I feel like food trucks are following me everywhere I go. I was walking to the Gangplank/Tucson Weekly HQ and there was a giant orange truck parked in on the south side of the Pioneer building. The truck reads "Cheesy Rider" in cursive. I was intrigued by the smell of toasty bread and downtown pollution. It was lunchtime and I was hungry.

The food truck theme is based off the Peter Fonda American road movie Easy Rider. There's  a  giant cartoon motorcycle rider pasted on both sides of the truck. "Motorcycle riders love it. They park their bikes next to it and take  pictures," says 26 year-old Cheesy Rider co-owner and executive chef Robert Bruce. Bruce is a tall, dark and young culinary student at the Art institute. "We have only been around four months," Bruce said. Sean Scott, Chessy Rider co-owner, is a semi-retired financial adviser that had aspirations to go to culinary school, but that was until he tasted Robert's cooking. "I met Robert at a business event and I really liked his food. Both of us were looking for a change of pace so we went in to business together," Scott said.

There's word that a new drinking and eating spot is setting up shop in a spot at Broadway Village, the ages-old shopping center that has taken up the corner of Broadway and Country Club since 1939.

A liquor license application has been filed for the place under the name Sidecar Bar and Lounge. A representative for Commercial Retail Advisors, which handles the business of renting out the numerous spots at Broadway Village, also confirmed the opening, saying the doors of the new lounge should be open in early 2014.

In other news at Broadway Village, Cashew Cow is opening a retail location there. I contacted owner Jeremy Shockley today and he says his little and very interesting ice cream shop should be open sometime next spring.

Shockley was at some sort of an ice cream science class in Las Vegas when I got in touch with him, so suffice it to say that this man means business. Details to come but for now he says his "indulgently healthy" gourmet ice cream is of an ilk otherwise unknown to the Old Pueblo.

Longtime Republican political operative Emil Franzi takes aim at Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller in his new Inside Tucson Business column:

Since her election, Miller has combined the delusions of Moore and the cluelessness of Marsh without the personal charm of either. She seems driven by a pathological dislike of fellow GOP Supervisor Ray Carroll. She and her staff isolate themselves behind locked doors and rarely talk to anyone. What she tells people is often false and even bizarre. Paranoia lurks.

Miller attacked Democratic Supervisor Richard Elias for traveling to Israel “at the county taxpayer’s expense.” It was an American-Israeli Political Action Committee trip paid for by them. That erroneous cheap shot at Elias also insulted AIPAC.

Miller keeps claiming that Supervisor Ray Carroll voted against her budget study sessions even though the official record indicates the vote was 3-2. Carroll - who has a long record of supporting fellow Republicans from Congressman Matt Salmon to former county assessor candidate Bill Heuisler - even co-hosted a fund-raiser for Miller.

Miller has aligned herself with some of the scurvier elements of the local GOP and several bottom-feeding talk show hosts. She was flanked at a recent appearance for Quail Creek Republicans with Carroll’s defeated opponent from the 2012 GOP Primary, Sean Collins, and former State Rep. Randy Graf who mouthpieced for Collins during one of the sleaziest political campaigns in local history.

A major connection between these folks is a scuzzy online hate sheet, the Arizona Daily Independent. They smeared Carroll with phony “corruption” stories but failed to produce any evidence claiming their “source” feared retaliation. Miller has done the same with claims of “corruption” in county contracts and attacked Huckelberry — again, with no evidence. As with Carroll, several talk gypsies chimed in, including 104.1’s J.T. Harris.

Harris, who hasn’t been here long enough to pronounce “La Canada,” is a self-appointed arbiter of local Republican purity. Besides Carroll, he’s trashed Congressional candidate Martha McSally, GOP National Committeeman Bruce Ash, and former State Sen. Frank Antenori. He regularly quotes from the ADI apparently unaware that its material, when not imagined, is plagiarized from genuine news sources like the Yellow Sheet of the Arizona Capitol Times. Harris uses ADI publisher Loretta Hunnicutt as a regular source and guest as he does Supervisor Miller.

Now, this is a story all about how Will Smith, Jazzy Jeff and Alfonso Ribeiro (AKA Carlton) reunited for a special moment on the UK’s Graham Norton Show. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air aired its final episode 17 years ago this week. The video starts off with Will and Jaden doing some freestyle, and then Will brings out Jazzy Jeff from the shadows. Literally. Will performs a nostalgic Fresh Prince of Bel-Air sing along (I'm surprised I still remember the words) then Riberio jumps in and everyone starts doing the "Carlton." 

This video makes me want to go to Bookmans and buy the entire Fresh Prince DVD collection because I don't have Netflix.The best part is when the camera pans over to Heather Graham and Bradley Cooper awkwardly dancing in the background. I can't wait to see their moves in American Hustle.

Congressman Raul Grijalva joined 27 other Democrats to urge President Barack Obama to expand the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to all undocumented immigrants now in the United States.

Obama established the DACA program, which allows potential DREAM Act kids to be safe from prosecution and deportation, last year. But in a November speech at a fundraiser, he dismissed the idea of expanding the program in response to a heckler who demanded he stop deporting undocumented immigrants.

"What you need to know, when I'm speaking as president of the United States and I come to this community, is that if in fact I could solve all of these problems without passing laws in Congress, then I would do so," Obama said. "But we're also a nation of laws. That's part of our tradition. … So the easy way out is to try to yell and pretend like I can do something by violating our laws. What I'm proposing is the harder path, which is to use our democratic process to achieve the same goal that you want to achieve. But it won't be as easy as just shouting. It requires us lobbying and getting it done."

In a letter to Obama, Grijalva and his fellow Democrats said they "cannot continue to witness potential citizens in our districts go through the anguish of deportation when legalization could be just around the corner for them. We look to you to firmly contribute to advancing inclusion for immigrants by suspending deportations and expanding DACA."

"Every deportation of a father, a sister, or a neighbor tears at our social consciousness; every unnecessary raid and detention seriously threatens the fabric of civil liberties we swore to uphold," the letter reads. "We are talking about American families and American communities. Criminalizing American families or giving local law enforcement the responsibility to choose who stays and who goes, is not the right option.”

Here's a last minute date night idea. 


You should check out John Kander and Fred Ebb's CABARET preview performance at The Temple of Music & Art, 330 S. Scott Avenue.

At the dawn of the 1930s in Berlin, the Nazi party quietly grows stronger. Set in the seedy underbelly of the infamous Kit Kat Klub, CABARET revolves around 19-year-old English cabaret performer Sally Bowles and her relationship with a young American writer. A sub-plot involves a doomed romance between German boarding house owner Fräulein Schneider and her elderly suitor Herr Schultz, a Jewish fruit vendor. Overseeing the action is the enigmatic Master of Ceremonies, who serves asa constant metaphor for the tenuous state of late Weimar Germany.

The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are only $18 or there's a cash bar open during Pre-Show and Intermission. You're probably reading this and saying, "Hey Henry! I'm reading this after the fact. You should have told me sooner." Don't worry because this awesome show is playing through December 22!

Click here to buy your tickets and check out future showtimes.

It's the 80th anniversary of the Repeal of Prohibition today, honoring the end of one of the more absurd moments in American history when an amendment was added to the Constitution to try to keep people from doing something they were going to do regardless of its legality. But hey, it brought us the premise for Boardwalk Empire, which keeps Steve Buscemi employed, so that's something.

If you're looking to celebrate your freedom to get a drink, here is a likely incomplete list of local options (feel free to let us know if your local watering hole has something planned; we'll add it to the list):

Sky Bar is having a party, complete with "Roaring 20's drink specials" and music from Sunny Italy.

Saint House is offering a $6 special on a drink called the "Florita #3," named after the Miami bar that might have invented the daiquiri. Made with Ron Matusalem Rum, Luxardo Maraschino, grapefruit juice, lime juice, then shaken and strained, I want one now.

Scott & Co. is offering a $6 special on their take on the Sazerac. Sometimes considered the first cocktail and invented in New Orleans, their Sazerac contains rye whiskey, brandy, Demerara sugar, and Peychaud's bitters stirred and strained into rocks glass neat with an absinthe rinse. This also sounds affordably delicious.

Nelson Mandela, world humanitarian and former South African President, has died. The news came from South African President Jacob Zuma during a press conference late Thursday. 

"He is now resting. He is now at peace," Zuma said.

"Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father."

"What made Nelson Mandela great was precisely what made him human," the president said in his late-night address. "We saw in him what we seek in ourselves."

The revolutionary died peacefully in his home in the Johannesburg suburb of Houghton. He was 95.



(via CNN)

Okay, One Direction, we get it: you're coming to University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale next year (Sept. 16, to be exact). But did you really need to drag our professional football franchise down into the muck with you?

I'm just glad no member of the Arizona Cardinals currently wears jersey No. 1, or else they'd never be able to live this down.

I walk in to the Buffet and there's already 15 men slouching at the bar. The joint smells like hot dogs and day old whiskey breath. The jukebox is streaming Walking on The Moon by The Police. I take the closest available wobbly bar stool and order my first drink at 10:30 a.m. Day drinking and writing go hand in hand like riding a scooter without a helmet.


The bartender is easy on the eyes and friendlier than a pissed off hedgehog. She tells me her name is Cindy Clark. Clark is a native Tucsonan and loves to travel. One of the reasons she works at the Buffet is because she's always welcomed back to work as long as her shifts are covered while she's gone. Clark said she went to Boston, Nantucket, Mexico, Seattle and Portland this past year. "Have you ever been to Hotel Jupiter? It's the shit," Clark shouts. During our conversation she switches from wearing a black baseball cap that reads Brooklyn in gold letters to another all black furry Russian style hat. One of the day drinkers yells, "You can serve fucking vodka in that hat!" The entire bar, including Cindy, erupts in laughter. Everyone starts doing bad Russian impressions, and then the room gets awkwardly quiet for a little while. Even the jukebox stops playing music.


Then a voluptuous Hispanic woman walks in and everyone knows her name, but me of course. Cindy introduces me to Aurora. They compare outfits and start swapping stories accompanied with pictures and videos. "All the bartenders here are friends and we all hang (at the Buffet)," Clark says. Aurora has been working for the bar for over two years and loves what she does. She's another traveler and former Army war veteran. Aurora was born in Tucson and moved to the Midwest, back to Tucson, and then Las Vegas and has been back for the last two years. The war veteran works the Sunday, Tuesday and Saturday morning shifts. "We get a diverse crowd like the trauma nurses from UMC, firefighters and fourth avenue bartenders. There are a lot of older men from the gay community that wander in here on Sundays. They are so much fun," Aurora says.