Roaring for retro!

​Rau + Barber posted this cool stop-action video showing how local screenprint mavens Aesthetic Apparatus created new Lowbrow's paint-by-number mural.

Watch the reel to find out how the Lowbrow logo is linked to the Hamm's bear and whet your appetite for next week's Dish review.

More >>

Banh mi makes the cut, as does doughnut hole.

​Language standards are loosening up, as evidenced by last week's update of the Oxford English Dictionary, which added a few slangy acronyms--OMG and LOL, FYI, and WAG--as well as the trendy terms smack talk, couch surf, fixed gear, and ick factor.

In the food world, there were several newcomers--a few that seemed so common we were surprised they weren't in there already (where has doughnut hole been all these years?), and a few so obscure that we were surprised they made the cut.

More >>

Southern Foodways Alliance/Flickr

​

It seems straight out of the Onion, but this is not a joke (I don't think). A new Minneapolis-based company called Man Cave is soliciting dudes to sell meat and grilling accessories at male-only home parties. It's like Pampered Chef for the testosterone set.

If you want to host a "MEATing," Man Cave will take care of the rest, including sending one of its "advisors" over, flush with ribs and buffalo burgers and "all the essentials to make your cave official." The more Man Cave products that sell at your MEATing the bigger the discount for the host.

Man Cavers out there (you know who you are), what say ye?

Chairman Bob used to just be the weird, bunny rabbit-faced cartoon guy staring impassively out from your Rainbow grocery bags. Now that he's evolved into a more in-the-flesh version of himself, staring down from area highway billboards all semi-condescending and James Bond-esque, standing next to giant slices of beef or a glazed doughnut, he has converted from scary and put-offy to actually ok. Don't you think?

kwerfeldein/Flickr

Time reports in its latest issue on the increasingly popular practice of "cow-pooling," where several individuals or families chip in on a cow, duking it out over tenderloin, sirloins and chuck come slaughter time. According to the article, cow-pooling not only allows consumers to buy a locally-raised, grass-fed animal, but it's also hands-down cheaper -- $3-$5 per lb. Who knew? The article mentions two good sites for narrowing down your options: LocalHarvest.org and EatWild.com. Both have exhaustive lists of local meat sources. Also, check out the hilarious photo Time has of a lady sitting in her sparse dining room next to a table full of meat.

stu_spivack/flickr

Several New York news outlets started a kerfuffle about restaurants enacting more surcharges to counteract sinking revenues, one of them being asking diners to pay for breadbaskets. Times critic Frank Bruni jumped into the fray, arguing that more restaurants should charge for bread and butter so as to reduce wasted bread and not force those who abstain from bread to subsidize bread gluttons. Bruni also suggests that if restaurateurs charged for bread, they'd be more likely to stock better quality breads and spreads.

Most restaurants in town offer gratis bread as a sign of their hospitality. The only place I recall seeing a charge for bread is Spoonriver--and, as I remember, it was quite good. To reduce waste, I'd hope more servers would ask, first, before bringing a breadbasket, or that kitchens would offer them in different sizes, depending on the number in a party.

Chris Bohnhoff Photography

20.21 Executive Chef Asher Miller

Friday was opening night of the Walker's "The Quick and the Dead" exhibition and resident Chef Asher Miller was extra busy. On opening nights of a new exhibit, 20.21 --the art museum's in-house restaurant -- prepares a nice three-course meal for 200 VIPs, in this case vegetarian. Meanwhile, Miller was also keeping track of his own personal caloric intake for Hot Dish. Details of Miller's day, which he also Twittered, (as well as details about what he prepared for the fancy art people) after the jump:

More >>

dizznbonn/Flickr

As publications scramble for innovative ways to generate ad revenue, marketers have had to go the distance to meet their changing needs. The Pennsylvania-based First Flavor is one such marketer. Its schtick? Lickable ads.

Welch's has run one for its grape juice in People Magazine. Rolling Stone had a mojito-flavored one for a promotion for the now-cancelled CBS show Cane. Will the Stib and the Pi Press follow suit?

More >>

brettneilson/Flickr

Thanks to a heads-up from a devoted Hot Dish reader, we happily bring to you the 302 "approved" submissions -- meaning there were originally actually more than 302, Jesus God -- to the Pi Press's "Peeps Diorama Contest."

Hot Dish wrote about the Washington Post's diorama contest a few weeks ago, but it looks like in sheer Peeps passion, we may done got the Post beat. Great job, peeps!

More >>

Hot Dish and ESPN.com audiences don't need to be mutually exclusive when our pal Paul Lukas pits rib-eye steak against London broil and veal cutlet against chicken tails, NCAA-style.

More >>