Top 10 Flagstaff Favorite Local Restaurants

Question: "What's one of the best things to do in Flagstaff?"

Answer: "Eat"

One of the best things about living in our (quiet) mountain town is the food. So whether your roots in Flagstaff go back generations or you just got here, here is our list of local favorite eateries around town (in no particular order):

1. Granny's Closet
218 South Milton Road 
http://www.grannys-closet.com/site/

A place where everyone can eat, Granny's offers great food with a little bit of Flagstaff history and flair. It's the perfect place for any occassion : dates, out with friends, or just watching the game. Their super juicy and tender steak and prime rib are to die for. Don't for get to grab one of Granny's infamous homemade pies.

2. Salsa Brava
2220 East Route 66
www.salsabravaflagstaff.com

Salsa Brava is perfect place to forget your troubles and just eat good food. Thanks to their salsa bar, they were voted "Best Salsa" by the Arizona Daily Sun. This Mexican food is the best you can get in Flagstaff! Salsa Brava has also been featured on the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives with Guy Fieri on the Food Network.

3. Mike and Ronda's The Place
West: 21 S Milton Rd

East: 3518 East Route 66
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Move over Denny's. Hop away IHOP. Mike and Ronda's is really the only breakfast "place" to be. The Place has large serving sizes and hometown feel food, making this a local favorite locals, visitors, and students alike.

4. Taverna Greek Grill
2420 S Woodlands Village
http://www.tavernagreekgrill.com

Only a couple years old, Taverna has become a hot spot for locals to kick back and have a nice Greek meal. Wait until the music kicks in and your waiters are dancing around the restaurant and the bartenders are blowing fire. Don't let this distract you from the fantastic reverse happy hour that starts at 8 and goes until close. Opa!

5.. Josephine's Modern American Bistro
503 North Humphreys Street 
www.josephinesrestaurant.com

Here in Flagstaff, everything is more kicked back and casual. Josephine's allows us to eat good food in a fine dining atomosphere at a casual price. Their sandwhiches are excellent and you'll never have to see your glass empty. Check out their wine selection too!

6. Big Foot BBQ
120 N. Leroux In the Basement Marketplace, Old Town Shops
http://www.bigfootbbq.com

Big Foot BBQ is the best place to get BBQ in town. Located in a quirky spot in the Basement Marketplace downtown, the folks at Big Foot know how to give you your fill of all the tasty goodness BBQ has to offer at great prices. You can even buy their sauce and take it home with you.

7. Diablo Burger
120 n. leroux st, flagstaff
www.diabloburger.com/

Diablo burger is all about local, so everything is always fresh. This cash only establishment has the Flagstaff values of locality and their food reflects their high standard of where their food comes from. What most call a "hippie" mentality, I say, would a hippie eat a cheeseburger?

8. Dara Thai
14 S San Francisco St

What would a food list be with out some Asian food? While the Chinese or Japanese places around town are mostly decent, Thai food -- specifically from Dara Thai -- is the best place in town. The staff always greets you as a friend and makes sure your food is cooked to perfection. Don't pass this place up if you're looking for a great Asian restaurant.

9. Beaver Street Brewery & The Lumberyard Brewery

Beaver Street: 11 S. Beaver

The Lumberyard: 5 S. San Francisco

http://beaverstreetbrewery.com

http://www.lumberyardbrewingcompany.com



Putting two restaurants on one number is probably cheating, but hear me out. These two breweries are owned by the same couple; though they're sister breweries, they have very distinctive styles and food. Both are fantastic places to grab a beer (it is a brewery afterall) and Beaver Street has the best wood fire pizzas Flagstaff has to offer. The Lumberyard has great wings. Pick either one and you won't be disappointed.

10. Mama Burger

991 North Fort Valley Road  

www.themamaburger.com

Mama Burger is the best place to get your old fashioned burger fix. From milkshakes to burgers, their menu has a variety. They just recently moved to a bigger establishment on the way to SnowBowl, but don't worry, they took their great recipe's and good service with them. Ooohhh mama.

A Day in the Life

Here at the office, we CSRs answer the phones, help customers with questions, and send tech's out on jobs. (It's harder than it sounds, people, trust us). But what most people don't realize is exactly what CSRs do. What is in the CSR job descripton?

I won't bore you with the details, because the job description is a full 1 1/2" 3-ring binder with Sections A-Z of material our expert CSRs master. There's a lot that goes into this job and we're more than just a voice waiting for your call on the other side of the line.

We man the schedule, make sure the most emergent calls are taken care of first (sorry, drippy faucets...exploding toilets kind of win), and then we call you (the customer) and make sure we get the tech there on time.

Our customers are like this after talking to us
(at least we like to think so)

Have you ever been cheery at 8 a.m.? I'm not the greatest morning person but being an expert CSR requires me to help you not worry, which means I need to be happy. And that can be hard, but a day at the CSR office is always a happy one, even when we woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

No Grumpy Bear's here!

So how exactly do we get to this cheery, helpful, expert status of CSR? We review our job description and reflect on our mission statement while we file away the paperwork and think about that jump in the air our customers do after talking to us.

My personal favorite part of my job? Helping you with your problems. It's in our mission statement, and Marty does a fantastic job of hiring and training people who can take it seriously.

What is our mission statement?

"Lifting others up with life changing solutions to their burdens"

 A big part of that is being a good customer service representative and knowing both our customers and our company.

It doesn't stop there. Marty allows us to help with our marketing department. Who better to know how and who to market to than those who know the customer best? Tech's get to know you, but they're so busy working on the plumbing it's hard to get to know them like we can. Believe it or not, we do talk about how amazing our customers are at our company meetings.

Which we end in a company jump.

 The people behind the phone really care about your problems. We're not here to just pass the buck and make a paycheck. But, if you're shy (admittedly, we can be a bit too bubbly sometimes...), you can always fill out a Service Request form on our website here and we'll give you a call the next morning and help you out.

Don't forget to "like" us on Facebook!

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Hello everyone! We hope you had a great Superbowl Sunday! Did anyone make the Cheddar Bacon Ranch Pulls? Let us know what you thought if you did! This week we're focusing on goal planning, since this is around the time many people have given up on their New Year's Resolutions. How are you doing with yours?


Have a Wish List


Running a functional company takes a lot of effort, and here at Mortensen Custom Plumbing we enjoy helping our employees and our customers achieve their goals. That's why we ask on every call if there is a "wish list" you'd like to fulfill at some point for your home. Visit us here for more details.

One thing that we have our new employees do is fill out 30 things they want to Do, 30 things they want to Be, and 30 things they want to Have.
Dr. Richard Harris of BusinessExpertsWebinars.com wrote this about the Do-Be-Have goal setting:

BE focused. This is a state of “BE-ing”. Without focus your future, whether it is for today, tomorrow, next week or next year is foggy.

DO target. Targetting requires action or “DO-ing”. A target is specific and often has associated time commitments. In business a target is often stated as something that is set so that all efforts can be made to achieve that on the way to goal i.e. a target is a short-term specific step on the way to a longer-term goal. Sales targets are commonly set in business.

HAVE a goal. The end result. Something to be achieved. BEING focussed and DOING targetting lead to HAVE-ing that goal.

Pretty wise words, Dr. Harris.

So once you set your sight on a goal, how do you achieve it? This is where most people get stuck.

Step it up & backtrack

Goal achievement is difficult. What you do is "backtrack' which means you evaluate your circumstances and then write out a to-do list leading up to your goal. There are several technological resources that can help. See the links at the bottom for them.

After you have your to-do list, there you go. Just work your way down it and adjust accordingly. Remember, just because there is a setback doesn't mean you should quit entirely. It means you need to adjust your to do list to get over the obstacle and succeed.

 Measuring Success

A lot of people set deadlines for their goals ("I want to lose 30 lbs in 3 months") and measure success that way. I see deadlines as a good way to have motivation, but success is measured by how much is done within a certain amount of time, rather than if you "made" your deadline.

If you only lost 15 lbs in 3 months, celebrate that you're 15 lbs lighter and can adjust your to-do list to lose more weight and reach your ultimate goal of losing a total of 30 lbs.

Visit our website to find discounts!

Links:

43 Things

How to make a Vision Board

Mint.com for financial tracking

My Life List

Lifetick