Dining Destination: Located at 40th Street & Campbell,
La Grande Orange is bar none one of my FAVORITE establishments to eat at. Ever. They own several eating establishments {Chelsea's Kitchen I also love} but this is just about LGO Grocery and I will be mentioning the
Pizzeria but no pictures of that.
{brace yourself this is a long post}
Menus at LGO
I showed you a picture last
Wordless Wednesday and it was of the dessert case at LGO. And let me just say that is only the beginning of my love for the place. I think my very first visit was back in 2008 with a meeting I had with Radio Disney wanting to meet with me about some advertising with the beef council. I fell in love. Immediately.
I first ordered the Guacamole B.L.T. on whole wheat bread with iced tea and that is an order I have repeated several times. But really, I'm addicted to BLT's so this should come as no surprise.
They know how to put bacon on it. Delish!
Here is the LGO Chicken Salad with apples and arugula on toasted 9 grain. I believe the day I went and took these pictures {which was about 6 mos. ago} I ordered this to branch out and my friend Lauren got the BLT.
Lauren with a lovely LGO water bottle. I didn't take a picture of it but they have a delightful little shopping area {it's not that little} with a TON of wine and all kinds of random, eclectic doo-dads. To me, it's full of things I don't really always
need but they are too cute to pass up. Also, a good place if you need a quick gift for someone.
Another reason I love LGO. They have a retail case for
Tammie Coe Cakes. The first time I had a Tammie Coe Cake was at the duo college graduation party for my bff Holly and her brother Craig from HS. They had much larger versions of those spectacular fondant cakes there. In the display you can see normal {which are kinda big for normal but it works for me!} sized cupcakes and mini cupcakes on the shelf above. All things in this case are Tammie Coe. The case next to it is all LGO made goods.
This is the LGO case. Please note the giant version of a hostess cupcake.
The close up details. Lauren ordered this, she barely could eat half of it and took the rest back to the office.
That large, beautiful piece of art on the left is a Tammie Coe "Ooey Gooey" and is the BEST cupcake I have ever had in my life. If I could only eat one kind of cupcake for the rest of my life, I promise you this is it. It is a chocolate cake, but not just any chocolate. It's perfectly moist and light and not too chocolate-y. That may sound crazy but I'm not a huge chocolate fan and if I get to choose I will take white cake over chocolate any day but this is the exception. The frosting is a buttercream and it's perfect - 'nuff said. I bought a mini ooey gooey and mini red velvet for a co-worker on a diet back at the office, I didn't want her to miss out!
Here are some things I also love about the establishment:
A fresh flower arrangement that will blow you away.
A great concrete bar seating area.
Great happy hour specials. The pizza is only served in the evening and just recently {okay in early December} I finally went and got to enjoy their divine
pizza and I might have also enjoyed a Famous White Sangria. I mentioned above that they have a huge wine selection and while there for pizza you can go pick one out and the server will open it for you and you can enjoy with your pizza. While there I had their Avocado Pizza {avocado, tomatoes, basil and lemon zest and added the suggested prosciutto} it was most definitely light and crispy and quite amazing.
Finally, another reason I love LGO is not because of their food, decor or service. Last August I mentioned I was going to write about LGO and a reader, Jackie emailed me about the caring and generosity that LGO has bestowed upon a friend of hers. Here is her story:
More specifically you said you would blog about it later, so I wanted to share something with you just to bring awareness to the situation. My dear friend from high school, Ali, also went to U of A and ended up joining the same sorority I was in (Yes I know, sorority ahhhh! But the stereotypes don't always prove to be true I promise). Even though Ali was a year younger than me we were roommates for a semester in college. Ali, along with her younger sister Katie, both worked at La Grande throughout high school and during breaks and summer time in college. Needless to say she was apart of their family at LGO. Sadly, almost a year ago this September, Ali and another friend were involved in a car accident on the I-10 near Casa Grande on her way back to Phoenix for the weekend. Our friend was not as badly injured but did stay a while in the hospital and ended up having to take a semester off of school. Luckily she is back the U of A and completely well! Thank God. Unfortunately for Ali it is not the same story. Although she has made a huge recovery and will continue to take baby steps throughout time, she is not quite the same. Ali remained in the hospital for months, later transferred to a rehabilitation facility and only recently was able to be sent home and continues on with therapy. It has been extremely difficult for anyone who knows Ali, especially her family, to go through this situation not knowing what the next day will bring, but her family and friends continue to stay strong and fight along side her. I cannot begin to explain the amount of support and love has gone into the situation, and even more so the amazing amount of strength her family has. Many people joined together at the University of Arizona to help her family with the medical funds. There were bracelets made for her (like the livestrong ones) that read "Love this Life," a favorite quote of Ali's. Not only did my sorority willingly donate the money that would otherwise go to our Philanthropy to the medical fund, but others across campus did the same - an amazing and unifying experience on the U of A campus between Greek organizations.
In order to inform people of the accident and update what was going on, there was a web site created for Ali through Caring Bridge. It also allows for people to donate and contribute to the fund. Even a year later the site remains and people visit every day to keep tabs on our Ali. Now, I apologize for the length of this email but I wanted to fill you in! But back to LGO. Since Ali was such a huge part of their team, LGO and their staff have been a huge part of her recovery - from providing food when there were SO MANY people visiting Ali at the hospital in those first couple of weeks to continuing to show their support for the family even a year later. I have not been able to make it to one of the events but I believe every Monday LGO has a "Monday Night Pizza" for Ali where they set aside tables and Ali gets to come in. I am not sure of the details but if anything it definitely shows Ali and her family the strong support there is for her. Ali and her family have been SO STRONG throughout this process and I just wanted to bring light to her situation. If you do end up writting more about LGO I was wondering if you would be interested in mentioning this story? Of course LGO has AMAZING food and everyone should know about it! But they are also a great support system in this situation and bring the Phoenix community together. Also, if you wanted to include it and it makes many references to LGO, here is the webpage for Ali. So many people have come across this page over the last year...for months many of us had it as our status' on facebook and it still remains in my profile today. It has helped to bring everyone together and become aware of Ali. There is even a space for people of they want to donate.
Whether you can or can't make a donation please say a prayer for healing for Ali. I just visited the site yesterday morning and they are still undergoing therapy and asking for prayer for healing.
I think I will definitely be visiting LGO this week for a BLT or perhaps something new...after typing this my mouth is watering! If you are ever in the Phoenix area please, please, please go visit this place I promise you won't be disappointed!
