• There’s nothing like a cold plate of beef on a hot day. A list of 10 spots to find it around town. [Squid Ink]
• With Rosewood Tavern and Vodvil, Fairfax Village is the hot new drinking district. But what’s with Vodvil’s “entertainment fee?”[Blackbook]
• Sometimes it really does take a village: A group sets out to save historic NoHo barrel building and win. It will be a restaurant by next year. [LAist]
• Shocking: California teens eat a lot of junk food. [LAT
• The FDA is not happy about a line of melatonin-laced brownies dubbed Lazy Larry, calling them potentially unsafe. Maybe folks are just mad that Mr. Larry looks a little … how do we say this &mash; stoned? [NYDN]
• File under strange bedfellows: Kanye has reportedly signed up for cooking lessons with Gordon Ramsay. Evidently the rapper “loves British cuisine.” [MSN Celebrity UK via Food 52]
• Dieting causes brain cells to eat themselves, suggests a new study. But don’t worry, people are already planning to develop drugs to stop this. [LAT]
• A research team at North Carolina State University has received a $25 million federal grant to study the viruses that cause food poisoning, in particular, dangerous noroviruses. [News Observer]