A friend who is quite the coffee nut says Blue Bottle Coffee from San Francisco is some of the best, and after reading up on the company, I believe him.

The company's story—small microroastery claws way to fame—exactly the sort of success story I hope to watch our own little microroastery Cafe Aqui pull off, once the world discovers how amazing their coffee is.

But I digress ... Ari Shapiro dropped us an e-mail last week to announce that his up-and-coming shop Sparkroot—which is still under construction on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Congress Street—will be the first place in Arizona to carry Blue Bottle Coffee.

Sparkroot will specialize in high-end coffees, a little bit of booze and simple sandwiches made with quality ingredients, and will have a very cool elevated dining area overlooking Congress Street, when it opens later this year.

OM Modern Asian Kitchen is doing something different for an upcoming wine dinner: You choose the wines, and the restaurant’s culinary team pairs your choices with surprise entrées.

I don’t have to understand the motivation behind this role-reversal to appreciate its innovative nature, and it sounds sort of fun. My first thought was that such an event would feel a lot like a blind date—but with fewer awkward moments.

The list of wines to be featured at the dinner is posted below. It takes place Wednesday, May 4, and space is limited. Call 299-7815 to RSVP.

In some of the worst dining news to come across this desk in awhile, Something Sweet Dessert Lounge announced this weekend that it will be closing at the end of the month.

The dessert lounge — which opened in 2003 and went on to sweep the Best of Tucson® Best Desserts category from 2004 on — depressed an army of desert dessert lovers with this entry on its Facebook page late Friday evening:

We are very sorry to announce that Something Sweet will be closing for good at the end of April. The economy has finally taken its toll. Its been a blast and we will miss you all. Come in this week and get your chocolate and sugar fix and help us go out in style.

This is a total drag. You rocked it Something Sweet, and will be sorely missed.

Plush is a great place to dance, drink and get down in general—and now they serve food, too.

It’s the smallest of menus: Several panini, a cheese plate, olives and other things that might go nicely with a drink or two.

They also open earlier now, around 11 a.m., and serve coffee, according to the nice gentleman working yesterday afternoon.

Leila Lopez and Sunday Afternoon (in their farewell show) are playing tonight. More information over yonder.

I can’t wait to put “quinoa” over a triple-word-score space on the new Scrabble: Cooking Edition. The twist is that players get bonus points for laying down food-related words and names of celebrity chefs.

Allowing the use of chef’s names is a clear violation of the rule prohibiting the use of proper nouns, but who cares?

This is quite possibly the only board game I’ve considered buying in more than a decade, and I see some serious Scrabble-athons on the horizon.

Vila Thai Cuisine will serve its last meal at 972 E. University Blvd. today, Friday, April 22, but it will reopen Sunday as V Fine Thai Dining in its new location on the corner of Stone Avenue and Congress Street.

A recorded message on the restaurant’s telephone says Vila Thai Cuisine will be open today from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., and 5 to 9 p.m. The new downtown location opens at 3 p.m., Sunday. After it opens, you can call 882-8143 for reservations and information.

We haven’t been able to get in touch with owner Vila Jarrell yet, but we’ll keep trying and post any updates that emerge. The new location does have a much larger kitchen, and there’s been word that the menu will be a bit larger than what one finds at the original location.

There’s more information over here.

We've had two world records set in Tucson in recent times. First, Tucson's own Shlomo and Vito's New York Delicatessan broke the world record for the biggest matzo ball. And about two weeks ago, Albert Hall of Acacia and Frankie Santos from Frankie's South Philly Cheesesteaks set the record for the world's longest cheesesteak. Check out the pictures.

The initial buzz was that this thing would stretch more than 1,000 feet, but it ended up clocking in at 426 feet after an entire day of constructing it in the hot sun on the UA Mall.

I was going to post about this when it happened a few weeks back, but one look at this vat of cheese sauce left me with such a bout of nausea that I tried to block the entire thing from memory.

A whole bunch of local restaurants, including Feast, Kingfisher and Vero Amore, are donating up to 20 percent of their profits tonight to the Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault as part of Dine Out For Safety night. Get the full list, and more details, here.

A cupcake shop called 2 Cupcakes has opened inside Melt: A Sandwich Shop at 5056 E. Broadway Blvd. Cupcakes are currently available from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

I first heard of this outfit several months ago when I considered taking one of their cupcake-decorating classes, only to find out that they were booked up for months. You can find more information about those classes and more here and here.

Taco Bell has settled the suit over whatever they put in those tacos, but only after changes to their marketing and product disclosure.

I find it suspicious that the company couldn't just have a laboratory look at a taco and say, "This is beef." This fact will not slow me down at the drive-through, but it is weird.

From FoodBusinessNews.net:

IRVINE, CALIF. — Taco Bell said Montgomery, Ala.-based Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C. law firm voluntarily has withdrawn its class action lawsuit against the company. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court Central District of California Southern Division, called into question the filling Taco Bell uses in its tacos. The lawsuit claimed the filling does not meet the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s standard to be labeled or advertised as beef.

Taco Bell, which is a division of Louisville, Ky.-based Yum! Brands, Inc. said no money or other value was exchanged between the parties, and Taco Bell is not making any changes to its products or advertising.

“This sets the record straight about the high quality of our seasoned beef and the integrity of our advertising,” said Greg Creed, chief executive officer, Taco Bell. “We are extremely proud of our food quality. We took great exception to the false claims made about our seasoned beef and wish the attorneys had contacted us before filing and publicizing a lawsuit that disparaged our brand. We hope the voluntary withdrawal of this lawsuit receives as much public attention as when it was filed so we may put the matter behind us and fully concentrate on serving our customers.”

Dee Miles of Beasley Allen said the law firm withdrew the lawsuit after Taco Bell made changes to its marketing and product disclosure.

“We accepted Taco Bell’s invitation to confer with company representatives and share information and ideas about the issues in the case,” Mr. Miles said. “As a result of the lawsuit, changes in marketing and product disclosure were made by the company, allowing us to dismiss the case.”

In response to the lawsuit, Taco Bell took out full-page ads in at least nine major newspapers, aired television spots and launched a YouTube campaign to proclaim its taco filling is 88% beef.