Arizona History Dinners at Cartwright’s in Cave Creek
This week Cartwright’s in Cave Creek kicks off their third annual series of “Arizona History Dinners.” Historic tales and presentations accompanied by a tasty 3-course meal every other Wednesday from Jun 17th through October 23rd. There also will be live cowboy music during drinks and dinner. See the Schedule below:
Jun 19 Arizona History Dinners: Speaker: Bob Boze Bell; Subject: On The trail of Arizona history, growing up on Route 66 and the history of that legendary byway 5:00 pm
July 3 Arizona History Dinners: Speaker: Jana Bommersbach Subject: Poor Arizona, Nobody Wanted Us. Nobody. 5:00pm
July 17 Arizona History Dinners Speaker: Marshall Trimble Subject: Boom Towns and Mineral Mania: From The Town Too Tough to Die to the Ghosts of Cleopatra Hill. 5:00 pm
July 31 Arizona History Dinners Speaker: Ken Duncan (full blood San Carlos Apache) Subject: Storyteller, Lecturer, Flute Player & fluent in the Apache language 5:00 pm
Aug 14 Arizona History Dinners: Speaker: Bob Boze Bell Subject: Outrageous Arizonans II: from an Apache named “Fun” to an old coot named Harry Nipple, these guys are flat out weird (but perfect for Arizona) 5:00 pm
Aug 28 Arizona History Dinners: Speaker: Marshall Trimble Subject: Arizona’s Hard-Riding Heroes: From Pete Kitchen to Buckey O’Neill. 5:00 pm
Sept 11 Arizona History Dinners: Speaker: Marshall Trimble Subject: Enter the Law: Bringing Law and Order to the Last Frontier. 5:00 pm
Sept 25 Arizona History Dinners: Speaker: Bob Boze Bell Subject: Artists of the West from Remington to Russell, and including Lon Megargee who had a home in Cave Creek and ranched at Camp Creek. 5:00 pm
Oct 9 Arizona History Dinners: Speaker: Marshall Trimble Subject: Rural Arizona, Small Towns and Zany Characters. 5:00pm
Oct 23 Arizona History Dinners: Speaker: Lance Polingyouma, project recorder for the Hopi Migration Project. Subject: The migration of the Hopi culture through petroglyphs and song. 5:00 pm
Cost is $55 per person plus sales tax and 18 percent gratuity for a three-course meal with an appetizer, entrée and dessert. For more details: Events Page. Call 480-488-8031.
OUR VISIT:
It was a full house for the History Dinner at Cartwright on Wednesday. The closed-in back patio was set up with many tables and a projector screen that was flipping through pictures of Route 66. You pick your seats as you arrive and we chose the huge family style table in the middle and mingled with the other patrons that sat around us. Pleasant cowboy music filled the air as solo guitarist, Gary Dirodis, strummed and sang songs. He took request (which we gladly gave) and played through the whole dinner.
The refreshing Turquoise Salad started the meal. It included Greens, Pinion Nuts, Avocado, Roasted Peppers and Medjool Dates. The main course was comfort food at its best: Chicken Fried Pork Chop, Chorizo & Cippolini Gravy accompanied by Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes and Green Bean Casserole. Dessert was Tres Leches Pastel Cake with Caramel, Candied Almonds and Fresh Whipped Cream. A perfect sweet treat to end this filling meal!
Once dinner finished the history part started. The guest speaker was Bob Boze Bell who spoke about growing up on Route 66. His descriptive stories about his father’s gas station on Route 66 were captivating and his overall knowledge on the southwest and ‘origin of the cowboy’ was fascinating. It wasn’t surprising to find out he is one of the new owners of True West magazine located in Cave Creek (which we all receive a complimentary copy.) He spoke for about an hour and was open for questions at the end.
What a nice summer evening full of expanding my belly and my mind. I would recommend it to anyone who loves food & history!
More Information on Cartwright’s: Cartwright’s Sonoran Ranch House