The Luke's Chicago Sandwiches at 2645 E. Speedway Blvd. recently added salads to the menu to appeal to health-conscious students at the nearby University of Arizona. We received a note from one of the managers with an invitation to stop in and try one:

The best seller for the salads is our signature Italian Beef cooked and sliced fresh each day, we take hot roast beef in the auju sauce and pile it on a bed of romaine lettuce, with red onions, tomatoes, pepperoncinnis, and I suggest adding our Hot pepper mix.

That sounds so awesome that I am going to look right past the various capitalization and spelling errors and just say, thank you Luke's Chicago Sandwiches for making salad time a bit more awesome.

They have a pastrami salad, a ribeye salad and some standard versions as well.

At this point many of us have driven by the papered-up windows of the space at 50 E. Broadway Blvd. - where signs have proclaimed an opening in early 2012 since forever - and wondered what the hell is going on in there.

The agave prints on the paper in the windows have hinted, to my mind, that there would be tequila served there, or maybe Mexican food of some sort. I'm not the best at deciphering hints, though, so I had to fall back on good old snooping around to figure out what is going on.

So I combed through some various information sources and found the number of a guy who is doing some consulting for the beverage program for the place. He said it will offer sort of refined selection of Mexican street food and that he is handling the cocktails. I'm going to refrain from mentioning his name - he was supposed to call me back after speaking with one of the head honchos in the business, but never did - but he is one of the most-knowing folks around when it comes to Tucson cocktailing, so the drinks should be unbelievable.

No name for it yet, but we hear the people who own it are shooting for an August opening.

My colleagues at Arizona Public Media are presenting the first (and perhaps only) televised debate of the Congressional District 8 GOP primary tonight.

Tune in as state Sen. Frank Antenori, Jesse Kelly, Dave Sitton and Martha McSally go head-to-head in the Arizona Illustrated studio from 6 to 7 p.m. on Channel 6.

The winner of the April 17 primary will face Democrat Ron Barber in the June 12 special election that will decide who will finish Gabrielle Giffords' term.

If you want to know more about the candidates, check out this week's feature story in TW.

This week, Eric and Arnie discuss Age of Apocalypse, an alternate-history look at the X-Men and the rest of the Marvel universe.

In other Heroes & Villains news, the store is hosting a master-class in the art of comic illustration. The press release is below the cut.

STLToday.com doesn't mention the Arizona Daily Star specifically, but their article discussing Lee Enterprises and their desire to put up paywalls on "most" their newspapers' websites would likely include our local daily.

Lee introduced paywalls at six newspapers in August in Montana and Wyoming that were successful, according to the company. There was not an adverse effect on digital advertising revenue at those newspapers, and page views at those six websites remain strong, Lee's chairman and executive officer Mary Junck said at Lee's annual meeting of stockholders this morning in Davenport, according to a summary of her remarks released by Lee.

At the Montana and Wyoming newspapers, readers are able to access between 15 and 20 free online story views a month. After they reach the set amount, they must pay to access a story on the paper's website. At the Billings Gazette in Billings, Montana, for example, annual digital subscriptions cost $69.50 and $19.50 annually for print subscribers, according a list of rates on its website.

Lee will introduce digital subscriptions in more Lee markets over the next three months.

While I might dispute if there are more than fifteen stories actually worth reading on the Star's site any given month (especially following the departure of Rhonda Bodfield and since I'm not generally the sort that needs to read every story about U of A sports), the really dastardly move on Lee's part would be to charge print subscribers for online access to a paper they already pay for. At least with the New York Times (which recently announced it was cutting the number of free articles available to cheapskates to ten a month), home delivery comes with online access and the use of their smartphone and tablet apps. A paywall might convince me to actually subscribe to the paper, true, but I certainly won't subscribe, pay extra for online access, then be ok with dealing with the drop-down, takeover, and pop-up ads on the Star's site.

The Arizona Guardian dug up footage of congressional candidate and state Sen. Frank Antenori rolling through a red light in Scottsdale in January. Antenori, who is seeking to complete Gabrielle Giffords' congressional term and is running in the new Congressional District 2 in the fall, has been dealing with stories about his driving habits and an angry exchange with a police officer who opposed his bill that would change the rules for issuing tickets for running red lights.

Dennis Welch of the Guardian reports:

Antenori was fined $258 for failing to stop at the light, according to a copy of the traffic ticket. Still photographs attached to the citation show Antenori driving with his signature blue-tooth ear-pierce in place. The photos also show an Antenori campaign bumper sticker above his license plate.

The video also shows that he never stopped and drove through the intersection at 19 mph at 11:31 p.m. When asked Wednesday whether he was being reckless, Antenori said, "I don't think so."

"It was late at night and I came out of the store on the corner and I ran the red light," Antenori said. "This is unreal. Clearly I wasn't paying attention."

Being that the new Sawmill Run Restaurant on Mount Lemmon is located where the Mount Lemmon Cafe used to be, one glaring question must be answered: Will there be pie?

"I know a lot of people will want to know, so, yes, we will have pie," said Gabriel Greenberg, the managing partner of Sawmill Run Restaurant, referring to the infamous pies once served at Mount Lemmon Cafe. "We're not trying to be the pie shop, but we will have pie and we will make it ourselves."

There is much more than homemade pie to get excited about. The restaurant will also feature full breakfast, lunch and dinner service, and there will be a full bar. Where as the handful of restaurants up on the mountain tend to lock up around sunset, Sawmill Run will stay open a bit later, serving both tourists and the hundred or so people who live on the mountain full time.

While there will be all the usual suspects when it comes to American fare, Greenberg is shaking it up a bit with some new creations. He'll be serving a corned-beef hash sandwich topped with a fried egg for breakfast and a pesto-chicken sandwich topped with carmelized onions later in the day. There will be build-your-own burger and macaroni-and-cheese dishes and a variety of smoked meats as well.

Greenberg says the family of one of the partners in the restaurant once owned a sawmill on Mount Lemmon, and that they're taking special precautions to keep their ecological impact minimal. While they will offer a variety of meals designed for hikers, cyclists and others heading out into the forest, there will be a heavy emphasis on using biodegradable items.

"We're spending a little more on that because, and God forbid they leave their stuff out there, but if they do we want to make sure it's biodegradable," said Greenberg.

The restaurant should be open the first week in April.

Baron - #708793 — 1 Year Old — Shar Pei Mix — Male
Poor Baron lived his entire life on the streets with no one to take care of him. But he’s no stranger to affection now! Brought to the Humane Society of Southern Arizona frightened and covered in cuts and scabs, Baron took a while to settle in and is still learning that people can be kind and gentle. Thanks to his friends in Canine College, Barron is slowly opening up and gaining some much-needed confidence. In just a few months, Baron has transformed from a cowering wallflower who would crawl behind you on walks to an eager achiever ready to seize the day. Luckily, Baron has excellent work ethic and is really learning how to let his guard down, perform tricks and enjoy simply being a valued companion. Won’t you please invite him to be yours?

Come meet Baron! He's currently living at the Humane Society of Southern Arizona, 3450 N. Kelvin Blvd. The Humane Society is open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. The phone number is 327-6088.

Watch a video of Baron in action, below the cut.

A new restaurant called Big Juan's is opening two locations in Tucson. The first location opens Saturday, April 21, at 4532 E. Speedway Blvd. A press release says a second location is planned for 4470 N. First Ave.

The restaurants are being opened by a company owned by John Schwimmer, the guy behind the Filiberto's restaurants that started in Phoenix and spread into Tucson, California and New Mexico.

From the press release:

“Launching Big Juan’s in Tucson first was an obvious choice for me as my family has roots and history in Tucson,” said John Schwimmer, co-founder of Big Juan’s tacos y burros and CEO of Catalina Compadres. “Tucson is where I opened my first restaurant years ago, it’s where my son was born and went to college, and it’s a city that I truly enjoy. What we have created in Big Juan’s is a style of Mexican food and service that doesn’t currently exist in the Tucson marketplace. All of our recipes use fresh ingredients and are made from scratch continually throughout the day, just as if it was prepared in the customer’s own kitchen.”

While I appreciate any pop culture moment that incorporates a reference to "Hold On" by Wilson Phillips — otherwise known as the most inspirational song of all time — I don't know if I'd go boycotting Chik-Fil-A quite yet if you're going on former RuPaul's Drag Race contestant Willam Belli's reasoning for doing the song:

How did that come about?

Well, I wasn’t a big Chick-fil-A fan, I guess, I never really knew about them because I’m from Philly and they don’t have them there. I was eating there with my girlfriends and they were telling me how [they support anti-gay organizations]. I was like, “Oh that sucks about the gay thing.” And then, I got diarrhea from it, so I was like, “F— this, I’m gonna write a song.” The fact that they come after gay people, let me come for you. The worst endorsement for a Christian chicken eatery is three drag queens. So it’s like, “Alright, alright, boo.” In reality, I just wanted to wear a bobbed wig.