Sad to see that the Gallery Café in the West Village closed. Gotta move on. So a new entity takes its place: Village Burger Bar from Mike & Susan Matta, who own Magnolia Café & Bakery (ex-branch of the n.s.g. Celebrity Bakery) in Lewisville. VBB will have burgers w/ upscale toppings, sorta Who’s Who-ish but a nicer hang, w/ salads, paninis, milkshakes, & root beer on tap, as well as microbrewed beers and a highly civilized wine policy in which every bottle stocked will be available by the glass.

Village Burger Bar, West Village, 214-443-9998, opening mid-Oct.

If a blog wanted to, it could devote itself 24-7 to Arizona, which intros new beverages w/ stunning frequency. (Pity this blog already has other, far better things on which to fixate.) Aside from sheer abundance, what makes AZ compelling is the way its flavor innovations follow (or is it lead?) the latest nutraceutical trends and is thus somewhat pop-culturey. With no further ado: Arizona pomegranate green tea. Pomegranate, as you know, is a hot new antioxidant — but to be safe, AZ also IDs it on the label as “Chinese apple” for those not yet up on the pomegranate thing.

Ways that Doug and Bruski’s is not a typical restaurant-sports bar: 1. It’s at the tony Shops at Willowbend in Plano. 2. Comes from the folks who own Canyon Café (doug & bruce & pat), which is no slouch. 3. Has upscale menu w/ applewood-smoked salmon, roast chick, “white” lasagna w/ chick&vegs as well as the more manly burgers & prime rib. It’s pushing the family thing w/ pool tables, video room, etc. Coincidence? It has the same initials as a certain other sports-bar rest chain.

6121 W. Park Blvd (@ NW corner of Tollway), plano. 972-202-4599. opening mid-october

A chance to say something nice for a change: Boulder Ice Cream, a super-premium made in yes Boulder, Colo & sold at WF. Unlike the corporate elephants who’ve (dining pun alert) devoured the ice cream world and turned it into a vanilla dead zone (nothing against vanilla), Boulder’s a small co. w/ creative flavors: Mexican choc, green tea, coffee n toffee, ginger cream, banana almond nugget, & pearl street malt. (Malt: pinnacle of flavors.) They make their ice cream using milk from cows not treated w/ rGBH

While undoubtedly a wonderful state, Utah is hardly the 1st place you’d expect to find nutritional supplements grown in the tropics. Yet it’s the HQ of Tahitian Noni Café – which is opening a branch on the ground floor of Mondrian Cityplace. Noni is a green tropical fruit supposedly used by native Polynesians to boost the immune system and treat respiratory & digestive illnesses. Tahitian Noni Café puts it in tea, smoothies, froz yog desserts, and also does samwiches, salads, muffins, cookies. Other TNC locations: Japan, Brazil, Germany, & Atlanta, GA; is Dallas part of some int’l community or what?

3000 blackburn st. no # yet

Bypassing the usual Blue Bell flogging for a moment, the thing about its newest flavor Butterscotch Nut is this: Isn’t butterscotch really the same as caramel? Were you blindfolded, could you tell the diff betw the two? And isn’t it odd that at the same time Blue Bell releases this, it also issues a seasonal flavor, caramel sundae crunch which, aside from the add-ins, sounds identical (”caramel ice cream+caramel swirl w/ choc-coated sugar cone pieces) to butterscotch nut (”butterscotch ice cream+butterscotch sauce swirl w/ crunchy roasted almonds“)? Anyway, re: Butterscotch Nut, the ice cream’s nuttin-special but the almonds are ++ toasty/crunchy

Taco Viva #1 opened last wk, and so arrives a new Mexican chain, but before you dismiss it, consider: 1. it comes from Bill Waugh, founder of taco bueno (as well as Casa Bonita & Crystal’s Pizza), and more recently Burger Street (w/ which he’s still involved). 2. guacamole made fresh daily meat & beans cooked onsite + chili as signature sauce/item splashed on just about everything. Taco Viva #2 will open soon in Rockwall, next to an upgraded burger street called burger street café, a fast-casual deal w/ fireplace & comfy furniture. Look for 5-6 Taco Vivas to open w/in next yr

14520 Josey Lane, Farmers Branch. 972-241-4224

S’mkt choc chips are bleh, especially the nat’l brands. And yet, endless spinoffs in size (mini, mega, chunks) & flavor (white, mint, PB, cappuccino) … someone’s buying it. The latest, Nestle Toll House Swirled Morsels, fascinates cuz they’re so overtly superficial (as in, obviously made not for taste but cuz they look cute). Insane, having to ensure that each chip has a spiral-y swirl. 3 “flavors” (tho the more approp word here is colors): milk choc w/ caramel, semi-sweet & white choc, and milk chocolate w/ pb. It’s just another way to get kids to eat more sugar, but Nestle suggests in a transparent effort to make them seem multi-purpose that they’d make a good “snack” don’t think so

thanks to the impulsive buy for the kick-ass pic

Disclaimers: Jack in the Box’s Root Beer Float has been out since mid July but eluded detection. (It’s an awful busy summer when a JITB visit hasn’t been made for 2 mths.) So, this item, not fresh off the griddle. Even if it were brand-new, a JITB RB Float might not have the same news value as, say, a coffee Kit Kat. (Which is, like, wow.) Finally, yesyesyes any idiot can make a rb float at home. The point is, how cool that a standard fast-food chain (exception: A&W) offers something off-the-assembly-line such as this. Made w/ soft-serv & Barq’s RB, available for a limited time ifyouwant1betterhurryB4it’sgone

If you’ve been abroad, you know Kit Kat spinoffs are old news. But as cybele detailed in a recent posting, international Kit Kats = Nestle. US = Hershey. (A company that, for a long time, resisted change; no more.) If you’ve been abroad, you also know there’ve been café latte and cappuccino kit kats in japan, yearned for by coffee fiends. So: yay for the new limited edition coffee Kit Kat which has a great coffee flavor btw now available here in the USA