterranean food is opening a new location in Queen Creek. Pita Jungle Queen Creek is expected to open on June 26 at 20491 East Rittenhouse Road. A grand opening will take place there next month. “We are very excited to open our 19th
Arizona location in Queen Creek and continue to grow the Pita Jungle brand throughout Arizona, as well as other states,” said Fouad Khodr, co-founder of Pita Jungle. The new 4,000-square-foot restaurant will have a main dining area, full bar and outdoor patio. Customers will be able to eat lunch and dinner there seven
days a week. Diners can order the same Mediterranean menu items Pita Jungle has been known for through the years, as well as a brunch on Saturdays and Sundays. Pita Jungle has a happy hour during the week. The eatery is offering a seasonal menu through the end of the month that includes a chicken avocado pita tostada and baklawa trifle dessert. Pita Jungle is
also known for its hummus, which comes in various flavors, including roasted bell pepper and cilantro jalapeño. Three college friends started Pita Jungle in 1994. It has several locations in Arizona and one in California. The restaurants provide many vegetarian, vegan and glutenfree dishes. To learn more about Pita Jungle, visit pitajungle.com.