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| - This place is essentially a copy of the old Father's Office (www.fathersoffice.com) in Brentwood, CA. It took me a while to get over that fact and give it a decent try. Among the things Delux has copied from FO is the famous "Office Burger," which Delux calls the "Delux Burger." They also bring out the fries in a shopping cart just like Father's Office. What Delux fails to copy, however, is the quality of the food and the high-end nature of the original. At FO, the wines changed weekly and are all incredibly rare selections. The beers at FO also tend towards the more obscure. Delux seems to concentrate almost exclusively on beers and does have a decent selection, but nothing you can't find elsewhere. Wines are available, but as an afterthought, and definitely not of the quality served at FO. For Phoenicians who never experienced the joys associated with the original Father's Office, you're missing out. It's like being an Eric Clapton fan but not even knowing who Muddy Waters is. But all the imitation aside, I have to say that Delux does a pretty good job with everything and they have taken the FO concept and adapted it to the PHX strip mall environment.
Food wise, everything I have tried was ok. They did change their sweet potato fries a year or two ago because the other ones weren't "crispy" enough. The problem is that these new crispier ones have no flavor. When they were testing out the new fries, the manager asked me and a friend to opine and we told him the truth: We said the new ones are flavorless. I guess we were the only ones who thought so because they went ahead with that change. That lost them 1 star from this review. I would rather have the soggier more flavorful ones (who knows how they make these new ones so crispy anyways?).
When I go here, it's almost always out of convenience and late at night. Not many places of this caliber stay open until 2 am, so it's about all there is when you are in need of a late night meal in this part of town. Their 2 star rating is based on: clearly knocking off one of my favorite places, Father's Office (minus 1 star) and for ignoring my feedback on the new crispy tasteless sweet potato fries (minus 1 star). They also lose a star for retaining the FO prices but substituting Phoenix strip mall quality.
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