The Newton — Attraction in Phoenix

In the middle of the pandemic, our family had the heartbreaking task of farewelling a member of our family. We opted for a celebration of life ceremony. We chose the Newton, as it has: a cosy, inviting common room, with beautiful lighting (2 chandeliers & string lights); a fireplace and 2 large, well-placed TV screens for a slide show of photos; a speaker system to enable us to play our family member's favourite music; a remote mic for us to be able to share our memories and stories with all gathered; and the ability to support the celebration with a selection of appetizers, coffee/tea and bar service. Finally, their pricing was uncomplicated and sensible. The Newton's common room can be closed off for privacy. They supported a safe environment, with staff wearing masks and masks encouraged. The food was beautifully presented, good quality, and delicious. The celebration was well-supported by staff, and truly everything we hoped for. There was no additional charge for set-up time, and staff helped us with our nominated seating plan - providing the seating and table linens. There was no rush to have us exit at the end of our booked time, and we were able to ease into farewelling family and friends who attended. There was also no additional charge for the time we needed to clear the decorations we brought. Staff also helped with parcelling up any leftovers. In realizing our vision, the staff (particularly Kelsie our primary point-of-contact, Ryan their IT specialist, and the manager Van-Lam), were really there for us - respectful, entirely accommodating, and absolutely supportive. Other staff we spoke with when popping in prior to the celebration (Cameron comes to mind), were kind, fielded questions, and put us in touch with staff to facilitate our needs. I was able to visit the venue several times in advance; they enabled a dry-run of our music, the mic, and our photo slideshow; and they addressed my calls and emails in a timely way. Our family extends a deep, heartfelt thank you to The Newton, and especially their staff. We remain entirely grateful. Hard to wrap words around how much your support has meant to us...

I'd rather have another shop entirely to go to in walking distance. Hell, I'd rather drive to Barnes and Noble and sit in their overpriced café. The staff is pretentious. The food is pretentious. The customers are pretentious. Anytime that I try to go in is almost a nightmare to get a book and a coffee or tea. They close so early, I often don't have time to get cleaned up after work and head over. When there's less than an hour but more than 30 minutes left, I can't get a regular coffee with cream. Instead, I've gotten attitude 😒 There's really no other 3rd Place in this neighborhood, and the fact that it could be a great community building resource, but refuses to even try is... Telling. Then there are the people there. They're all cold and distant. They won't even look at you and smile. It's like they're all there pretending to be busy while really just wanting spectators to shower them with covert attention.

The only good things I have to say are it's incredibly close to home, it has books, and it has pretty awesome croissants despite the chocolate in the center 🙄... No, scratch that. The chocolate filling is useless and irritating. A nice buttery croissant without the sugar filling isn't a tall order.

Ultimately, I'll continue to come back as I always do (time permitting). But it will be begrudgingly until we get a better coffee and book shop in the neighborhood.

Be...

I've driven past this area for years, never stopping to see what this was all about A friend suggested we meet for happy hour on Saturday. I was thinking to myself, most restaurants don't have happy hour on the weekend. But Tesota does!

What a great deal, a pizzette, a salad and a bottle of wine for under $40? My god, I'll be back! The food was flavorful and fresh. We enjoyed the atmosphere and the menu. Cloth napkins, nicely weighted cutlery, delicate wine glasses. The service was appropriately attentive.

10 out of 10!...