Chile Pepper Festival in Phoenix

As far as I’m concerned, the annual Roosevelt Row Chile Pepper Festival is mostly an excuse to sample really delicious food from a bunch of Phoenix restaurants. The spicy selection includes items like tacos, stuffed chiles, donuts, desserts, and even beverages.

The next festival is this weekend, so here’s the scoop!

How it Works

You buy the number of tasting tickets and/or beer tokens you want at a table near the entrance – there’s no admission cost. Then you wander around the different booths and trade tastings for one or two tickets each. There’s also live music and market areas.

Proceeds raised help support the Growhouse Community Garden’s urban agriculture and education programs.

Last year, we went early, so we could go to Ballet Under the Stars afterwards. We bought our tasting tickets right as the festival opened, and there was practically no line. By the time we left, however, an hour or two in, a lot of people were waiting. Of course, it’s cooler later on. So…pick your battles, I guess.

Food + Drink

If you can’t eat spicy food, this is probably not the festival for you. I mean, you could just go and enjoy the live music. But all the tastings range from mildly to make-you-cry hot.

A few of our favorites:

Welcome Chicken and Donuts – Thai chili donut.
Paz Cantina – Blue corn taco with pork and green chiles.
Otro Café – Phillip liked the Mexico-style “street corn” with chili powder, cheese, and mayo on it.

At one point, I was ready to douse the fire in my mouth, so I got a smoothie, which was deceptively sweet at first – then the sweet disappeared and the crazy burn kicked in. It was unexpected. Like the photobomb from the smoothie guy.

Although beverage-wise we stuck with water and a bottle of Mexican Coke (and that one mouth-searing smoothie), there’s also a beer garden and margarita station.

Art, Craft + Community

On the market side of the festival, there were a handful of community and artist booths.

I dug the collage work of the multitalented Keisha J. Jones, who also models and makes delicious baked goods!

At the Valley Permaculture Alliance (Trees Matter) booth, you could make newspaper seed-starter pots, which inspired a CraftHack project.

Entertainment

When the music started, we watched Flamenco por la Vida. They perform flamenco music and dance superbly.

Some of their adorable pint-sized students danced, as well.

This Saturday, Flamenco por la Vida will be on stage at 9pm. I’m not sure if students will be joining them or if that’s past their bedtime.

A video posted by stephanieliebold (@stephanieliebold) on Sep 26, 2015 at 10:22pm PDT

There are several other performances during the festival, as well as cooking demonstrations and pepper-eating contests.

The band Mariachi Luna de Mexico played after we’d left. In fact, they strode in like some kind of guitar-wielding posse, just as we were headed to the parking lot.

– Festival Info –

The 2016 Chile Pepper Festival will be Saturday, October 1 from 5-10pm.
New location: 128 E Roosevelt St, Phoenix (Roosevelt/2nd St.)
Limited street parking will be available.
Light rail: Central Ave & Roosevelt St. stop is only about a block away (0.1 mile)!
All-ages event. If you plan to drink alcohol, be ready to show your ID and get a wristband at the entry.
There is no admission fee. Food, beverages, and handcrafted items will be for sale.
Details at chilepepperfest.com.

September 6, 2016May 23, 2023

Downtown Mesa Community Garden

There’s a community garden in Downtown Mesa that I’d heard about but hadn’t been to until my sister-in-law Liz was in town.

Mesa community garden

Isn’t it funny how you tend to see more of your city when someone is visiting?

Mural in urban garden, Mesa

Anyway, after lunch at Republica Empanada (at Hibbert and 1st Ave.), she asked about the gate next to the restaurant that leads into the Mesa Urban Garden, and we went to check it out.

I wasn’t expecting to see much, because August in Phoenix is rough on plants and only the most hardy survive. But there were still a fair number of things growing – veggies and vinca and this gorgeous trumpet vine with orange flowers and long green pods.

Community garden, Mesa

The garden is surrounded by walls with colorful murals, and there’s a Little Free Library made from an old phone booth.

I’ll definitely have to return later this fall!

Mesa garden

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September 1, 2016August 9, 2025

Payson Pie and Strawberry Llamas

Ever since a park ranger at Phoenix Comicon told us about Arizona’s National Park Centennial Celebration (which you may have seen on recent Happenings Lists), we had planned to make a day trip to Flagstaff to join.

After a late start the morning of the event, we were finally en route when we learned there had been a freeway-closing collision between us and Flagstaff and that the resulting traffic jam would likely last several hours.

So. We considered our options, ditched the plan, and headed to Payson instead.

While Phillip drove, I found a list of 35 things to do around Payson and read it to him. #33 was “Fossil Creek Llama Ranch.” Obviously, that went on the afternoon’s itinerary.

First, though, we stopped at the Beeline Cafe for lunch and pie. They have crazy good pie.

The clouds were moving in as we stepped out of the cafe and drove towards the Ranch at Fossil Creek in the town of Strawberry.

The Ranch is home to llamas, goats, Fossil Creek Creamery – where they make fudge, cheese, and soap from goat’s milk – and a little log-cabin-style store with their products.

It was sprinkling by the time we pulled up and went into the Creamery store. We checked it all out, sampled some cheese, made some purchases.

We went out to watch the animals. The llamas didn’t seem to mind the rain and just hung out around their field, chewing cud.

The goats, on the other hand, had taken cover and stood huddled together.

Eventually, one black goat decided the rain had let up enough to venture out. The rest tentatively followed, one by one realizing the drizzle wasn’t so bad, and it was safe to get back to eating, climbing on stuff, butting heads, and doing all their regular goaty things.

– More info –

The ADOT (Arizona Department of Transportation) Twitter account is a great resource for updates on road/traffic conditions throughout the state. When my Maps app was showing unexpected traffic near Flagstaff, I went to Twitter to find out what was going on and how long it might last.
The World’s Oldest Continuous Rodeo was going on in Payson the day we were there. It’s held annually the third week of August.
The Ranch at Fossil Creek offers $10 guided tours with a reservation. You can also go in and pet goats for $5 or hike with llamas for $30 an hour.

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Photo of Phillip by someone at the National Park Service booth.

August 18, 2016December 9, 2025

Where to Stop for Date Shakes on California Road Trips

We don’t order date shakes at home in Phoenix. We could. There are a couple places that serve them, since date palms grow here.

But we only look for them on road trips through a certain western Arizona/eastern California corridor.
Continue reading “Where to Stop for Date Shakes on California Road Trips”

August 8, 2016July 24, 2016

Peru, Indiana and Other Perplexing Place Names

It seems to me that Indiana has an unusually high concentration of places named after other places. When I tried to ask my aunt about this, she didn’t think it was weird that her state has cities named things like Kokomo and Brazil. She brought up the fact that a lot of states have places named after presidents, for example.

Madison county, indiana

But I’m not talking about the various Madison Counties or other places named after notable people or landscape features. I mean the ones named for a very different and far away place for no obvious reason. In Arizona, we have Miami and Florence. Indiana, however, has cities named Peru, Rome, Warsaw, Mexico, Cairo, Dublin, Paris, Alexandria, London, Manhattan, Jordan, Holland, Versailles, Shanghai, Milan, in addition to those above.

Florence, AZ benches
Does that seem unusual to anyone else?
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