"arizona" news and stories

Here's one of the more bizarre stories to emerge from this year's international soccer madness: in honor of the World Cup and its host country, a restaurant in Mesa, Arizona is serving up burgers made from lion meat. (It's dubious what kind of "honor" it is for a restaurant half a world away to be taking one of Africa's most iconic and threatened species and tossing it in a meat grinder.)

Apparently sensing that the burger wouldn't be a roaring hit with animal-rights folks, owner Cameron Selogie of Il Vinaio opted to keep the special off the sandwich board and on the down low, announcing it to a select list of restaurant regulars via email. Turns out one of the regulars is an animal lover (who, it seems, doesn't seem to mind Il Vinaio's other occasional gamey offerings, such as wild boar), and she alerted the press.

Now the story has been picked up as far away as the UK, with CNNMoney.com launching an investigation into the source of the big cat meat. Selogie claimed his lion had come from a "free-range" farm in Illinois (sure, you know, that famous lion farm south of Chicago...), but it turns out the source is some shady guy who runs a "skinning operation."

Yuck.

If you've got the stomach, you can check out all the sordid details at CNNMoney.com.

A weekly look at the draft selection at beer-friendly bars across the country.

I'm spending the holidays in Phoenix, Arizona. One thing I immediately noticed is Phoenix has quite an affection for big box retailers and massive restaurant chain locations. Lots of land out here I guess. Fitting then that many of the city's "top beer bars" as determined by sites such as this one are nationwide brewpubs like Rock Bottom or BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse. And though I'm sure a number of great independent beer bars exist in the Phoenix metropolitan area of which I'm guessing savvy and enraged commenters will be happy to enlighten me, I thought this a perfect opportunity to give one chain its due.

Whereas most chains' beer selections tend to lean towards the uninspired, some -- such as Yard House Restaurants -- have managed to excel. Along with locations in California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Nevada and Texas, Yard House has three locations right here in Arizona. Every location boasts between 100 to 250 beers on tap, and yes, though many of them tend to be pedestrian (you'll likely find Michelob Ultra on every list) with such a large selection even the most discerning beer connoisseurs can find something that will pacify them.

After the jump, find some insights into how Yard House selects their beers and a link to their massive draft list.

Would you sit all night in a parking lot to get free combo meals?

That's what over 100 people did in Phoenix yesterday. They stayed overnight in the parking lot of Chick-fil-A to get 52 free combo meals. The doors opened at 6:30am and the customers (who brought along tents and sleeping bags and TVs so they'd be at home in the parking lot) walked through the door for their free meals. Reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where Jerry dated the woman who worked in the soup kitchen and he was amazed that people would eat soup all day, even in the morning.

Wait a second, 100 people got 52 free combo meals each? Is that what the article says? Yikes.

[via The Obscure Store & Reading Room]

Only a few days after we were told that it was once again safe to eat spinach, the FDA issued a recall on lettuce from the Salinas-based Nunes Co. The recall only applies to lettuce purchased from October 3-6 in seven western states: Oregon, Idaho, Montana,California, Nevada, Washington and Arizona, and "the recalled lettuce was packaged as "Green Leaf 24 Count, waxed carton," and "Green Leaf 18 Count, cellophane sleeve, returnable carton." Packaging is stamped with lot code 6SL0024."

The reason that the lettuce was recalled was due to a concern over a possibly E.coli contamination in the water supply to the fields, although no E.coli has been found in any of the lettuce and no people have reported illness. The owner of the family-run company says that they have strict safety protocols, which were strengthened when the "spinach scare" broke out.

At this point, all lettuce covered by the recall should be off shelves, but it could be a good idea to check the bags in your fridge just in case.

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