Made plans to attend FinnFest next week? What!? Please tell me you are not willingly going to pass on cooking demonstrations of such Finnish delicacies as rutabaga casserole and prune fool (it's a cake, by the way). Did I mention music will be provided by J. Karjalainen and the Polka Billies? Oh yeah!

Here's a list of the cooking demonstrations:

Friday 11/9 2:30pm-4pm Cactus Rose Patio(Ballroom G —weather reservation) Smoked Salmon, Finnish Tartar Sauce

Saturday 11/10 10am -11am Tori Stage Finnish Beet-Vegetable Salad & Rutabaga Casserole

Saturday 11/10 2:30- 3:30pm Bonsai Christmas Tarts & Prune Fool

Sunday 11/11 10am-12:30pm Tori Stage Karelian Pasties

The festival is packed with all sorts of other things too, from classical music to films, and beyond. More on all that over here.

It's weird how this went down: We got a press release announcing local bakery and restaurant Beyond Bread had been named a contestant in the World Food Championships weeks ago. Then, days after we wrote about it here on the Range, the owners of Beyond Bread contacted me, saying they hadn't heard anything about it.

Strange, but in the end it all worked out and this weekend Beyond Bread goes head to head with 50 other sandwich makers in Las Vegas. The restaurant was selected because Tucson Weekly readers elected the place winner for Best Sandwich in the Best of Tucson® awards for ten years running. See how important Tucson Weekly readers are!?

So send Beyond Bread some good vibes as they vie for top honors at the competition this weekend. We hear they'll be unleashing some sort of a super Reuben on the judges. Here's wishing them luck.

That is all.

I generally thought that Kickstarter was reserved for interesting art projects and awesome pens — but apparently, there are those out there who use Kickstarter to fund private business ideas. I mean, who better to act as angel investors than denizens of the internet, who consume copious quantities of both?

Thus, we have this pitch from Public Brew House and Coffee:

Tucson's Beau Hintz, a former barista with Cartel Coffee Lab, and Mike Gura, a home-brewing enthusiast, are behind the project, which they plan to open along Broadway Blvd., in the heart of downtown.

I plan on throwing some money at it, personally — after all, I'm of the opinion that downtown can never have too much good coffee or too much good beer.

But for them to get off the ground, they're going to need quite a bit of funding, and fast. The funding period ends on Nov. 14, and as of this writing they've secured only 14% of their $37,000 goal. Worth a look, folks: After all, they're offering glasses, mugs, growlers and demitasses for donors, as well as half-off espresso for life if you donate up to a certain level.

If you're interested in having a new coffee spot joining the good folks at Sparkroot and Brewd downtown, and new artisan local brews joining the likes of Borderlands and Thunder Canyon's new digs.

Check out their Kickstarter here, and their Facebook page (which features videos and regular updates) here for more info.

Umi Star, the new restaurant down at 2502 N. Campbell Ave., is now serving drinks, and we hear they're a tad on the potent side.

The owners brought in a cocktail expert from famed San Diego cocktail hotspot Craft and Commerce to create the drink menu. It's a good one, and all the fans of well-made nouveau cocktails will definitely want to check it out.

I think the only criticism I've heard about this place thus far is that they weren't serving drinks. When we ate there a few weeks back the table next to us was literally freaking out about the food, in a very good way. I was, too, but not audibly.

You can take a look at the restaurant's food and drink menus right here. Enjoy!

Anthony's in the Catalinas at 6440 N. Campbell Ave., one of the last remaining fine-dining spots in the city, has started offering a lunch menu that's so affordable it's sort of hard to believe.

There are, of course, sandwiches, but they're loaded with delectable fillings like chicken-and-pesto, short ribs and other things. If you're looking for something a tad nicer, and perhaps a bit more substantial, they have salmon, shrimp, scallops, chicken Milianese and a slew of salads topped with all sorts of delicious things.

This is the first time the restaurant has offered lunch service in 15 years and it's a great opportunity to check out a top-notch dining establishment for a fraction of the usual bill. Prices for lunch are in the $6 to $15 range, which means you get to eat in one of the fanciest places in town for the same amount of money you'd shell out for a combo deal at Subway.

Lunch is available from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. They don't appear to have a lunch menu up yet, but you can take a look at their other offerings here in the meantime.

We just got off the phone with local architect and restaurant owner Jason Anderson and he says his remodel of the old Magpies Pizza location at 605 N. Fourth Ave. will be completed tomorrow.

Anderson says he's reworked the entire outdoor area - a piece of prime outdoor seating right along Fourth Avenue - and even added a place to play bocce ball. A new bar, more televisions, a new design theme, way more beer on tap and a bunch of wine and other drinks have also been added.

He also said he's putting in an ice cream shop next door to Magpies that will be called Parlour. He expects that to open in about a month. He's also working on another concept in the area, but had to keep it a secret for the time being.

That's a lot of action for the decades-old Magpies Pizza shop, but with all the updates happening in that area its sort of neat to see the place keeping pace with the times.

It looks like a new pizza joint called Pie Zanno's Pizzaria is setting up shop at 2921 E. Fort Lowell Road, where Vito's Pizza Kitchen used to be. There is a chain of pizza joints on the East Coast called Pie Zanno's, but we're not sure yet if they have anything to do with this.

There are a ton of pizza joints in that region of town, but, hey the more the merrier! We'll keep you posted as we learn more.

Hey folks, it appears that Black Crown Coffee Co., raised from the ashes (and tar) of the original Safehouse Espresso Bar, is now open at Safehouse's old location, 4024 E. Speedway.

Scott Hirsch, Black Crown's owner, has been working like a man possessed alongside a number of Safehouse regulars who volunteered their time to put the new place back together.

I haven't been down to the refreshed digs, but having walked around mid-remodel with Hirsch a few weeks ago, I can tell you that the reconstruction has been a labor of love for all of those involved.

This was posted yesterday, on Black Crown's Facebook page:

You all are absolutely amazing. Opening this business was terrifying and exciting at the same time. There were so many moments where we thought we had to throw in the towel and walk away. Every step towards opening the doors was met with huge amounts of problems, there is no way we could have done this without the massive amount of support, hard work, and dedication from all of you. From the bottom of our hearts here at Black Crown... thank you.

Good stuff. For more info, give their Facebook page a look here — or just head down there and grab a cup tonight.

At least, that's what the New York Times's is saying in this story from Dwight Garner.

From the Times:

The PB&P has been a minority enthusiasm in America for generations, lingering just under the radar. The sandwiches appeared on lunch-counter menus during the Great Depression and in extension-service cookbooks in the 1930s and ’40s in recipes that generally called for a few spoonfuls of pickle relish. A lot of people’s grandmothers used to eat them.

These days, they’re a cult item. Kinsey Millhone, the fictional private investigator in Sue Grafton’s alphabet series of mysteries, is probably America’s best-known devotee.

Below that, there’s a consistent but low-level Internet buzz about the combination, just as there is about the other unlikely things people like to marry with peanut butter and place between bread slices: mayonnaise, olives, thick onion slices (this was Hemingway’s favorite sandwich), horseradish, bacon, Marmite (in England) and Vegemite (in Australia), to name but a few.

(Cue look of terrified disgust)

In my quest for the perfect peanut butter and pickle sandwich, I’ve made these things with expensive hipster pickles, homely farmers’ market ones and my wife’s artful homemade beauties. They’re all pretty good.

But my go-to ingredients, month in and month out, are Claussen pickles, the ones in the refrigerator section — they’re crunchy and have a bright flavor — and Smucker’s Natural peanut butter, which isn’t sweet. (I’m agnostic about crunchy versus smooth.) I use whatever good bread is in the house. If I’m feeling decadent, I’ll toast the bread first and spread some unsalted butter on each slice before adding the PB&P. That’s genius, and the prelude to a tasty nap.

...

“In the United States, we’re used to peanut butter with really sweet pairings,” [Lee Zalben, of New York City's Peanut Butter & Co.] said. “But in other cultures, combining savory with sour is more of a tradition. Look at Chinese, Indian and Thai food, for example, in curries and satays and moles. I’d put peanut butter and pickle roughly in that tradition.”

Maybe I'm a bit too squeamish, or a bit too not-pregnant, but the idea of peanut butter and pickles terrifies and disgusts me more than a sandwich that is nothing but mayonnaise and cheese. Is anyone out there a devotee of these monstrosities?

For the full article, check here.

After many months of hectic restaurant action around Tucson, things have slowed down a bit this month. But there are still quite a few interesting little food-related tidbits going on across the city.

Out west, it appears Taco Giro is opening a location in the old El Sabroso Oakwood Grill location at 610 N. Grande Ave. Taco Giro has another location out on East 22nd Avenue, where it’s been serving up killer Mexican eats for a long time.

Not far away, at Dragoon Brewing Co. at 1859 W. Grant Road, there are also great things happening. We stopped in the other day and found a bunch of 55 gallon wooden kegs full of beer in the corner of the tasting room, which is part of the microbrewery’s new beer-conditioning program. They also had a small keg behind the counter where they let the beer soak up the flavor of various hops for long periods of time. The guy working said the place is now producing specialty beers for 1702 as well.

Heading east, Tucson’s second Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers has opened at 7120 E. Broadway Blvd. Company officials say they plan to open more locations in Tucson before long as well.

A new place called Café Francais and Patisserie is opening in Plaza Palomino at 2970 N. Swan Road. We haven’t heard much about the place, but it has started hiring so the opening can’t be far off.

Also out east, a place called Elle Mae’s Café has opened in the former Jethro’s Café spot at 8585 E. Broadway Blvd.

Downtown is in sort of a holding period when it comes to new places to eat and drink, but that’s only because numerous restaurants are under construction. Saint House, Diablo Burger, Proper, a new restaurant at 50 E. Broadway Blvd. and the second location of Thunder Canyon Brewery are all in the works down there.

Still hungry? We’ve also heard that the Sawmill Run Restaurant up on Mount Lemmon is opening a location down in the city. The restaurant has had an excellent first few months in business and I haven’t heard a single bad thing about the food up there. We’re still digging for details on that one, but have verified that a second location — and perhaps more — are in the works.