New Microbrew for You!

The two things I loved most about visiting downtown Tempe, Arizona, while living in the Valley of the Sun?

Hefeweizen and lettuce wraps.

Those were my favorite staple items of Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant and P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, respectively – two very popular haunts for one-of-a-kind microbrew and great Asian cuisine.

So as I see the steady progression of The Market Common here in Myrtle Beach, and learn that these two restaurants will be a prominent part of the mix, my taste buds have found new life!

For those unfamiliar with hefeweizen (pronounced hay-fa-VEIT-sen), it’s a German-style beer in which the yeast is not filtered out. It’s cloudy and actually looks kind of disgusting, but just drop a wedge of lemon into a pint of this stuff and you’re in for a crisp, refreshing treat. Just be careful about overindulging: at 5.5-percent alcohol by volume, it’ll only take a few pints to get you handing over the keys to your sober companion.

And P.F. Chang’s? Always a wait to get served, but once you’re seated you remember quickly why it was so much worth it. It’s nothing like your neighborhood Chinese take-out place (“Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” as Jerry Seinfeld would say) – huge menu, but with an upscale feel and reasonable prices.

Their lettuce wraps are P.F. Chang’s most popular appetizer (my wife often orders them as her meal). Even though their entrée selections are plentiful and always well-prepared (I typically devour their sweet & sour chicken), many folks go there specifically for the lettuce wraps like they go to Olive Garden for the salad and breadsticks.

The Market Common shops and restaurants are slated for a spring 2008 debut. To get a bird’s-eye view of the progress, check out this Sun News video: