Sampler Platter: bacon-flavored beer, keeping kosher in Kabul and chewy chicken feet

  Would you pay $63,500 for dinner? One woman just did. This and more in today's food news roundup.

-- Bacon-flavored beer. New York Times
-- Keeping kosher in Kabul: Afghanistan's last Jew. Los Angeles Times
-- Alabama woman wins dinner with Sarah Palin for $63,500 via EBay auction. New York Daily News
-- Chewy chicken feet may quash a China-America trade war. New York Times
-- A man accused of starting a restaurant fire with a flicked cigarette has been ordered to quit smoking by a judge. Maui News
-- Eating LA visits Cafe Flourish, a recently opened vegan restaurant in Miracle Mile.
-- TGI Friday's closes 10 West Coast restaurants. Dallas Morning News
-- José Antonio Ortega Bonet, founder of Sazón Goya Food Company, dies. Miami Herald
-- Ghirardelli Chocolate launches iPhone app. Reuters

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: Chicken feet stick up from behind a stall glass panel at a market in Shanghai. Credit: Qilai Shen / EPA

What we're drinking: Telegraph Brewing California Ale

Santa Barbara’sTelegraph Brewing is the epitome of the eager, experimental microbrewery, enthusiastic about local ingredients and unfamiliar techniques. Its 19th century version of porter will shock most people by being tart. However, its flagship brew, California Ale, is totally accessible. It’s a mouth-filling beer, unfiltered, fairly hoppy and rather malty with a subtle citrus note. Perhaps because it’s sealed with a cork, a la Champagne, some people seem to think of it as a French saison, but I’d call it just a great big amber ale. Click here for more.

-- Charles Perry 

Sampler Platter: Sprinkles sued, Surfas shutters website, Kraut Fest celebrates cabbage, Mario Batali in hot water [Updated]

Sprinkles is involved in another trade infringement conflict; San Francisco's got its own boom in fancy new food trucks; a celebration of cabbage; and fun food safety alerts in today's food news roundup.

-- Sprinkles, which plans to enter the retail ice cream market, is sued by a Philly fro-yo chain in yet  another trademark conflict. Philadelphia Inquirer
-- Surfas, one of L.A.'s premier culinary supply stores, is shutting its website. After Sept. 11, Surfasonline.com will be Culinarydistrict.com.
-- A police dog lost the trail of an armed robbery suspect because it smelled stolen meat hidden in another man's pants. MyFox Boston
-- Delicious Coma visits Kraut Fest 2009 at Machine Project.
-- A list of nouveau food trucks in San Francisco. Zagat
-- The more you drink, the more you exercise? Reuters
-- Who needs gasoline if you have old beer? MicroFueler makes ethanol out of organic waste. Los Angeles Times
-- Cadbury rejects Kraft Foods' surprise $16.7-billion takeover offer. Chicago Tribune
-- Gourmet Pigs visits Lousin's Arakadz Cuisine, a mom-and-pop Armenian restaurant in Pasadena.
-- FDA requires faster food-safety alerts. Wall Street Journal
-- Mario Batali owes nearly $75,000 in rent on his recently shuttered Chelsea seafood restaurant, the John Dory. New York Daily News

UPDATE: An earlier version of this story said Sprinkles cupcakes had sued Sprinkles Yogurt. It is the other way around.

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: Dave Inglis, right, a buyer and trainer of dogs used in police K9 units, stands next to a handler and his dog at a training facility in Santa Paula. Credit: Carlos Chavez / Los Angeles Times.

Capitol City blends sports bar appeal and Hollywood glamour

The 7,000 square feet of opulence that was the ill-fated nightclub Goa will re-open later this week as the sleek sports bar Capitol City. Aiming to broaden the sports bar's appeal beyond the traditional clientele of dudes, more dudes and the occasional bored girlfriend, proprietor Curtis Nysmith is going out of his way to brand Capitol City as a lounge. It has couches! And a menu! That includes Sicilian meatball sliders, house-smoked pork ribs, an ahi tuna salad, bacon mac 'n' cheese, lamb lollipops and such standards as nachos, wings and burgers.

We get it. This isn’t just a place for bros to watch USC shame Ohio State into submission. This is a place where a girl can kick off her gladiator stilettos and sip a cosmotini while petting her mini-labradoodle as he nips at the inside of her imitation Louis Vuitton tote bag. In all seriousness, one of the signature cocktails is the Pussycat, made with black cherry vodka, raspberry liqueur and a Champagne floater.

[More pictures after the jump.]

Breweries competing for new lows in light-beer calories

Like the diet trade, the beer business has bred a lot of fads.

Remember "ice" beer's glory days, or how about "dry" beer? And what is either of them anyway?

Chicago-based MillerCoors is trying to prove that its new brew -- sort of a diet beer -- is no fad, and so far its sales momentum continues to increase. The company's MGD 64, which has just 64 calories, has been one of the biggest success stories in the beer world over the last year. Read more here:

Photo credit: Shutterstock.com

Six Food Events You Should Know About: A wine-tastic weekend

SATURDAY

Cook, drink, repeat Participate in an Asian-fusion cooking class taught by chef Edgar Agbayani at Roy's Newport Beach. Learn what it takes to make ahi tuna tartare, macadamia-crusted mahi mahi and Roy's melting hot chocolate souffle. Eat what you cook and enjoy it with a mini Hawaiian martini and a glass of Roy's Rutherford Ranch Chardonnay. Roy's Newport Beach, Fashion Island, 453 Newport Center Drive. 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. $40. (949) 640-7697.

A taste of home Head to the 33rd annual Home Remodeling & Decorating Show in Pasadena and participate in the Taste of Home Cooking School hosted by Taste of Home magazine. Participants will learn to cook a variety of "fall comfort classics" including Flank Steak Santa Fe, Mom's Manicotti and Smoked Salmon and Chive Cheesecake. Every attendee gets a gift bag filled with all sorts of stuff that you may or may not use, such as coupons and product samples. Pasadena Convention Center, 300 Green St. 3 to 6 p.m. $15.95 admission includes entry into the Home Show. (818) 557-2950. www.thehomeshow.com.

You're so wine-y The Malibu Wine Classic is back for its seventh year featuring tastes from more than 60 wineries from the Central Coast. The afternoon “grand tasting” includes all of the wineries as well as food from more than two dozen popular restaurants including the Water Grill, Saddle Peak Lodge, STK and Joe’s Pizza of Bleecker Street. The tasting benefits Childhelp, a nonprofit dedicated to the prevention of child abuse. Malibu Civic Center, 23555 Civic Center Way, Malibu. 1 to 4:30 p.m. $79 in advance, $100 at the door. www.malibuwineclassic.com.

Bud Light's 'fan can' leaves a bad taste

A U.S. official and some colleges are telling the brewer of Bud Light to can it.

Bud Light rolled out a marketing gimmick, "Fan Can," with the beer cans decorated with college team colors in selected markets just as the schools -- and their football teams -- were gearing up for a new season.

But the campaign drew criticism from Janet Evans, a senior attorney with the Federal Trade Commission who oversees alcohol advertising, and from certain colleges because the cans could encourage underage drinking on their campuses.

"We've told them we don't ever want to see a campaign like this again," Evans said Wednesday. "We're concerned about the promotion because it's targeted to college campuses where there are a large number of binge drinkers and underage persons in the audience." Read more in Sports:

Photo caption: Design of the proposed fan cans, which would come in school colors. Photo credit: Associated Press

Small Bites: Foxtail closes, Capitol City Sports Grill opening soon, Pig 'n Whistle coming downtown

Eater L.A. reports that SBE's much-hyped Foxtail has closed for what reps dub a "fabulous remodel" and will "reopen soon under a new name." Foxtail debuted in March of last year (so it didn't take long for it to lose its sizzle). At first it was a French bistro downstairs with "Top Chef" contestant Antonia Lofaso at the stove, and an elite upstairs lounge with a back entrance. The restaurant never really caught on, so management shut the kitchen down. Interestingly, and perhaps against the odds, the club (which, as I wrote last year, "was a joint venture between Sam Nazarian and Brent Bolthouse, along with four of their most powerful friends: director Brett Ratner, NBC Entertainment co-Chairman Ben Silverman, producer Scott Stuber and super agent Patrick Whitesell") never did become what its founders envisioned: an intimate den where Hollywood's elite power players could unwind. Maybe its next incarnation will be.

After almost a monthlong delay, Capitol City Sports Grill expects to officially open its doors on or around Labor Day weekend. Walk-throughs are being offered and the menu of upscale bar food, written by chef Shad Davis (Belmont, Stone Fire Pizza) is close to being released. The space, which was formerly Goa, features huge sliding glass doors that will create an indoor-outdoor effect. It also boasts an astounding 40 plasma TV screens, all of which are over 60 inches. The largest HD screen is in the main bar -- it's 14 by 8 feet. Apparently this won't add up to sonic chaos because the place features five "studio zones" where you will hear only your game. If that's not enough, you can request wireless speakers to use at your table. Completing the ultimate sports fanatic scene: 30 beers on tap and an additional 30 to 40 in bottles. Touchdown! Capitol City Sports Grill, 1615 N. Cahuenga Blvd., L.A. 

Finally, Blogdowntown reports that Pig 'n Whistle owner Chris Breed is close to finalizing a deal to return the Pig 'n Whistle to the location it occupied between 1926 and 1952 in downtown's Fine Arts building on 7th Street. "Inside, Breed plans to focus restoration efforts on the space's historic ceiling. He envisions an 'old world feel' with dark wood and historically-authentic tiles, similar to the Hollywood decor," the post says. But it also says the realization of this plan hinges on the acquisition of a conditional-use permit from the Zoning Administration. And that, most restaurateurs know, can certainly push your plans back a bit more than you'd like.

-- Jessica Gelt

Artist rendering: Capitol City Grill

The Chalet becomes the Black Boar (which sells all its beer for $5)

Chalet owners Will Shamlian (4100 bar, Library bar) and Aaron Chepenik (the Griffin) have remodeled, recast and renamed Eagle Rock's Chalet. Rather than being a classy little boite where martinis seemed very much the thing, it's now an English-style pub called the Black Boar. It soft-opened on Monday but is celebrating its official coming-out party this evening.

Reps for the bar say that Shamlian and Chepenik decided on the new look because they wanted to make the bar more everyday: "The area didn't really have anything casual." If casual means low-cost, then the Black Boar is indeed casual. The eight beers on draft and six in bottles are all priced at $5. Choices include Strong Bow Cider, Murphy's, Hoegaarden, Harp, Old Speckled Hen and Stella.

Inside, the carpet has been taken up to reveal unfinished hardwood floors, and old English-style farmhouse chairs and tables. Thankfully the fireplace is still there, as is the jukebox loaded with tunes including "Passion Pit to the Damned." There are also three LCD TV screens equipped with the Euro Sports package (for that early morning soccer match). Food isn't available, but you can bring in whatever you want. Hello Oinkster!

-- Jessica Gelt

Photo: Hoegaarden is one of 14 beers that sell for $5 at the Black Boar. Credit: Courtney Hergesheimer/ Los Angeles Times

Sampler Platter: Sonoran hot dogs, Central American chicken, coffee taste test

Sonoran hot dogs, Central American chicken, bad meat becoming good power, BBQ at Verdugo and more in today's food news roundup:

• Tesco's program to convert spoiled meat into power outrages vegans. Los Angeles Times
• Is is Lars Kuprik Backman the real Swedish Chef? ABC
• Coney Island Nathan's could be saved by landmark status. N.Y. Daily News
• Robot chefs run restaurant in Japan. Fox News
• Wolfgang Puck sued for "overly slick" floors. TMZ
• Sabores Sin Fronteras: The Sonoran hot dog crosses the U.S.-Mexico border. NPR
• Kokomo owners may turn Eat Well space on Sunset into K2. Eater LA
• BBQ and beer at Verdugo next two Sundays. Eating L.A.
• Dunkin' Donuts and McDonald's both beat Starbucks in Slate's coffee taste test.
• KCRW's Rob "Martini Shot" Long loves Central American chicken. LAist
• LA Foodie checks out J N J Burger & Bar-B-Q.
• A con man who claimed to be friends with Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay has been jailed for fraud. BBC

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: Pollo Campero's three-piece chicken meal. Credit: Pollo Campero