Arizona Spotlights
Business Spotlights
Stories about local Arizona businesses: what they do, who they serve, and what makes them special.
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Pizzeria Bianco: How a Grocery Store Pizza Counter Became America’s Pizza Pilgrimage
Chris Bianco started selling pizza from the back of a Phoenix grocery store in 1988. Decades later, his tiny brick pizzeria in Heritage Square…
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El Charro Café: A Century of Carne Seca on a Tucson Rooftop
Since 1922, one family has kept El Charro Café cooking in downtown Tucson, from Monica Flin’s fryer and a disputed chimichanga legend to the…
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Tlaquepaque Arts and Shopping Village: The Sedona Village Built Around Its Sycamores
In the early 1970s, Abe Miller set out to bring an old Mexican village to the banks of Oak Creek, and he refused to…
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The Palace Restaurant and Saloon: The Bar That Survived Whiskey Row’s Great Fire
When fire swept Prescott’s Whiskey Row in 1900, patrons carried the Palace’s oak bar across the street and kept pouring. That same bar still…
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Rod’s Steak House: The Route 66 Steer That Has Fed Williams Since 1946
Since 1946, a giant neon steer has called hungry travelers off Route 66 in Williams. After a long pandemic closure, Rod’s Steak House is…
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Copper Queen Hotel: Bisbee’s Grand Old Lady of the Copper Boom
Built by a copper mining company in 1902 to impress investors, Bisbee’s Copper Queen Hotel has outlasted the boom that built it. Today it…
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Lutes Casino: Yuma’s Century-Old Pool Hall Where Nobody Gambles
Lutes Casino has no slot machines, just dominoes, pool tables, a cheeseburger topped with a hot dog, and a ceiling that a wooden leg…