Roundup: Black Restaurant Week, Four Peaks Solar Seltzer, and Guy Fieri Is Back

It’s Friday, and we have five big bites of food and drink news to catch you up on the week’s events. Let’s go.

Black Restaurant Week Starts Today

Several Phoenix restaurants have joined a nationwide tour running from Friday, March 12, till Sunday, March 21, called Black Restaurant Week. During BRW, guests can try prix fixe brunches, lunches, and dinners at participating restaurants, including Cool Vybz Jamaican Restaurant, Brunch & Sip, Monroe’s Hot Chicken, Lo-Lo’s Chicken & Waffles, Ocho Rios Jerk Spot, and Chic Chef Cafe & Marketplace. Started in Houston in 2016 by founder Warren Luckett and co-founders Falayn Ferrell and Derek Robinson, BRW has expanded to 15 cities to include more than 670 food businesses.

Mesa Farmers’ Market Is Now the Downtown Mesa Farmer’s Market

You won’t find what is now called the Downtown Mesa Farmer’s Market at the Pioneer Park anymore. As of last weekend, the Mesa Arts Center, located at 1 East Main Street in downtown Mesa, is the new host of the market and mobile food court. Hours are still 8 a.m. to noon every Saturday and many of your favorite vendors (The Nile Shop, Noble Bread, Bored Baker Pizza Maker) are still on deck. And before you even ask, free parking is available at Center Street and First Avenue and in the Sirrine Parking Garage.

Wing News: ATL Wings Does a Reorg

The local chicken chain ATL Wings, winners of multiple BOPs for best wings (including in 2020), is doing some spring cleaning. President D. Mike Kirksey and vice president Cianna Kirksey recently made this announcement on the website: “We wanted to inform our loyal customers that effective immediately we have terminated 4 locations. These locations are no longer affiliated with the All The Luv (ATL) Wingsâ„¢ brand … We are actively seeking replacements in that area and will be pursuing opening NEW All The Luv Wings locations soon.” Those locations were at 7810 North 12th Street, 10720 West Indian School Road, 8024 North 51st Avenue in Glendale, and 2747 West Southern Avenue in Tempe.

Pedal Haus Brewery Coming to Downtown Mesa

The former Pit Stop autobody shop at 201 West Main Street in Mesa will be home to the fourth location of Pedal Haus Brewery by late 2021. New for the downtown Mesa location: its first biergarten, a 6,000 square-foot dog-friendly patio with a stage, fire pits, and indoor-outdoor bar attached to the 2,300-square-foot brewery. The founders plan to “preserve and re-purpose the 1950s structure,” keeping much of the “original autobody shop’s modernist ‘Googie Style’ design features, such as the floating ‘V’ awning.”

Introducing Sun-Made Sun Day Solar Seltzer From Four Peaks

As we ease into the Valley heaviest day drinking season of the year, we want to remind you that Four Peaks Brewing Co. recently released its first hard seltzer (which is different from its 2019-released spiked limeade). But the coolest, or maybe hottest, part is how Sun Day Solar Seltzer is made with renewable energy. In 2020, Four Peaks installed more than 500 solar panels atop its 56,000-square-foot Wilson Street production facility. “All of the energy we use to produce Sun Day comes from the Arizona sun,” says head innovation brewer Melissa Osborne in a press release. Sun Day Solar Seltzer is 4 percent ABV, 99 calories a can, and available now at stores in six-packs of lime, grapefruit, tropical, and prickly pear.

Guy Fieri Is Back and He Brought a Phoenix Friend

With March Madness on the way, we have bracket-style competitions on the brain. For those more interested in celebrity chefs than celebrity athletes, good thing there’s the Tournament of Champions II hosted by Guy Fieri. Phoenix chef, Aaron May, will be competing on the show as part of the gang of West Coast chefs. The weekly show started March 7, with chef May scheduled to appear in episode four. For air times, viewing options, and more information, see the Food Network website.

Editor’s note: This article was updated from its original version.