If you're already pining for the weekend, you can consider getting it all started a little early on Thursday when Tap & Bottle offers up the ultimate triple threat: free local music, a ramen food truck and an encyclopedic stock of craft beer.

Starting at 5 p.m., Fat Noodle food truck will be slinging bowls of slurpable noodley goodness and maybe even a ramen burger or two out in front of Tap & Bottle. Then at 8:30 p.m. on the inside of the beer and wine bar, you can catch Tucson's electro indie band with alt country tendencies Golden Boots.


Of course, you'll have your pick of Tap & Bottle brews, including, maybe if you're lucky, a pint of Ten Fifty-Five's re-released Sugar Skull stout or some of the super rare Arizona Wilderness beer that was tapped on Saturday. If those kegs run dry before Thursday, Feb. 26, they'll have something else tasty to sip when you start your (early) weekend off right at 403 N. 6th Ave.

A big plastic banner outside of an empty storefront read "Indian Frybread Coming Soon" on the corner of St. Mary's Road and Grande Avenue. Well, that soon is now because Manna from Heaven is finally open and slinging up frybread, burritos, dorado tacos and more.

The small stand is clean, modest and very welcoming, with about ten seats inside and several more seats on the detached back patio. The menu lists frybread options including plain ($3), honey and powdered sugar topped ($4), green chile ($8.50), red chile ($8.50), beans ($4) and Navajo taco-style ($6) with beans, lettuce, tomato and cheese. There's also fried tacos filled with beef and green or red chile burritos, along with red and white menudo in a range of sizes, including the exciting and a little intimidating gallon size for $15.99. That's a lot of menudo.

Since the menudo was only available Friday and Saturday, I ordered a green chile frybread with beans, cheese and lettuce. As you wait in line at the small restaurant, you can peer into the kitchen via the pass through window next to the register and see the frybread being made. Although, once ordered, my frybread totaled to about $10 with the add-ons, it was clear when it came to my table that I was getting my money's worth. The frybread itself is about eight inches in circumference and piled with your chosen toppings. 

While the green chile was flavorful and salty, the frybread itself really stole the show. Whether you're religious, the name Manna from Heaven seems fitting to describe these little fried miracles because they're so puffy and airy, you can't help but compare them to clouds—except, you know, they're delicious. 

As far as drinks are concerned, bottles of soda are available, but that's about it. However, the only thing you really need on the side of your frybread is the house salsa, which comes deceptively hidden in ketchup bottles. Don't be fooled: it isn't ketchup at all, but rather bright, fresh and spicy salsa that adds life to the heaviness of the frybread's toppings. Okay, maybe you should bring some water if you're not a soda drinker, but you get my point. 

Manna from Heaven is now open Mondays through Thursdays from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. at 1118 West St. Marys Road.

Cooking for yourself at home can save you cash and it can also be a good outlet for your culinary creative energy. However, by the end of the meal, there's a good chance you've built up a small pile of odds and ends off of veggies, fruits and more. Unless you're an avid gardener and already have your own compost situation figured out, this food waste probably just gets thrown in the trash. Shannon Sartin calls this "compost guilt"—but you don't have to feel it anymore.

Sartin looked at her recycle bin and she looked at her garbage can. She knew composting the food was the way to go, but didn't want to have her own compost pile in her backyard. So, she enlisted her sister Moira's help to start a food waste pick up service called Scraps on Scraps.

Just one year in, Sartin's service boasts over 100 users all over Tucson with an estimated 35,000 pounds of food waste given to the Community Food Bank's farm Las Milpitas to turn into very usable compost, which in turn helps grow nutritious food for people who have limited access to it normally. Sartin says, in this way, she's lending a hand in the "redistribution of food wealth" from the astronomical amount of food wasted in this country alone every year to the people that truly need it. 

"It's about closing gap of what we're wasting and what we can give back out," Sartin says. "We need to change and shift the way that we look at food insecurity."

For users of Sartin's unique service, the process is fairly simple. Drop-off customers can go to either St. Philip's Plaza Farmers Market on Sunday or the farmers market at Mercado San Agustin on Thursday to exchange full buckets for empty ones at the Scraps on Scraps table for $7 per month. For $13 per month, users can opt for bi-weekly home pick ups. The goal was to make the service easy and flexible for everyone.

"It's an extra step but its not like something you have to mentally be like 'oh man, I have to do this,'" she says. "I maybe put out my garbage once per month now."


Sartin, who lives with her daughter, says leaving this example for her child is important. 

"Conscious consumerism is the driving base of the movement we're in right now. It's about who you're supporting and why," she says. "I want my daughter to know and be conscious of where what she's getting comes from."

It hasn't all been easy though. For starters, Sartin and her sister have never run a business before.

"I thought, 'I'm not writing a business plan cause I think business plans are bullshit.' Let's just buy some buckets," she says. "When it comes down to solving a problem, it's on me. It's been so unbelievably rewarding—and challenging."

Now she works full time and her sister goes to school full time, meaning work on Scraps on Scraps happens after hours, despite the fact that neither of them get paid for the work they do. Aside from time, the sheer issue of the bucket they would used was a challenge in itself, though they eventually found one that sealed so users of their service could keep the bucket in their kitchens without a rotting food smell. With many of the initial kinks worked out, Sartin is looking to expand to commercial customers and go into lower income neighborhoods, ideally packaging the business concept into something that could be done in any city anywhere.

In the end, Sartin's main goal is simple: "Waste less, use more, and compost what you don't."

It's time to say goodbye to the Chef's Kitchen food truck. Chef Chris Cryderman has been in the culinary game for over 40 years, though his solar-powered food truck has only been on the Tucson streets for two and a half years. Cryderman opened the truck as a fun supplemental project to his catering business with his son, who is also a chef, but is now ready to retire the truck.

Chef's Kitchen has been a favorite at Tap & Bottle's brunch events for nearly two years. However, Cryderman says after his son got a job off the truck at Loews Ventana Canyon, running the truck on his own became too taxing. 

"I'm too old to be working that hard," Cryderman says. "People think you just open up a food truck and make a ton of money and that isn’t the case. It's hard work."

Although Chef's Kitchen's truck found a welcoming audience at beer-centric locales like Tap & Bottle, Ten Fifty-Five and Dragoon, he says his truck didn't really take off at other food truck events. 

"There are a lot of food trucks in this town. We don’t do Sonoran dogs and tacos," he says. "We've done $14 lobster rolls full of real tail and claw meat—People didn’t want to eat that stuff off of a truck."

Cryderman says he still will do catering events for Chef's Kitchen, but eliminating the truck means he'll have more time to relax and take trips with his wife. He says he enjoyed the experience running a food truck with his son while it lasted and made some close friends in town along the way.

"Its sad. Tap & Bottle became like family to me," Cryderman says.

You can help send off the Chef's Kitchen food truck with a bang this Sunday, Feb. 22 at Tap & Bottle from 12 until 3 p.m. Cryderman says the menu will include his most popular brunch offerings such as a lobster omelet, French toast with a Grand Marnier cream sauce, and the Pig and chick—a biscuit sandwich filled with fried chicken topped with sausage and bacon gravy that Cryderman calls a "heart attack waiting to happen." The menu will also include some lighter seasonal options and his special bloody mary mix will be at the bar inside to make micheladas. 

Hopefully you haven't beered yourself out yet because one of Tucson's best beer week events is happening this weekend. The first ever Tucson Craft Beer Crawl will take brew enthusiasts to seven different spots around downtown to taste their way through specialty releases from over a dozen different breweries around the state.

Here are some of the rare beers you can expect to find on your drinking excursion:

• Ten Fifty-Five's AK Saison: a collaboration with Ryan Clark from Augustin Kitchen that uses calamondin fruit harvested from the tree in the middle of the Mercado San Augustin.
• Two new releases from Sonoran including PNK PPRCRN & FNL SAISON (Pink Peppercorn & Fennel Saison) and SMTH RBL DIPA (Smooth Rebel Double IPA).
• Borderlands' Scotchy, Scotch Scotch Ale collaboration with Grand Canyon Brewing and the re-release of the popular Horchata Cream Ale. Grand Canyon also has another collab release for the event—a DIPA made with Simcoe hops called Deep in the Green.
• Pueblo Vida's Belgian Golden Strong Ale: a complex ale with notes of pear, apples, oranges and a peppery spice. 
• Old Bisbee Brewing Co.'s brand new Holy Grail Indigenous IPA which uses wild hops picked from a unique area in the mountains close to the brewery. 
• Dragoon's Double Red IPA, which was brewed specially for Arizona Beer Week.
  
  

You can try all of those and more as you walk around at your leisure hitting up venues including Tap & Bottle, Hotel Congress, R Bar, Thunder Canyon Brewery, Playground, Pueblo Vida and Borderlands. There you'll use your 20 tasting tickets by filling up a commemorative five-ounce tasting cup over and over again. I might be a writer, but I'm pretty sure that amounts to 100 ounces of beer—good thing everyone is walking, right?

You can buy your tickets via the Beer Crawl's website for $38 in advance or $45 at the event. Then, on Saturday, Feb. 21 you can pick up your map, glass and tickets at Connect Coworking, located at 33 South Fifth Ave, and head on your merry beer-loving way. The event runs from 12 p.m. until 4 p.m. and a portion of the proceeds go to Watershed Management Group.

Although Cafe Passe has hosted some great concerts in the last couple years, the time to see live music at the Fourth Avenue cafe is nearly over. In the past, the spot has given everyone from jazz acts to country crooners to local indie bands a place to play, but now, according to a Facebook post on Friday, Feb. 13, Cafe Passe has decided to step out of the live music game to focus on their food and drink offerings.

"We've been wearing many hats over the last number of years and i [sic] feel it's time to focus on one, nice, well fitted hat instead," the post said.

It continued by saying that Cafe Passe will go back to fulfilling the spot's original mission: "make good food and good coffee." To that point, it says to expect a new menu, with beer, wine and, of course, coffee still included. Baked goods, breakfast, brunch and lunch will be served during the updated hours, which will cut out late nights and change to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. 

The last night for live music at Cafe Passe will be on Friday, Feb. 20 from 6 to 8 p.m. with Celeste Amadee performing. The post said that with all of the venues in Tucson promoting local music, the owners feel confident that the cafe no longer needs to operate in that capacity.

"There are so many awesome new venues with local music and they're doing a fantastic job," it said. "We want to do a fantastic job doing what we've set out to do 9 years ago."

To stay up to date with Cafe Passe's changes, follow the restaurant and coffee shop's Facebook page.

UPDATE: Cafe Passe will have some live music at their monthly Words on the Avenue event on the last Sunday of every month from 7 until 10 p.m.

Editor's Note: This post has been updated to reflect the new date for Celeste Amadee's performance.

Vanilla Raspberry Swirl! Happy Friday :)) #icecream #nondairy #tucson #vegan pic.twitter.com/9XUc516KCX

— Cashew Cow (@cashewcow) February 13, 2015

I was innocently scrolling through our Twitter feed when this photo popped up, reminding me that I owe a friend (and myself!) a trip to this delicious-looking establishment. 

The vegan ice creamery, located at 16 S. Eastbourne Avenue near Broadway Village, has been open since mid December. I can't believe I haven't made it in yet. Tell me—is it so delicious? 
 

This comes as no surprise to me as downtown's Cup Cafe is one of my favorite breakfast joints (and I'm immensely grateful that they serve breakfast until the very civilized hour of 4 p.m.), but Men's Journal has named the Hotel Congress eatery one of the best brunch spots in America:

If you’re looking for food in or around Tucson’s Hotel Congress, a trip to Cup Cafe may be in order. The menu ventures somewhat into the spicier realms — turkey chorizo is at the heart of one dish, and the Chilaquiles Verde incorporates eggs, braised pork, multiple cheeses and tomatillo sauce. There’s also The Deposition, in which bacon and eggs top a stack of pancakes, giving diners what may be the ultimate savory/sweet combination.

Check out the whole list here.

Bad news came for fans of Mexico in Season this weekend. The owners posted on the restaurant's Facebook page on Thursday, Feb. 5 that Saturday would be the last day guests could come and enjoy their fresh Mexican food offerings.

To all our loyal customers we say thank you and goodbye. We have no words to express our gratitude for all the support shown, it was great serving you and wish we could have been here for you for many years to come but for now this chapter in our lives will have to close with the hopes of soon being back with better service and hopefully a better location.

Despite owner Priscilla Teran's attempts to stay open with a Kickstarter fundraiser, with less than 10 days to go, the restaurant still had over $20,000 to raise in the campaign. Although those funds, if raised, would have gone to a food truck, Teran says that's no longer an option at this time without the money. 

"We haven't raised enough funds for a food truck," Teran says.  "We will be doing catering while we find a partner or get a food truck."

Teran says those interested in having Mexico in Season cater for them should stay tuned to their website and Facebook page for a forthcoming catering menu. 

Food enthusiasts flooded into the winding pathways of the Tucson Botanical Gardens on Saturday, Feb. 7 to get a taste of some of Tucson's top dining destinations. Diversity was the name of the game for the event this year with dishes ranging from Hawaiian to Vietnamese to Cajun to Japanese to Italian. Comfort food bites were done up with upscale ingredients—even the cotton candy was made with organic cane sugar courtesy of Fluff It Up.

With all of the variety, one dish definitely popped up more than the rest: tacos. Nox's duck hoisin taco was an interesting fusion take on the dish and Boca's chorizo-piled breakfast taco was the kind of stick-to-the-ribs breakfast option you'd certainly want after a night of drinking. Savor's tastiest taco this year, though, was from Proper. Their Barrio Blonde beer-battered fish taco used incredibly tender white fish and a surprisingly herby batter as the simple, but impressive, taco base. 

Over in the VIP section, it was clear the area well worth the extra splurge, as some of the day's best dishes came from the exclusive spot. Cafe Botanica, which typically resides in the botanical garden, offered up buttery, flaky empanadas, heirloom legume spreads and a range of olives grown on site. Another standout was the savory beet crostata from Pizzeria Bianco. Although it looked like a classic (and sweet) French galette, the tangy Crow's Dairy goat cheese on top made the distinction between dessert and appetizer clear.

The best dish of the day was from Bob's Steak & Chop House of the Omni Resort. Successfully serving medium rare lamb lollipops en masse is impressive on its own. However, the sweet, cream corn-studded polenta and perfectly spicy and sweet mango habanero bordelaise really took the dish to the next level. 

It wasn't all about the food, though. Casino del Sol bartender Aaron DeFeo served up three light and bright cocktails perfect for midday drinking in the sun. Using grapefruit, a range of vegetables and rose syrup as the star of each of his drinks, DeFeo made sure there was a little something for everyone. However, beer and wine drinkers were certainly satisfied as well, with a number of local breweries and wineries serving up pours as well.

As a whole, Savor's 2015 event was definitely a great way to spend a Saturday and, as was expected, totally filling.