As I age, I realize I can't hang like I used to. Last night we had taco night at our friend Billiam's, and three margaritas put me right on my ass. I woke up belly-aching like a kid who'd gotten full access to the cookie jar and overdid it. In my fragile state, I decided that we were breaking our very limited dining out rule and I wanted large quantities of smoked meats. I was hoping to try something I hadn't had before, but a lot of BBQ places are closed on Sundays. Since we were going to be in the Beavercreek area anyway (quick trip to Best Buy to replace the DVD player that had recently started impersonating a toaster oven), I figured we'd go into City Barbecue. I'd had their food at catered events before, but never actually eaten there.

The menu is slightly limited, in that there aren't many combo plate options meant for one person. The meals are basically either rib dinners, or something served in sandwich form (though the menu notes any sandwich can be served without bread). I like a little bit of everything, and the Deluxe City Sampler seemed like the perfect thing for us to split. It comes with half a slab of ribs, 1/2 pound of chicken (your choice which part of the bird-we chose breast and wing), servings of pulled pork & brisket, two cornbread mini-loaves, two slices of Texas toast, and two sides. I asked if they made their own slaw, and the nice fella at the counter replied they did, but it was vinegar based - and offered me a sample. I wanted to like it, but turns out I'm a mayo girl at heart and it just wasn't for me. He then pointed out their seasonal sides and offered to let me try the gumbo when I asked about it. This guy has the patience of a saint, because I didn't like the gumbo either and he showed no signs of being the slightest bit irritated. I finally decided on the corn pudding and insisted I didn't need to try it, because corn pudding is kind of like pizza in the sense that even when it's not the best, it's still pretty good. Mr. FvF picked the hand-cut fries, proving his dedication to Fry Club (don't ask). They don't have table service at City Barbecue, but the counter staff is friendly and accommodating enough that they still garner a big, fat A+.


Normally we both frown on sharing a dish because we're such big eaters. The only other place we'll venture this risk is at Ticket's Pub on the Greek hot plate, and the serving for one is enough, though they do have a hot plate for two on the menu as well. We had barely gotten our drinks (big ups for having Diet Mt. Dew, or anything other s/f option besides Diet Pepsi) and our food was already up, and it filled up an entire tray. I was so carried away with digging in that we'd dismembered a good portion of it before I remembered to snap a photo. So, what you see above is a partially eaten Deluxe Sampler.

Everything was totally aces, and only the ribs and chicken had been very lightly sauced. They have a great variety of sauces on the table, and I sampled a little bit of the Brush Fire, the Original and the mustard-based sauces. More importantly, the sauces were merely a second fiddle to the meat - it didn't NEED sauce, which is the sign of good barbecue. The meat was tender and the smoke flavor was ever-present, but not overwhelming. the brisket was more shredded than sliced, which isn't my preference, but it was still the chippity-chomp, so no complaints here. The sides were excellent (4 out of 5 on the hand-cut fries and 5 out of 5 for the individually baked corn pudding), and the breads were pretty fresh - considering they make them en masse.

We devoured the whole she-bang, but the mister had to finish my cornbread, because if I kept eating, he would have had to write Goodyear on me in Sharpie and roll my fat ass out of there. He was eager to check out Graeter's Ice Cream next door, but we were both so full we couldn't possibly hold any more. Always with the big ideas, I decided to get take-home from Graeter's and we'll dig into that later tonight when the feelings of shame from dinner fade away.

For $20, this was a hell of a deal, and we couldn't have been happier with the food and service.

5 out of 5 sporks!

This is one of the fastest and easiest meals I know how to make. About 20 minutes start to finish, provided you've either bought stir fry beef or had your butcher cut it for you. Dot's Market keeps a little sliced sirloin (right behind the stew beef) for stir fry. It's about $5 per pound, and worth every penny. The sugar snap peas are readily available at Kroger or any supermarket for around $2 per self-steam bag. Everything else is stuff we usually have on-hand - yes, even the ramen. I detest the stuff as it's meant to be served, but Mr. FvF loves that shit. Besides, it's good on it's own for use in stir fry in place of rice, so I don't object to keeping some around.


Spicy Orange Beef

1 lb stir fry beef
1 15 oz can beef broth
1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
2 closed minced garlic
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 cup orange marmalade
2 pkg ramen noodles
1 bag steamable sugar snap peas



Start by browning your beef. I usually cook it over med-high heat with a little sesame oil, soy sauce and salt. The sesame oil adds tons of flavor. Cook it only to mid-rare or medium, as it will continue to cook and you'll add it back to the pan briefly at the end. Slide it all onto a plate and store it in the microwave or oven until you're almost done.

Don't bother draining the beef drippings, and add your beef broth, teriyaki, garlic, ginger, marmalade and cayenne and bring this all to a boil. Reduce the heat a bit and add your ramen (works much better if you break it up beforehand), cover and cook for about 5 minutes.
Add your snap peas and cook for another 2-3 minutes (covered), then add your beef, stir, and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Toasted sesame seeds make a killer garnish and add a nice texture variation.

Time for another one of Mr. FvF's favorites! I think this was the first meal I ever cooked for him and it became a regular, then I realized I hadn't made it since starting the blog. His solution? Well, he says I can't keep these things from my readers. Olive Garden thought they were pioneering some shit when they put these on the market earlier this year, but good ol' Betty Crocker taught me how to make them over two years ago. Besides, Olive Garden is basically the Dane Cook of Italian food, just recycling shit someone else came up with and calling it their own, and even worse - pretending it's innovative. Different shaped raviolis?! What will they think of next?


Lasagna Roll-ups
6 whole wheat lasagna noodles
1 15 oz container ricotta cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup parmesan-reggiano blend
1 10 oz box frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
Cheater Bolognese:
1.5 jars of your favorite spaghetti sauce
1 lb bulk/ground Italian sausage


Always boil your noodles first (in well-salted water with some olive oil), so you can drain them and give them time to cool before you have to handle them. It's never a bad idea to cook up to 10 of them for this recipe, as they often tear when rinsing or stick to the stock pot when cooking This way you'll have spares.

Next, it's time to make your sauce - brown & drain the sausage, then add your jarred sauce. I make a mean homemade sauce, but the Mister isn't big on chucks of veggies in his sauce, so I succumb to culinary failure and improvise. anyhow, it doesn't have to be hot-hot, just warm up the sauce over the remaining heat and spread into the bottom of a 9x13" pan.

Finally, mix up all of the middle ingredients (cheeses, salt, pepper, spinach) and spoon about 1/4 cup onto each noodle and roll it up. Once your roll is secured, use either a very sharp knife or a serrated knife to cut it width-wise down the middle of the roll, so you have two pieces, each with a crowned edge. Nestle each roll into the sauce and bake for 20-30 minutes at around 350 degrees.

As you can see, this produces something much more aesthetically appealing than traditional lasagna, and tastes just as good - if not better.

I don't give a rat's ass about the Winter Olympics ("Hey, you got your X-games in my Olympics!"), but I get excited over a new dipping sauce like Mike Tyson at a beauty pageant. I forgot to pack my sensible lunch today, so I swung into Mickey D's for some nugs and sweet chili sauce to see if I was "lovin' it."


It tastes a lot like what it looks like - duck sauce with some chili flakes and bits in it. But, if I said it wasn't super tasty, I'd be a big, fat liar.

As far as heat, there's little to none. I've been suffering from epic and relentless heartburn for almost three days, and this didn't have any further ill effects on me. Just enough to leave a little tingle on your tongue. As a comparison, Wendy's Sweet & Spicy Asian boneless wings are actually much hotter. I'm a bit of a cream-puff when it comes to heat, and I usually find myself all the way through a bottle of water when eating the stuff from Wendy's. The ingredients, as I recall, are water, sugar/HFCS, vinegar, cayenne, red pepper and preservatives.

I only eat McDonald's once in a blue moon, but I'll be a little bit bummed when this goes away. Hopefully they'll do what most fast-food joints do and just tell everyone it's limited edition, then bring it on full-time after all of those Frenchies have beefed it down the bunny slope.

This weekend, Mr. FvF and I checked out Logan's, compliments of a gift card I'd won at a Chamber of Commerce event earlier in the week. I wasn't expecting much, and they basically delivered.

We arrived just before dinner rush, right around 5pm - and out of all of the booths and tables with ample space, we were seated at the world's smallest booth. I know they were prepping for dinner rush and expected bigger parties to take up those spots, plus I knew it would mean we wouldn't be seated too close to screaming kids, so I didn't complain. It took so long for our server to come over and greet us and take our drink order, we'd already had plenty of time to peruse the menu and load up on the free peanuts when she got there. I ordered the Onion Brewski sirloin with a house salad and broccoli, and the mister opted for the 10 oz sirloin and carbalicious sides of mac & cheese and french fries (shit he doesn't get at home).

Our food came out pretty quickly, since we both ordered our cuts mid-rare. When I cut into the corner, I was pleased to see that it was squishy and oozing, not overcooked. Mine came out on a fajita plate - onions-a-sizzlin' - which I was excited about until I remembered how science works. We'll get to that later, but the whole plating issue was kind of a nightmare.

The plate was pretty small, and as-is, really left me no place to cut my steak. I moved my broccoli dish to give me some wiggle room and move the onion straws so I could get down to business. I'm a pretty slow eater, and I like to enjoy a good steak at a reasonable pace. At home or anywhere else, this wouldn't present a problem. At Logan's, however, that sizzling plate continued to cook the meat, and by the last four bites, I was gnawing on well-done steak like a cow chewing cud. Mr. FvF's sirloin came out on a regular ol' plate, so of course, he had no issues with his and it was perfectly cooked and well-seasoned. He only gave the side dishes a 3 out of 5, though. My sides were good, not exceptional. The house salad actually came with more than just iceberg - carrots, tomatoes, bacon crumbles and cheese. The broccoli was steamed and soft, but not mushy. Our server was okay, but didn't knock my socks off. I got busted taking photos of the food, and three managers came out to ask us how everything was before you could say "plating fail." Mr. FvF thought maybe there were rules against photographing the food and we'd end up in Logan's Roadhouse jail.

They earned a few bonus points for the following things:

• Letting me throw shit on their floor
• Potato rolls
• A very strange mural that depicts a Patrick Swayze-esque character seemingly busting a load on the farmer's daughter.

Remember, kids - everything you need to know, you can learn from the movie Roadhouse. In the end, this restaurant's food and service were a lot like putting an elevator in an outhouse - they just don't make sense.

2.5 out of 5 sporks

Still nothing terribly exciting to report. Mr. FvF and I are buckling down a bit in order to save up for the wedding and the Mexican fiesta that will follow, so we're cutting down a bit on dining out. We've cut some corners on catering cost, but Christopher's has been great to work with us. After going in to meet with their catering manager again tonight and trying some of their pies, we've also decided they'll be making our wedding pies. That's right, pie. $500 cakes are for jerks and lesbians. That said, here are this week's table scraps!

• McDonald's has a new dippin' sauce called Sweet Chili. I've yet to try it, but it's limited edition during the 2010 Winter Olympics - so, get while the gettin's good, lunchbox.

• Today I had lunch at Fleming's, and I really shouldn't complain, because - well, it's free lunch at Fleming's. But, the only option besides bottom-of-the-bowl salad was a seafood pasta salad. However, I dind't know this until I'd piled some on my plate and took a big bite. As I think I've mentioned, I'm NOT a seafood fan - but that's not what bothered me. What bothered me is there was zero notation that this contained shellfish, which tons of people are allergic to.

• At another luncheon, I scored a gift card to Logan's Roadhouse. I've heard the place is assy, but they serve a steak with beer-carmelized onions on the bottom and beer-battered onion straws on top. How bad can it really be?

• Finally tried Burger King's Funnel Cake Fries, and hoooooo-boy, what a disappointment! They're about as appetizing as a mouthful of sand, but without the beach and greased-up cabana boys that usually accompany such a thing. Imagine, if you will, their French toast sticks cut into small slivers, fried again in the same oil, dusted with powdered sugar, allowed to cool just enough to get stale, and served with a dip-able icing that tastes like lard and more powdered sugar. Hopefully they can pick themselves up and dust themselves off with this new Cupcake milkshake that I keep hearing so much about (mainly because my friend Ginger swears it will be her demise).

• In a heartbreaking turn of events, I came home to big footprints through the two feet of snow in my previously untouched backyard, to find that the cable company - after 6 moves and 12 years - finally realized their programming mistake and disconnected my basic cable. I'll have take a queue from my good friend Billiam and start watching Good Eats on the webbernets like a regular poor person.

• In the near future, my readers are going to witness the marriage of two truly amazing creatures. No, I'm not referring to my upcoming nuptials. What I'm talking about here involves a lot more artery-clogging goodness. Food vs. Face will soon be teaming up with Man-b-Que to bring you even more coverage of meat, meat, and God help us - MORE MEAT.

• In a feat that amazed even me, I scored a hell of a deal on emergency groceries earlier this week. Monday surprised Southern Ohio with another metric shit-ton of snow, so I ran out at 7 a.m. to grab some dinner items for the week before heading to work. I got all of the ingredients for beef stroganoff, tacos, meatballs, and anniversary chicken for $17. Butcher order and all. Then Mr. FvF reminded me that if you really think about the word "stroganoff," it's fucking hilarious.
  

Sorry, everybody - but there hasn't been much exciting news to report lately. In lieu of actual content, I give you this week's Table Scraps!

• This completely vegan Mexican chocolate cake looks good enough to hump.

• My boyfriend, Anthony Bourdain, will premiere his own show on Martha Stewart's XM Radio channel this week with co-culinary bad ass, Chef Eric Ripert. The program, called "Turn & burn" will start Thursday and run for five weeks. Just in time for my last freebie month of XM! (via Austin 360)

• Mr. FvF and I went to Chappy's yesterday to celebrate a holiday that neither of us give a shit about. Y'know what we DO care about? All things beer-batter-fried. Their chicken was everything I remembered it and satisfied a deep hankerin' I've had for weeks since my first visit. I think I've picked out a good number of the seasonings used in the batter, so now all I have to do is figure out what kind of beer they're using and I'll give it a whirl at home. We didn't order dessert there, because I'd made the Mr.'s favorite Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie. He might have diabetes in 5 years, but I sure know the way to his heart.

• Enter to win a $250 gift certificate from the Serious Eats Store! No purchase or bullshit necessary to enter or win.

• Speaking of Serious Eats, they have a fantastic instructional slideshow on how to carmelize onions. It's a rookie mistake to think getting perfectly soft, sweet carmelized onions is as easy as throwing them in a pan with some oil on medium heat. It's a science, rook!
  

• Only tried one new recipe lately, and it was Slow-Cooker Orange chicken, and it was $&#*ing terrible. The recipe calls for cooking on low for 6 hours or high for 3-4. Word to the wise: cooking it on low for less than 5 hours yields results of a sauce burnt beyond recognition. I will say it looked tasty around the 3 hour mark, so I might give it a whirl again when I can keep a closer eye on it. But, isn't the point of Crock Pot cooking that you can just politely ignore it until it, much like migrant labor, produces beautiful results that you then take credit for?

The definitive pizza blog Slice recently posted their first quiz.

I scored a measley 50%. They claim it's easy, but some of the questions were pretty unexpected. How's your pizza knowledge, lunchbox?

Sorry for the lack of updates this week, but we've been snowed in with the comforts of our old favorites. No new recipes or great new dining joints to report on. In lieu of real news, here are your table scraps!

• With the roads mostly clear today, your favorite restaurants should be open, but it wouldn't hurt to call ahead and check before driving out for dinner (especially if you're north of Dayton, where they got hit harder).

• Don't forget that Monday's are half price Monday nights at South Park Pizza Tavern (featuring Pizza Factory pie and great beers). That's a helluva deal!
  

• One of my all-time faves, Christopher's Restaurant, is featuring different wild game in their Thursday special menu all month. Each Thursday will have a different theme. Check out tomorrow's, which sounds amazing: Appetizer - Asiago Potato Cakes Two pan seared potato cakes with asiago cheese topped with fresh garden salsa.
  
  Salad - Bacon Spinach Salad
  Baby spinach tossed with warm bacon-balsamic vinaigrette topped with toasted pumpkin seeds, grilled apple slices and goat cheese crumbles.
  
  Entrée - Slow Roasted Wild Boar
  Slices of roasted wild boar topped with apple cider gravy, served over cornbread stuffing and sweet acorn squash.
  
  Dessert - Pumpkin Crème Brulee
  Pumpkin flavored baked custard with caramelized sugar

• If you're the type that celebrates Valentine's Day, check out the specials offered by local restaurants before dropping serious cash on a fancy dinner. Dinner for two specials range anywhere from $34 per couple (Franco's) to $80 per couple (Soprano's) and I'm sure go up from there, but they're still good deals for all you're getting. Culp's Cafe, El Meson, Amber Rose and Rue Dumaine are also offering special romantic menus and deals for the lovey-dovey holiday.
  

• Because we're so very romantic ourselves, Mr. FvF and I are going to Chappy's on V-day. I could have picked anyplace in town, but so help me God, I cannot stop thinking about that chicken! Where are YOU celebrating with your sweetie this weekend?
  

I don't care to drive when it's snowed a lot, so I take the time to do or make things I'm otherwise too busy for - like baking. I'd been sitting on this low-carb cheesecake recipe for a while, so I figured I'd give it w whirl. This way if we'd be tucked away all day Saturday hankerin' for sweets, we could satisfy our respective sweet tooth without feeling terribly guilty. I've had a spring-form pan for a while now, but haven't made a cheesecake with it (or anything else, for that matter) because most of the recipes require water baths, and I don't have a roasting pan big enough. Alas, a cheesecake recipe that doesn't require it!

To start, I preheated my oven to 325 and lined the bottom of the spring-form pan with parchment paper, since this cheesecake doesn't have a crust. Now, you'll need:

• 3 - 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/3 cups Splenda
• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp lemon juice

Beat the cream cheese and Splenda on low speed until blended, then add your eggs one at a time. Add the remaining ingredients and continue on low speed until there are no visible lumps. Pour into your pan and bake at 325 for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let it rest for at least an hour and come to room temperature, then store in the fridge overnight.


The verdict: Not too shabby. I think next time I might go halvsies and use part Splenda baking mix, which is partially sugar. The consistency was pretty much perfect - a nice, firm cake (even though on the thin side) and little to no aftertaste from the artificial sweetener. I was hoping for the nice, smooth, browned top, but mine cracked a bit even though I resisted opening the oven door during baking.
I will warn you that if you use any other kind of fake-sugar besides Splenda, it supposedly comes out pretty gnarly. We don't have any on hand, but some raspberries could really jazz this up and make up for a bit of what it's lacking in taste.

Last night while everyone else in the Miami Valley hunkered down and prayed for daylight over the white death, Mr. FvF and I cozied up to a big-ass pot of gumbo and watched scary movies. I hadn't made this in a long time and forgot how incredibly rewarding it is.

Chicken, Ham & Sausage Gumbo

• 1 cup canola oil
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup chopped green bell peppers
• 1 pound smoked sausage
  
• 1/2 pound smoked ham, cut into small cubes
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 4 bay leaves
• 4-5 cups chicken broth (or stock)
  
• 3 cups cooked chicken
  
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions

I like to start by chopping all of my veggies and (cooked) meats so they're ready to go when I need them.
Once you have that done, start on your roux - and be ready to be stationary for nearly half an hour. Heat your oil in a small stock pot and slowly sift in your flour, whisking as you add. You will need to stir this constantly for 20-25 minutes, until it's the color and consistency of melted milk chocolate. It's a pain in the ass, but it provides the base for your entire meal - so it's worth it. It should look like this...


Once your roux is the right color, add your yellow onions, peppers and celery and cook about 5 minutes until they start to wilt a bit.
Add sausage, ham & seasonings (salt, pepper, cayenne, bay leaves) and cook 5 more minutes.

Now, add your chicken broth, give it a good stir and kick up the heat a bit until it boils. Once that happens, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook uncovered for 1-2 hours. Much like chili, the longer you simmer it, the better the flavors meld together.

• Heinz Ketchup unveiled their new packet design, which is pretty boss, if you ask me.
  

You can open the bottom end for dipping, or the top for squeezing. It does blow my mind a bit that this innovation took 42 years, though. They've also reduced sodium in the regular ketchup by 15% and are also introducing a product made with real sugar instead of HFCS. All of the "real" sugar products surging through the markets now are pretty tasty (throwback sodas, etc) - but I hope most people are smart enough to realize that REAL sugar can also give you the diabetus.

• Did you guys know Coolio has a %^@#ing cooking show?! Yes, I mean as in "slide, slide, slipitty slide" Coolio, who now refers to himself as King of the Kitchen Pimps (which I think my friend Josh would beg to differ with). I'm so overwhelmed and confused by this that I haven't wrapped my head around how I really feel about it yet. Is it hilarious? Sad? Awesome? Someone just tell me before my head explodes.

• There's some fancy new espresso machine that costs almost as much as my car, which I would normally frown upon - but it's called the SLAYER. How can you resist?

• Some breads are gonna roll: The first (to my knowledge) heavy metal cookbook, Hellbent for Cooking.
  

• We're supposed to get a serious ass-wallomperin' of snow here in Southern Ohio this weekend. I normally make a big pot of dad-recipe chili when this happens, but I'm switching it up with ham, smoked sausage and chicken gumbo tonight. What's your favorite snow-in meal?
  

The fine fellas of the War Rocket Ajax podcast were kind enough to link to Food vs. Face after Mr. FvF (known on the webbeernets as Rusty Shackles) mentioned it on this week's podcast. So, it's only fair that I return the favor (good thing they didn't give me VD, right?)! Check out the newest episode and allow them to delight you in how the words "colon cancer!" sync perfectly into Dio's "Holy Diver."

And, ladies - the really sexy-voiced one? Don't get any big ideas. I got dibs on him like your big, fat mammy has dibs on the last chicken leg.

We've been to Christopher's plenty of times, and the food is always stellar, so what I'm about to tell you might not be news.

We went there for a tasting tonight since they're doing our wedding catering, and got to sample tons of things not on their daily menu. Namely: Angel Hair Carbonara, Turkey Roulades, Greek chicken (stuffed with spinach, pine nuts & feta) and plenty of sides. they were all magically delicious. The catering chef/manager, Holly, could not have been lovelier. Quick to tell us how we could save money, where we could cut corners, and even providing the linens through a local party supplier without a surcharge. The best part? Even though she knew I was firm on another baker making our pies (that's right - no cake for us!), she brought us all out dessert after the tasting, on the house. My mom and I both ordered the bread pudding because I recalled having it years ago and it was amazing. Mr. FvF had the tiramisu.

Christopher's bread pudding is the stuff dreams are made of. I had the assiest of assy days, and one bite of this dense concoction washed all of my troubles away in a way that would make Calgon dart away with their tail between their legs. The portion size was as big as my head.


The texture and weight was perfect, nice crispy edges on top and the butter rum sauce was to die for. If you never do anything with your life, do this: go to Christopher's and order the bread pudding. All of their desserts are tops, but they can't even touch this one. And don't get ahead of yourself - only go there for dessert if you plan on heeding my advice. Their daily menu is filled with gastric delights that will NOT allow room for your sweet tooth at the end (though I do highly recommend, on another visit, ordering the chicken salad-stuffed tomato plate, the pot roast stew, the chicken parm, or the Manhattan). Don't even think about getting it to go, either - you have to have it warm, right out of their lovin' oven.

In case you're living under a rock, you already know that sidebar has picked up the lease at the old Pacchia space and the coffee shop has re-opened. For those of you living in the now, here's some more Gem City dining updates:

• Smashburger (which I have yet to try) is opening a location on Brown St. near University of Dayton on February 24. Maybe this will make eat easier for me to check it out since it's much closer to my end of town that their Mall-area location.
• In even awesomer Brown Street eats news, a new indie joint called Butter Cafe will be opening in the space that Dolcessa Gelato left vacant not too long ago. they'll offer breakfast and lunch, including a lot of locally grown/raised produce and meat, as well as free-range eggs and other stuff that's delicious and good for you. Big fat bonus: a gluten-free menu. I'm really excited about this place opening, but of course, all of the mongoloids on DDN.com can do is bitch about how the name is "stupid" and it sounds like the kind of place that will alienate meat eaters. Pull your heads out of your asses and get excited about something, people. Butter Cafe is slated to open its doors sometime in March.

• A handful of places garnered such great results from Restaurant week (which ended Friday 1/29), they're extending their deals one more week. Those eateries include:

Barbie's Bistro
The Melting Pot
L'Auberge
The Caroline
Welton's
Nick's Restaurant
The Dock
C'est Tout
Amelia's Bistro

Check the MVRA website for menus on these deals.