I hear that Cartel Coffee Lab at 2502 N. Campbell Ave. is expanding into a full-service restaurant. An employee said yesterday that the place could be serving food sometime before the end of the year.

I love Cartel Coffee Lab - which by the way, is a fantastic name - and anticipate great things once it starts offering food. A quick internet search also shows that the owners have applied for a liquor license. Good times.

We spoke with George Markou of the local The Fat Greek restaurants this afternoon and he says patrons can now bring their own beer to the restaurant at 944 E. University Blvd.

Markou says he will, of course, be carding those who arrive with beer in tow to make sure they’re of age, but that he encourages patrons to “come in, kick back and enjoy themselves.”

“I used to have a full liquor license but I dropped it because of all the other bars in the area,” said Markou. “When I watch the UA games I like to have my rum-and-coke, so I figured it would be nice for people to watch the game here and have their beer, because we’re right here on the corner across from the university.”

Visitors will have to order food to partake. There’s more information on the restaurant over yonder.

A new LGBT bar called New Moon Tucson has opened in the former Pulse Tucson location at 915 W. Prince Road.

Han Nguyen, the bartender on shift this afternoon, tells us the New Moon is owned and operated by the former owners of the Coyote Moon Pub, which closed a while back and reopened as Pulse Tucson.

Happy hour happens from 4 to 8 p.m., every day but Monday, when the bar takes a day off, with $2 wells, $2 domestic bottles and pints and $2 New Moon shots made from Malibu Rum, Island Punch Pucker and simple syrup.

They’ve also got a nice selection of bar eats ranging from chicken strips to green-chile-topped hamburgers, as well as drag shows and all sorts of other entertainment throughout the week.

The bar will also be the host of the International LGBT Film Festival when it arrives in Tucson in February, says Nguyen.

There’s more information over here.

Brushfire BBQ at 2745 N. Campbell Ave. now serves beer, making one of Tucson’s favorite barbeque destinations just that much better.

Work is still underway on the second location on the corner of 22nd Street and Kolb Road, although the opening inches ever closer. Keep up on the progress of that over yonder.

The building that once housed the Rhino Pub has been repainted and revamped to make way for a new sports bar and restaurant called Knock Outs Round One Sports Bar and Grill.

Owner Nubia Bernal said today that work on the new joint at 1118 E. Sixth St. is more or less complete, and that the soft opening should take place tomorrow. She expects the grand opening to take place next week.

The name sort of gives it away, but there will be an emphasis on boxing and mixed-martial arts at Knock Outs Round One, although they’ll also be showing NFL, NBA and UA games.

“This place has a complete new identity,” Bernal said. “We are across the street from the UA, and will be catering to that crowd, but we’re also setting it up as a place where people can watch sports with their families.”

For food: Think steaks, hotwings, burgers and other American fare. Bernal also said the ribs she’ll be serving will go toe-to-toe with those served at any barbeque place in town. It sounds relatively affordable as well, with nothing on the menu more than $14.

Some like to act like gender equality is here and now, but we’re not there yet. Despite a lot of improvement, women still make less and deal with more hurdles to success and recognition than the average man.

How do I know this? Because nobody needs to hold a man-themed cooking competition or wine-tasting to shine more light on the accomplishments of men, yet the same is not true when it comes to women-themed events of the same ilk. We need to do a better job of celebrating women. Here are a couple of ways to start:

CataVinos holds tastings called “Women’s Equality Wines” from 4 to 8 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 25, through Saturday, Aug. 27. The featured wines are all created by women, and come from around the world. You get to taste six of them for $10, or $8 if you buy $10 worth of wine. Buy a case of wine and the tasting is free. More on that over here.

You’ll also want to mark your calendar for the upcoming Sizzling Women: The Female Chefs of Tucson event on Sunday, Nov. 13. It’s at the University Marriott and some of the top female chefs in town are participating.

We spoke yesterday with one of the participants, the new executive pastry chef at Loews Ventana Canyon, and can tell you that it will be worth going just to try the unbelievable sweets she creates. It’s also a fundraiser for up-and-coming culinary arts students. There’s more on that event over here.

Sure, National Duck Out For A Drink Day is a made up holiday, but aren't they all, in a way? It's nearly the end of a summer that hasn't really been good for anyone that I know of, so any excuse to grab a drink is a good one. I personally won't be participating, because doing so would be a violation of the company Code of Conduct, but I full endorse the responsible celebration of the occasion.

[The Awl]

Wilko, the restaurant down by the UA that Rita Connelly seemed to enjoy when she reviewed it last week, is adding a cocktail bar that could be serving drinks as early as this weekend.

Jonathan Zucchi, general manager for the restaurant, says the renovations that include installing the cocktail bar are almost complete. Cocktails should be available this weekend, and the full cocktail program will be in place by the following weekend.

Zucchi says the restaurant has worked closely with the folks down at the Red Room to shape the program. If you’ve been to the Red Room, you understand what a smart move that was. They really focus on quality, and it shows in both the consistency and the quality of the drinks made there.

Wilko’s cocktails will focus on classic recipes, although Zucchi says they might play with infusing their own liquors and making their own bitters as well.

One woman's attempt to steal some bacon to buy more lager gets her in The Sun and an unfortunate title:

A SHOPLIFTING mum downs up to 28 pints of lager in a single day, a court heard.

Dawn Marsden, 31, drinks so much she should be dead, experts said.

She was wrecked as she appeared on a theft charge and had to ask reporters later what her sentence was.

Jobless Marsden spends all day drinking cheap lager at home in Hartlepool, Teesside, and steals to fund her habit. The charge related to ten packs of bacon stolen from a Co-op and sold for £1 each.

Her solicitor John Relton told the town's magistrates: "You may have noticed my client has a drink problem. She will drink up to 16 litres a day. She has a long-standing appetite for alcohol."

Her two-year-old daughter was taken into foster care because of her boozing, the court heard. Marsden, who has a string of previous convictions for theft, admitted the new charge and was handed a six-month conditional discharge.

She then turned to a reporter to check the sentence, before branding it a "sham" and walking out.

Watch out, this could end up being a reality competition shortly. A sad one, with a lot of vomiting, but that hasn't stopped TV networks before.

Two-day-old Downtown coffee shop Sparkroot posted the Commodores ad for Schlitz seen above on their Facebook page this morning, and while it's definitely a great ad, I couldn't help but think that there might be better music themed ads for alcoholic beverages out there. My vote, the "showdown" ads for Schlitz's malt liquor line, available below the cut.