Beer here! For the 14th year in a row, the Michigan Brewers Guild is throwing its Summer Beer Festival, the group's oldest — and largest — celebration of Michigan beer. Slake your thirst for Mitten-made brews with more than 300 different beers from scores of Michigan breweries, enjoyed in the great outdoors in Ypsilanti's Riverside Park. There will also be food, music and enough beer to float a ship. From 5 to 9 p.m. Friday and 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday at Riverside Park, 515 E. Cross St., Ypsilanti; $30 advance Friday, $35 advance Saturday, designated drivers only $5; info and tickets at michiganbrewersguild.org.
Year of the Pig The barbecue mavens at Lazybones Smokehouse aced our readers' poll for Best Barbecue in Macomb County. This July, they proudly note that their new Clinton Township location is marking one year in business. For the rest of the month (it is National Barbecue Month, after all) you can get a full slab of grill-ready spare ribs, a pound of grill-ready rib tips, one-half a grill-ready chicken and a bottle of Lazybones' barbecue sauce for just $25. All you have to do is print a coupon from the smokehouse's website and call one day in advance. Lazybones is at 27475 Groesbeck Hwy., Roseville; 586-775-7427; and 43203 Garfield., Clinton Twp.; 586-247-7427; lazybonessmokehouse.net.
Go fish Next week, Downtown Detroit's Opus One is hosting the Great Lakes Fish Dinner. There's still time to reserve your spot for a dinner featuring Great Lakes fish and local ingredients. Expect house-smoked whitefish, rainbow trout and lake trout, roulade of walleye and king crab with lake perch sauté, pan-seared "wild caught" Lake Michigan chinook salmon and much more, including three 4-ounce pours of wine with your meal. It starts at 6:30 p.m. July 28, at 565 E. Larned St., Detroit; $55 per person plus tip; reservations at 313-961-7766; opus-one.com
Bart's brunch back? Club Bart, the honky-tonk with a brunch of gold, left a void in Ferndale's weekend breakfast scene. Well, the gals who ran the brunch have relocated to the kitchen at nearby Cantina Diablo. Weekend brunches begin at 8 a.m. and continue until 3 p.m. on a first-come, first-serve basis at 175 W. Troy St., Ferndale; 248-808-6633.
Grand drunk Foran's Grand Trunk serves a sweet weekend brunch too, but their happy hour isn't small beer either. From 4 to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, you can enjoy $1 off pints of delicious Michigan craft beer, $2 well drinks, $2 domestic bottles and $4 glasses of house wine. With prices like this, you might need some of their food specials to bring you back from the brink, such as three barbecue corned beef sliders for $5, or four chicken wings for $1. Drop in at 612 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-961-3043.
food/thought The Dagwood on the cover is a hint of what is sandwiched between the covers of Susan Russo's The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches (Quirk Books, $18.95). And it's piled high with a surprising multitude of recipes. From New Orleans come olive-stuffed muffulettas — with the olive salad recipe included — and po'boys. From Vietnam comes a hoagie called the bahn mi. Luscious color images enhance the already tempting variety, and in addition to an index of the sandwiches, there's a handy index of ingredients, helping you choose from what's on hand or what you're in the mood for.
bottoms up Five reasons to fill your picnic basket with Y + B rosé: 1) It's redolent of strawberry and melon, yet dry and drinkable with a snappy mineral finish. 2) It costs $10. 3) The liter Tetra Pak it's packaged in is environmentally friendly. 4) The grapes are hand-harvested and the wine sees no funky additions in an attempt to make it taste like something other than good fermented grape juice. 5) It can sit in a cooler on ice for hours and somehow still taste like the sun.
the works The popularity of cupcakes has led to all kinds of shops that serve them in every imaginable flavor and shape — but in every form, people love them. If you're a big fan of these treats, you can proclaim your fondness with an eye-popping tattoo. See bit.ly/pIWCqM for illustrations that have been created by cupcake-loving artists with sweet-tooth imaginations that look good enough to make cannibals out of cupcake lovers. The dagger cupcake is one of our favorites.
