• Photo courtesy of Serial Grillers.

Check out the killer burgers and rib-eye cheesesteaks at this new Tucson food truck.

Serial Grillers is one of the newest operations making a go of it in Tucson's varied and ever-growing food truck scene. It's run by two brothers who wanted to do something a bit different than their day jobs: One works with home loans, and the other lays asphalt for a living, so they bought a little yellow trailer, outfitted it with the necessary equipment, and created a menu of items named after real and cinematic murderers.

For instance, the Boston Strangler comes with sliced rib eye, grilled onions, mayonnaise, blue-cheese crumbles, lettuce and tomato. Their basic hamburger—all of the burgers are made with a half-pound of Angus beef, by the way—is called the Leatherface. There's also a behemoth of a sandwich called the Gorgomon that comes with double portions of rib eye, onions, hot peppers, bacon, French fries, onion rings and six slices of cheese.

Owners Travis and William Miller say they've sold out of food at many of the events they've been working, with huge lines amassing shortly after they open for business. For the time being, you can only find them at the regular Tucson Food Truck Roundup gatherings.

Sandwiches are $6 or $7, except the Gorgomon, which will cost you $12. French fries, onion rings or tater tots are an extra $2 to $3.

The truck also caters parties and other special events. Follow it on Facebook here. Call 971-2966 for more information.

Vero Amore, the locally owned Italian restaurant run by Aric and Joshua Mussman, will open in its new, larger, temporary location this Thursday.

The restaurant is moving to a spot in Plaza Palomino at 2990 N. Swan Road. The space used to be home to Steven Schultz's New Red Sky and Luna Bar, which quietly closed its doors earlier this year.

Vero Amore will stay in the former Red Sky location for a bit, moving later to another spot that is being custom-built for the eatery by the folks at Plaza Palomino.

The restaurant will have a larger menu and 30 additional employees when it opens at 11 a.m., Thursday, Sept. 6. There's more on the eatery over here.

I received an enormous press release today about the renovations going down at NoRTH Modern Italian Cuisine, which we mentioned yesterday. The gist of it is that NoRTH is getting a more casual feel - apparently the theme is "Tuscan farmhouse," which I can't quite wrap my head around - and a new menu.

And although it will still be called North, it looks like they might stop doing that weird thing where they leave the "o" in lowercase while capitalizing the rest of the name. Hallelujah!

I will post this behemoth of a press release here and you can peruse it at will. I started yawning after the third paragraph, but I'm sure fans of the restaurant will want to know all about it.

Tucson, Ariz. - August 30, 2012 - On September 4, NoRTH Modern Italian will temporarily close and emerge a few weeks later on September 19 as North Fattoria Italiana, complete with a new design, experience and menu — a modern take on a warm, friendly Tuscan farmhouse.

Fattoria means farm in Italian - a locale where food is handcrafted. “Made from scratch” is a main ingredient at North Fattoria Italiana, a theme abundantly found on the menu in savory pastas and pizzas — two cornerstones of the approachable menu.

A new restaurant called The Little Greek is open at 1101 N. Wilmot Road, in El Dorado Plaza. You can take a look at the menu right here.

It was a bit early when we called this morning for more details and nobody was in yet, but we did find this description on the restaurant's Facebook page:

John Kranis, restaurant owner and designer, with son, Ryan Kranis, senior manager/owner, are pleased to announce the reopening of the improved Little Greek restaurant located at the El Dorado Plaza on the northwest corner of Speedway and Wilmot. The Kranis's offer three generations of local restaurant history and experience and are excited to offer another creative restaurant to the community.

The caravan of mobile eateries that make up Tucson's food truck scene will cruise into the International Wildlife Museum at 4800 W. Gates Pass Road for an event this Saturday.

The Lion's Den Outdoor Dinner will feature food by Street Delights, Smokin' Hot BBQ, Jamie's Bitchen Kitchen, Red Wagon Steak and Subs and several other food trucks. Admission to the food truck event is free; regular admission to the museum applies.

The event takes place from 5 to 8 p.m. There's a bit more information over here.

Sad news from the Animal Farm Facebook page:

We are sad to announce that Animal Farm is closing. Thank you all for your support and patronage. We are planing a final event in the coming weeks, we will keep you posted.

What’s so special about the Sausage Shop Meat Market and Deli at 1015 W. Prince Road? Everything, that’s what.

Some days, you might come in wanting a bit of breakfast sausage, only to find the Sausage Shop has a big hunk of it molded to look like the head of a pig. There’s also the store’s ongoing mission to see how many different meats it can wrap in bacon and sell by the pound.

About that bacon: They make many kinds of it, and you won’t want that flimsy shit they sell at Safeway once you try the Sausage Shop version. They also make tons of different sausages—Texas hots, Cajun boudin and too many others to list here—and carry just about any sort of meat you might be considering charring on the Weber this weekend.

They also cut dry-aged steaks to order.

So if you’re throwing down some barbecue action this coming weekend, you might want to check out what the Sausage Shop has going on. Grill on, my friends.

It appears NoRTH Modern Italian Cuisine at 2995 E. Skyline Drive is getting a new name and a new look.

An online advertisement has been soliciting help for a new restaurant called North Fattoria Italiana. That's the name of a restaurant in Phoenix that's part of the Fox Restaurant Concepts family, which also owns NoRTH Modern Italian Cuisine.

I should also add that this new North restaurant is going to be located at 2995 E. Skyline Drive, where the other NoRTH is currently located.

So, long story short, I called up there, and the lady who answered the phone says that not much is changing except the name and the interior, which she described as "a little less fancy."

Sounds to me like an attempt by Fox Restaurant Concepts to update a concept by backing it away from the high-end vibe that seems to fall more and more out of favor each year.

This might be a good time to start stockpiling Slim Jims. From The Guardian:

Leading water scientists have issued one of the sternest warnings yet about global food supplies, saying that the world's population may have to switch almost completely to a vegetarian diet over the next 40 years to avoid catastrophic shortages.

Humans derive about 20 percent of their protein from animal-based products now, but this may need to drop to just 5 percent to feed the extra 2 billion people expected to be alive by 2050, according to research by some of the world's leading water scientists.

"There will not be enough water available on current croplands to produce food for the expected 9 billion population in 2050 if we follow current trends and changes towards diets common in western nations," the report by Malik Falkenmark and colleagues at the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) said.

Read the whole thing here or stock up for the coming meatpocalypse over here.

The third episode of Hopped Up, a series created by local beer enthusiasts for local beer enthusiasts, takes viewers to what I honestly believe is among the city's best pizza places: downtown's Empire Pizza and Pub.

This 21 minute video features a beer summit with Empire general manager Scott Lynch, a drop-in from local hip-hop group The Natives Are Restless, and a short Star Wars riff.