The Hatch margarita at Valentine in Phoenix is a metaphor for the new restaurant in a boot-shaped glass. St. George green-chile vodka tempers and spices up joven mezcal. House-made lemonade includes roasted Hatch chili juice. Cumin, sugar and bell pepper powder spice up the salted rim. It’s playful, smart, considered, and a little fussy, but the kitschy boot and the fact that it all goes down waaaay easy make it just plain fun.
Like that seriously fun but still serious margarita, Valentine is just about the most ambitious, unpredictable, but wholly zeitgeisty restaurant to hit Phoenix in, well, forever. Owners Blaise Faber and Chadwick Price almost opened it as a bar, but thankfully it’s become so much more: By day it’s a coffee shop with mid-century modern diner vibes and baristas slinging fancy espressos and dishing up exquisite pastries. It’s also a restaurant, serving food by chef Donald Hawk that could easily grace the plates of a restaurant where you’d never dare break out your laptop for a little “working from coffee shop” session, but Valentine somehow makes both feel okay.
Thomas J. Story by Thomas J.
Instead of the kind…
