News from the World of Food

Several restaurant chains have recently reworked their beverage programs in an attempt to renew customer interest in their drinks. These high-margin thirst-quenchers can help boost check averages and reinforce a brand’s image

Read more: http://nrn.com/article/restaurant-chains-refocus-beverages#ixzz1nhOIeqX9

There are super-hot chile varieties. And then there's the sweat-inducing, tear-generating, mouth-on-fire Trinidad Moruga Scorpion.

With a name like that, it's not surprising that months of research by the experts at New Mexico State University's Chile Pepper Institute have identified the variety as the new hottest pepper on the planet.

Part museum exhibit, part history retrospective, Next's latest menu, El Bulli, is a culinary retrospective focused on its namesake, the most famous restaurant in the world, its dishes re-created, and in some instances reinterpreted, by Grant Achatz, Dave Beran and the rest of Next's kitchen-wizard team

​By the looks of the lines, the fact that Tops Liquor went through 5000 bottles of water, and the throbbing pain in my forehead, I'd say the 2012 Strong Beer Fest was a success.

Check out our slideshow here, and read on for details of the best -- and not-so-best -- beers of the day.

Saturday's sold out event drew somewhere close to 4000 people out of their local bars and away from their TVs to enjoy a perfect 70 degree day while getting hammered on strong beer samples from about 75 breweries.