A new restaurant and microbrewery is opening on the corner of Limberlost Drive and Oracle Road.

Owner Hal Burns says he hopes to have Jalopy’s Grillville and Brewery open in October. The first batches of beer should be available around the end of the year.

Burns says he and his brew master are both “home-brewers turned microbrewers.” They’ll be brewing batches that range in size from 55 to 100 gallons, with three or four brews in regular production and new flavors coming on line as inspiration strikes.

“We’re going to keep shuffling the cards to come up with all sorts of recipes,” said Burns.

The restaurant will serve pizza, burgers and sandwiches. Burns also hopes to offer delivery of both pizza and beer, although he’s still working out the details.

• Chef Owens' olive-oil cake was a hit at the now-defunct Ventana Room.

Krista Owens remembers the first time she saw baked Alaska blazing away in her childhood dining room. One could say that flaming dessert sparked a passion for pastry that grew and grew, eventually culminating in her current position as the new executive pastry chef for Loews Ventana Canyon resort.

Owens — who once made desserts for the now-defunct Ventana Room — is a straight-talker who throws down 80-hour work weeks without blinking. She’s that kind of chef, the kind who would “rather make 10 pans of brownies than waste two hours on my computer.” It appears to pay off. Her desserts are amazing, and people are crazy about them.

Consider the homemade ice cream, sorbet and gelato she’s churning out. The flavors change regularly, but recently she’s been making versions with Ibarra chocolate; Queen Creek olive oil and blueberries; and prickly pears harvested from the resort grounds. She also makes a banana-bread ice cream she uses for banana splits.

About those banana splits...

There’s a new menu down at Medusa Kabob House, the restaurant that’s brought Mediterranean fare to the old Casbah Tea House spot at 628 N. Fourth Ave.

Owner Ashur Davoudikia says he now offers a lamb-and-beef kabob, which he says are a bit more tender and flavorful than the straight-out beef kabobs he sells. There are chicken kabobs, too, as well as kabobs made with a combination of diced chicken and falafel.

Gyros and daily specials have also been added to the menu board. Today the special was a Greek casserole made with lamb, beef, egg, mushrooms, tomatoes and a grip of spices.

“Now we are making everything in house. Well, everything but the bread, and I’m working on getting the equipment for that,” said Davoudikia.

Call 647-2333 for more information.

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.

Which is why I’m suggesting you take a few minutes of your day to cast a vote to get the truck named America’s Favorite Food Truck. It’s a long shot - it's currently at number 141 - but let’s give a little love for the only Tucson food truck in the competition. You can cast your vote over here.

You can vote 10 times a day, and voting continues through Monday, Sept. 12. You know what to do.

Maybe government officials think I’m joking when I say this state needs an official state food. Maybe that’s why they won’t respond to my e-mails, or, when they do, they say the message has been forwarded and I never hear from them again.

It’s almost like this state — which even has an official neckwear, the bola tie — doesn’t want an official food, which could shine a positive light on the many agricultural products we produce. The way our politicians waste time you’d think they could stop and do just a little something to help Arizona’s image, but I guess they’re too busy designating an official state gun to bother with that.

But I’m not giving up. I have contacted the Arizona Beef Council for guidance and am awaiting a response.

I will not rest until Arizona has an official state food. That is all.

(One slight consolation is that now when you try to Google Arizona's state food, this story is the fifth result. I wouldn't exactly call that progress, but it's a start.)

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.

Café Desta, the Ethiopian eatery at 758 S. Stone Ave., will soon be roasting its own coffee.

Telahoun Molla tells us the roaster is already in place and that he hopes to be turning out fair-trade coffee imported from Ethiopia by December. The coffee will be available by the cup and by the bag.

“We’re working to get various coffees from Ethiopia, and trying to make sure it's fair-trade so the farmers are benefitting from this business, too,” Molla said this morning.

Molla said a room adjacent to the restaurant will hold the coffee business and a small café-style seating area.

This will be the second coffee-roasting business in that area. Café Aqui, a microroastery that sells bulk coffee and supplies several local restaurants, is located right down the street at 1317 S. Sixth Ave.

• People line up for Shaka Shave Ice.

Shaka Shave Ice is a food trailer that parks outside of Lee Lee Oriental Supermart at 1990 W. Orange Grove Road, and if you like cold, delicious things you should go there. Owners Lynn and Jeff Bronaugh do interesting things with shave ice, and people drive from as far as Avra Valley just for a taste of it.

I’ve become somewhat of a shave ice nut since trying it for the first time this year, and Shaka’s is a cut above the rest. Lynn Bronaugh says it’s the surgically sharp ice-shaving blade that makes the difference. Jeff Bronaugh says it’s the fact that Lynn mixes her own syrups.

I say it’s all of that, and the infectious happiness that flows out of that trailer, right alongside a veritable blizzard of uniquely flavored shave ice. It also helps that the food trailer takes its inspiration from traditional shave ice shacks in Hawaii, where the Bronaughs lived before moving to Tucson to be closer to their daughter and grandson.

Take, for instance, the mocha shave ice: Kona coffee, sweetened condensed milk and chocolate syrup on top of a bowl of the finest snow you’ve ever seen. Or consider that the Bronaughs will mix in real mochi balls they brought back from a recent trip to Hawaii. Adzuki beans — a sweetened Japanese red bean — and gummy bears can be added as well.

Plus, the Bronaughs just know how to make a person feel good, whether it’s with 27 flavors of shave ice — which can also be mix-and-matched into a thousand different combinations— or their obvious adoration for both their patrons and each other. Spending weekends working in a tiny trailer might get to some couples, but not the Bronaughs.

“You want to know what makes this place special?” Jeff Bronaugh says, pointing to his wife and smiling broadly. “This lady right here. She’s what makes it special.”

Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and this coming Saturday and Sunday is Shaka Shave Ice’s last weekend of the season. They’ll also be out at the Festival Norteño at Casino del Sol on Saturday, Sept. 3. There’s more information over here.

• Mocha shave ice? Yes, please.

• The happy Bronaugh family.

When I hear concerns over the local barbecue situation my mind often drifts to Bubb’s Grub in Catalina. The place serves some really good barbecue, and the menu is enormous. Rita Connelly, the Tucson Weekly’s awesome restaurant reviewer, also gave it the thumbs-up when she reviewed it back in 2005.

We made the drive up there just the other day and had a killer meal. From the samples of prime rib offered by the waitress to the smoky chicken, it was all tender and delicious. The gigantic portions and margaritas didn’t hurt, either.

The waitress told us her relaxing summer is about over and that she was already bracing herself for the return of the retirees to the nearby Saddlebrooke community, when business jumps to lines-out-the-door busy. She said the Wisconsin fish frys on Fridays — the owner is from Wisconsin and special orders his walleye and other fish from his home state — are especially busy.

There’s more information about the restaurant over here.

• The brisket sandwich rocks the party.