Tomorrow, Dragoon Brewing and Boca Tacos want you to join them for great beer and great tacos to support the Tucson Fire Pipes and Drums band.

The event is set to kick off at 6 p.m. Friday, 'til 8, where Dragoon will be releasing Tartan 479, a Belgian-style Blonde ale. According to Dragoon, sales from the beer will benefit the TFPD Band:

A portion of every keg, growler and pint sold by Dragoon goes to help the Pipes and Drums in their mission of honoring their fallen brothers and sisters. It’s available on draft in our taproom and at select bars and restaurants in the Tucson area.

It is made from a blend of North American 2-Row and German pils malts, with a bit of Vienna Malt and unmalted barley. It is lightly dry-hopped with Cascade and Sterling hops and is fermented with a Belgian Abbey ale yeast. The result is a balanced Blonde ale—bready and toasty, with a lightly spicy sweetness and subtle fruity hop nose.

Boca also plans on running a special, offering two tacos and a pint of Tartan 479 for $10.

Tacos, beer and a good cause? Sounds like a good way to kick of the weekend to me.

If you are looking to do something different this weekend, you can head on out to the fourth annual Garlic Festival at Triangle T Ranch, 4190 E. Dragoon Road. The event will be benefiting the Wounded Warriors Project. The event is Saturday, July 26 and Sunday, July 27 from 10 a.m. 'til 6 p.m. There will be a garlic cook-off, garlic food vendors, garlic recipes, live (probably not garlic-related) music, horseback rides and games for the kids.

This is a free event but there is a $3 parking fee. For more information check out http://www.azretreatcenter.com/garlicfest2013.html.

Heads up Tastykake lovers: Your favorites are back at Frankie's South Philly Cheesesteaks. There is a limited amount but more are on the way.

For those who haven't been following the Tastykake conundrum, the beloved East Coast treat disappeared from Frankie's late last month when changes at Tastykake corporate took Southern Arizona off the distribution list. However, after a passionate social media campaign, Tastykake relented.

Finally, we've got closure — and 'kakes.

Or at least, eat near the Weekly.

We've got food trucks outside Weekly World Central, 3280 E. Hemisphere Loop, from now 'til 1:30 p.m. Come over and grab food from Jackie's Food Court and Christo's Greek Food, serving up such delicious items as the Greek combo, jalapeno poppers, Jackie's Cheesesteak, and sweet potato fries.

Mm, sweet potato fries.

You can check out the menus under the jump.

It's hot as hell. We've been over this before, as you might know — hell, even Danehy went over his one lamentation regarding our incredibly hot June — and you've presumably been outside, so you know the score.

But, after diligently surfing the Internet for solutions and cat videos, we've found something (not a cat video) that can help: Thug Kitchen's recipe for Spiked Citrus Iced Tea.

For the uninitiated, Thug Kitchen is a damn hilarious food blog that offers up hilarious, delicious recipes that just happen to be vegan (though, as Thug Kitchen told me, "it's not something we promote because we aren't trying to convert anyone. We just want everyone to eat more fucking veggies.").

But the ideas are too good, and the captioned photos are too funny, to simply ignore for those who love animal product. Thus, with Thug Kitchen's permission (because nothing is more thug than respect), we're reprinting their recipe:

NO SHIT IT’S HOT, IT’S FUCKING JULY. Pull yourself together, go find some shade, and kick back with Thug Kitchen’s citrus iced tea. Guaranteed to refresh your attitude and show your BBQ guests that you’ve got shit figured out. Even if you don’t.

SPIKED CITRUS ICED TEA

• 1 gallon of water
  
• 4 black tea bags
  
• 4 white tea bags (if you find white tea with ginger, lemon, and orange flavors in it, that would be legit)
  
• ¼ - ½ cup maple syrup (this shit can be expensive so feel free to replace it with agave or honey)
  
• 2 ½ cups whiskey (optional, but who are you kidding)
  
• ½ cup orange juice
  
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
  

 Heat the water is a big pot on the stove until you see bubbles forming on the bottom. No need to boil that shit. Add the tea bags and let them chill out in the hot water for about 5 minutes. Pull the bags out and add the ¼ cup maple syrup, the whiskey, and citrus juices. Stir and taste that motherfucker. If you like it a little sweeter, add more syrup.

Let the tea cool in the fridge until you’re damn well ready. Serve this shit with ice and slices of oranges and lemons because then it looks classy as fuck.

Makes enough for a party or just you on the laziest summer day ever

Metzger Family Restaurants, owners of Jax Kitchen and The Abbey, has announced plans to open their newest venture, Gio Taco later this year.

In a press release, restaurateur Brian Metzger said that their our tacos "will be intentionally designed to ignite a sense of adventure among our guests,” pulling inspiration from "the streets of Havana, the gardens of Costa Rica, the beaches of Hawaii, [and] the coast of Puerto Rico."

Named for Metzger’s stepson Giovanni, the fast-casual restaurant will be located at 350 E. Congress Street in downtown, Tucson, in the new Cadence development. Metzger’s long time friends at FORS Architecture + Interiors will design the space.

“While we’re surely not asking our guests to forget everything they know about tacos, we’ll be introducing them to a new attitude and concept of what tacos can really be,” Metzger said. “Our culinary team will basically be creating a ‘no-rules’ kitchen, and everything we do will be guided by our pledge to provide a ‘totally unexpected’ experience.”

Slated to open in November, Gio Taco will be the company’s third eatery in Tucson, joining the popular Jax Kitchen on North Oracle Road, named for Metzger’s son Jack, and The Abbey on East Sunrise Drive, named for Metzger’s daughter, Abby.

El Parador Restaurant, at 2744 E. Broadway Blvd., has announced that it is closing its doors.

From a press release:

We would like to thank the thousands of Tucsoans who placed their trust and faith in us hosting their wonderful family celebrations. Also, special thanks to the many business and professional groups that met weekly and monthly at El Parador. We have enjoyed serving you, our guests; in our beautiful Tropical Garden restaurant...It is a blessing to have been a part of your lives.

UPDATE: We spoke with Loretta Jacob Carlson, daughter of El Parador founder John Jacob and manager of El Parador, who said, simply, that its time for the business and the family to move on...but hinted that there's something else on the horizon.

"It's time and it's a transition period for us. We're transitioning out of a full-service business and we're going to progress onto another facility ... well, another point in life—another phase in life," Carlson said. "It's time to transition into another phase in life."

"My dad's been serving Mexican food in Tucson since 1946 at Club 21, so it is a sad thing and it is a deeply emotional thing," Carlson continued. "Our family has been serving here at El Parador for 40 years. Our world and our culture has been transitioning out of a full-service and it's time to go on. It's sad to say goodbye, but we're making way for that silver lining."

When asked what her family's next plans were, Carlson played things close to the vest, saying (emphasis ours): "We're not sure we want to tell you what our next plan is for right now—we met with a gal, and she says we're going to transition into a heart-healthy kinda world, and we're going to tell you about that in a couple of weeks. We're going to say our goodbyes, and thank Tucson, and thank our wonderful staff and all the people that supported us."

We'll see what's next from El Parador—though, apparently, we've got a bit of a wait coming.

See the press release, in full, below the jump.

TastyKakes are coming back to Tucson!

Over the past couple weeks, we've written about the trouble Frankie Santos of Frankie's South Philly Cheesesteaks was having in his quest to keep the REAL Tastykakes in his shop. It was a business decision on the part of the Tastykakes company — it seems that, for whatever reason, shipping to Tucson wasn't financially viable for them.

But after several postings on Facebook by Frankie and on several local foodie Facebook pages (including mine, The Well-Fed Foodie) people wrote to complain. KVOA even covered the story.

Tucson, we have overcome: TastyKakes will be back at Frankie's shop on Campbell Avenue later this month.

It's not quite an overthrow of an oppressive regime, but the people spoke and Tastykakes listened.

Three cheers for the people!

• Noelle Haro-Gomez
• Chef Ryan Clark of Lodge on the Desert

Ryan Clark of Lodge on the Desert competed against David Ferrara of Fire & Spice at Sheraton Tucson in this weekend's Stella Artois Iron Chef Tucson competition at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort.

Just like the popular Food Network show, the competition begins when both chefs are tasked with using a mystery ingredient in their dishes. The secret ingredient given to them was New Zealand Lamb (shoulder and leg). They both faced a panel of three judges, who sample their dishes and determine the winner.

Clark successfully defended his title, making this the third consecutive year in which he's won.

Clark's four courses were:

Tartare of New Zealand Lamb Shoulder pineapple, tamari, ginger, jalapeno, herbs, crispy wonton, lime yogurt.

Pan-seared and Chilled Lamb Leg Wrap butterleaf lettuce, red lentils, peppers and onions, tomato jam.

New Zealand Leg and Shoulder Stew stella artois cidre, apples, mirepoix, pickled apple and carrot top salad.

Roasted Leg of Lamb spice rubbed, braised greens, curry smashed purple potatoes, raspberry and lamb bone reduction.

If you did you did not get a chance to attend Tucson's Iron Chef festivities, you can head out over to Lodge on the Desert where on select days Clark will be cooking up some of these four courses. Check out Lodge on the Desert's website to find out more info.

With the Most American of Holidays behind us, we have little to look forward to during the doldrums of summer but the Most American of Pastimes: Eating.

To celebrate both, Serious Eats put together a map of the iconic burger of each state — and it's a good one. Featuring California's In-N-Out Double-Double Animal Style, Minnesota's Juicy Lucy, Kansas' White Castle sliders, Texas' Whataburger, this map nails it.

Mostly. Because this doesn't make sense to me.

• Serious Eats

Why yes, that is a frybread-wrapped burger.

I won't lie to you Tucson: I've never had one of those. Frybread, sure — it's what ruins my shirts and gets my hands all sticky every time I go to the State Fair — but a burger wrapped in frybread is new to me.

Now, I won't go out and say that this is a travesty, that Diablo Burger should take the crown (though I'm enough of a fan that apparently some of the waitresses recognize me — I should probably lay low for a few months), blah blah blah. It's fine.

I just think that there's way, WAY more to Arizona's burgers than frybread (hell, we could even through BurgerRito into the mix, new as they are).

I will say though: If anyone is willing to point me in the direction of a quality frybread burger, I'll give it a shot.

[Serious Eats - United States of Burgers]