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Planning to go downtown to check out the farmer's market on Saturday? Here's something fun to do afterward, if you're feeling kind of cheesy (like me, right now, apparently...)

Cheuvront Restaurant & Wine Bar is hosting its first annual Wine & Cheese Festival, from noon to 4 p.m. Thirty boutique wines and a variety of artisan cheeses will be featured, and there will be live entertainment, too.

Not bad for 25 bucks. The cost of admission also gets you 10% off retail wine and cheese purchases of $50 or more.

Spring isn't the only thing that's sprung at Tapino, the chic Scottsdale tapas joint. A dozen new dishes are making a menu debut, too.

Among chef James Porter's newest creations are a roasted eggplant and ricotta crepe with smoked tomato coulis; white Italian anchovies with tomato gelee, lemon oil and fennel pollen; and foie gras au tourchon with arizona pecan biscuit, prickly pear syrup and pickled rhubarb.

Sounds like a tasty antidote to Spring Fever, doesn't it?

According to Steve Wolff, who owns Urban Campfire, his business partner Robert Stempkowski had a conversation with a certain reporter from a certain local publication (okay, it was Howard Seftel from the Republic) about how Stempkowski was considering leaving the Tempe barbecue restaurant. It was reported today as confirmation that Urban Campfire was closed.

But hey, they're still open!

I'm glad to hear it, but I admit, I believed the bad faux-news, and blithely found it worth a blog comment. (The sky is falling, indeed!) A little while later, something about it showed up on the Trib's food blog, too (it's still cached in Google), although later Jess Harter deleted it and put up a new post that failed to come clean on his own snafu. Hmm.

Actually, the alleged closing made sense: Stempkowski called New Times a few weeks ago to say that the owner of the gas station next door to Urban Campfire was making frequent complaint calls to the city's environmental department about the restaurant's meat smoker. On top of that, the place was often so empty that I wondered if the end was in sight.

Still, the combination of great BBQ, blue collar beer, and cheap prices always seemed like a no-brainer for the student-centric ASU dining scene, but hey, maybe the kiddies are all going vegan...

Anyway, Wolff's pissed, which is understandable. Sorry dude. Hopefully this will give people a second chance to visit your restaurant, after keeping it on their to-do list for all these months.

Good night, and good luck.

An new Italian cafe called La Piccola Cucina just opened up late last week, and let me tell you, the place is totally adorable.

It's on the east side of 7th Street, just south of Oak -- basically right between Coronado Cafe and MacAlpine's. Along with That's a Wrap, Drip Coffee, Trente-Cinq 35, and Lisa G, 7th Street between McDowell and Thomas has turned into such a nice restaurant row, with a variety of options.

Anyway, La Piccola Cucina is lovely, tucked away in a restored historic house with white ornamental tin ceilings, wooden floors, and a decent-sized front patio. Driving by, you can't miss the big black and white Mokarabia umbrellas.

To eat, there's a selection of paninis, as well as a case full of cooked dishes that can be mixed and matched to create your own dinner platter, from herbed chicken and stuffed pork tenderloin to spinach with chickpeas, pasta primavera, asparagus, and beets. There are also shelves of fresh Italian pastries, and a lavish display of gelato.

Along with espresso, there's a refrigerated case of bottled drinks, including Dry Soda in a flavors such as lemongrass, rhubarb, and lavender. (I recently tried a Dry Soda at Pane Bianco -- it's really refreshing, with seemingly no sugar, and just a hint of crisp flavor.)

They're still working out their official business hours, but their goal is to stay open from morning 'til midnight. La Piccola Cucina is located at 2241 N. 7th St.

For awhile there, it started to look like we were going to choke on all the new restaurant openings in Scottsdale. To be sure, a ton of 'em have already opened (as you already know if you even occasionally read Chow Bella!), and plenty more are coming down the pipeline.

But while originally it looked like the onslaught of new Old Town eateries -- at SouthBridge as well as on the other side of Stetson -- would've happened by now, there's news of postponed openings from Peter Kasperski's camp. Consider this more time to digest all the newcomers.

According to original predictions, Mexican Standoff, featuring creations from Cowboy Ciao chef Bernie Kantak, should've opened by now. It will tentatively open in early May. The move of chef Nobuo Fukuda's Sea Saw, along with the opening of his izakaya Shell Shock, is also getting pushed back -- to July. And pastry chef Tracy Dempsey's sweet-centric Confection, which will move into Sea Saw's old space, won't open til August or later.

Is it the economy, stupid? (Uh, lame attempt at humor.)

Maybe, but don't freak out -- this kind of thing happens all the time in the unpredictable world of restaurants. And generally, I don't bother to report on every nitpicking little shift in the winds, but in this case, it's a whole chunk of delayed debuts that inquiring minds want to know about.

On the upside, this helps the Valley continue to break away from its history of damn-boring summers, when snowbirds and students would skip town, and nothing culturally interesting would happen until September or October. And selfishly, since all the scrounging and deprivation that enables my annual trip to Japan probably won't be enough to get there this summer, the opening of Shell Shock sounds like a fine consolation prize.

Spring seems to be the season of culinary festivals in these parts, but now there's something to look forward to on the other side of summer: Eats3, a new culinary festival scheduled to debut October 23-25 in downtown Scottsdale.

I expect it to be a good one, too, since it's being organized by Savor Scottsdale, a recently formed organization of independently owned restaurants.

That means some of the best-known names in the Valley are behind the event -- Atlas Bistro, Canal, Cowboy Ciao, Don & Charlie's, Kazimierz, Lon's, Methode Bistro, Mosaic, Pischke's Blue Ribbon, Razz's, the soon-to-open REM, Sea Saw, Sol y Sombra, Tapino, Foodbar, and Painted Horse.

(Coincidentally, and sadly, I happened to learn earlier today that Twisted -- an inaugural Savor Scottsdale member -- has closed.)

Eats3 promises food and wine tastings, chef exhibitions, an art walk, a bartender competition, and an appearance by the legendary Jacques Pepin (wow!).

I've already saved the date in my calendar.

Something's up with the alignment of the planets. Lately my inbox has been flooded with emails about recipe contests, and I figured I'd compile the details for all of you fabulous, creative cooks out there. Get crack-a-lackin' and win something, already!

The idea behind CHOW.com's "Desperation Dinners" Food Fight Challenge is one close to my heart: coming up with something edible and incredible with whatever paltry pantry findings you can scrounge up. Come up with a one-dish meal that takes an hour or less to make, utilizing common non-perishable items. Entries will be accepted through the end of March.

The grand prize is 20 grand for whomever wins Cooking Light magazine's contest. There are four different categories -- starters & drinks, sides & salads, family dinners, and desserts -- and recipe submissions must include ingredients from one or more of the contest sponsors. The deadline is May 31.

If organic chocolate is your thing, hit up Green & Black's Chocolate Challenge. The chocolate maker is soliciting recipes of five ingredients or less, and one of the ingredients has to be two or more ounces of organic chocolate. There will be five winners, and the prizes are pretty sweet: a trip to NYC to cook with Curtis Stone from Take Home Chef, a meal at the James Beard House, and tickets to the James Beard Foundation Awards and Gala. Enter by April 21.

There's a locavore slant to Bolla Wines' "Taste of Your Town" pizza recipe contest. Entries must include unique Arizona ingredients; rattlesnake meat and saguaro cactus syrup are a couple suggested ingredients (seriously!). You also need to specify which Bolla varietal goes well with the recipe. Entries are due by August 31, and the grand prize is a trip to Bolla's winery in Verona, Italy, and to the 2009 World Pizza Championships in Europe.

And lastly, if you're handy with sweet potatoes, get in on the Get Fresh with North Carolina Sweet Potatoes contest. The prizes are cold, hard cash, and entries must be submitted by April 15 -- better get your taxes done first, though.

So did you make it down to West of Western over the weekend?

This year it was held at the Phoenix Art Museum, which turned out to be a great venue for a culinary fest. The wine tables were set up in the Great Hall (I loved the Wend-Tyler 2003 Ruby Cabernet, the Hawkes cab, and Green River rice wine), while restaurants set up their tents out in the courtyard, which was transformed into a sort of grand boulevard of food.

Thanks to gorgeous weather, Saturday turned out the be the better people-watching day, but on Sunday, when things cooled off somewhat, there were more restaurants to choose from -- and I ran into a bunch of different friends. Thank god the rain didn't amount to more than a few drops.

Talavera served up savory tarts on a pretty display stand, which made it easy to go back for seconds.

Chef Mark Tarbell -- who won the apple challenge on Iron Chef -- served up petite candied apples.

Tons of people lined up for the killer lamb chops from Javinos. The smoke coming off of that grill smelled soooo delicious.

Kai gets my unofficial award for best display. Their table had an army of chefs behind a spread that included cedar-planked salmon, black bean hummus with crisp sheets of lavosh, and great mini cheesecake cones (made with Purple Haze goat cheese!) dipped in crushed pistachios.

Here's Hell's Kitchen alumnus Brad Miller at the Boulders Resort table. Good thing he was plating food because otherwise he might've been mobbed for autographs.

Festival director Scott Andrews rocked his Persol shades on Saturday afternoon.

Sonorous got their groove on with Hillary and Obama.

Check out the list of winners of the Edible Communities Local Heroes award, courtesy of Pamela Hamilton from Edible Phoenix:

PHOENIX
Farm/Farmer: Maya Dailey, Maya's Farm
Chef/Restaurant: Deborah Knight, Mosaic and Greg LaPrad, Quiessence
Food Artisan: Rainbow Valley Nursery
Beverage Artisan: Four Peaks Brewery
Non-Profit Organization: Downtown Phoenix Public Market

On a related note, the founders of Edible Communities, Tracey Ryder and Carole Topalian, will be at Phoenix Art Museum's Whiteman Hall this Saturday to talk about their efforts to save local farms and producers, and to show photographs from local food communities around the U.S. and Canada. The presentation, "The Art of Local Food," starts at 12:30 p.m.; paid admission to the museum or to the West of Western culinary festival are required.

Are we going to start seeing more pasta instead of prime rib on menus pretty soon?

An article in the Wall Street Journal this week details how restaurants are weathering the shaky economy, and it's interesting to read about what kinds of menu changes were prompted by the increasing costs of ingredients.

I'll be curious to see how this plays out locally . . .

InterContinental Montelucia Resort & Spa isn't set to open until August, but there's already a reason to look forward to it -- they've hired Francesco Roccato as executive chef.

The Torino, Italy, native is a Slow Food member who's done stints in kitchens around the world, from Spain to Bermuda to Canada. Most recently, Roccato was executive chef at the InterContinental Cleveland, whose Table 45 is a 2008 James Beard award nominee and was named one of Esquire's Top 20 Best New Restaurants last year.

No doubt Roccato will have his hands full at the Moroccan- and Spanish-inspired Paradise Valley luxury resort, where he'll be developing concepts for a signature restaurant and bar (he'll be hiring a chef de cuisine soon), spa bistro, pool bar and grill, and café.

Keep an eye out for him if you hit up West of Western this weekend -- he'll be there doing some meet 'n greet with the local foodie community.

April 5 marks the end of an era for the Phoenician, when the resort's legendary fine dining establishment, Mary Elaine's, has its last dinner service. But now there's word of the next chapter: J&G Steakhouse is scheduled to open on October 1.

When Mary Elaine's closing was announced, the most we knew of the successor was that it would be a new eatery from chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Culinary Concepts By Jean-Georges, a restaurant and licensing business partnered with Starwood, the Phoenician's parent company.

We might look to Vongerichten's Prime Steakhouse at the Bellagio in Las Vegas for an idea of what to expect, although Denise Seomin, PR director for the Phoenician, notes that J&G Steakhouse is "not really about following a model."

The new concept will "lend to the indigenous flavor of the area, and particularly the resort," she adds, and the menu, featuring premium meats and fish, and will allow guests to create their own individually designed meals.

Starting in May, the space vacated by Mary Elaine's will undergo a $6 million renovation; the new David Rockwell-designed interior will incorporate stone and wood for an "elegant, soft modern" feel. Naturally, the dining room will still play up its panoramic fifth-floor views of the Valley.

On a related note, look for a $1 million renovation at another Phoenician restaurant in May, when The Terrace will shift from American to Italian cuisine, and will be renamed Il Terrazzo.

Sushi bars might be cropping up like mushrooms around the Valley, but somehow downtown Phoenix hasn't gotten any love. What's up with that? How could the fifth-largest city in the country not have one single sushi joint in its urban core?

Don't worry your pretty little head -- in a few months, we won't need to ponder such an outrageous notion.

That's because Moira Sushi Bar & Kitchen is coming to the ground level of Urban Form Development's new condos at 215 E. McKinley -- you know, the pointy-roofed brick building just a stone's throw south of The Roosevelt.

Chef-owner Tony Van, who's worked at a variety of restaurants in northern Arizona, and co-owner Linda Nguyen plan to open in July.

Looking for a sweet new chef coat? Or maybe another pair of kitchen clogs? Have a knife that needs an expert sharpening job?

Hit up the Chef Shop in Scottsdale, which has teamed up with Phoenix Knife House to create a one-stop culinary superstore. It opens tomorrow, March 11.

Both businesses have made a name for themselves with local chefs. Not surprisingly, they're also both run by former chefs -- Cory Newman (Four Seasons) at the Chef Shop, and Eytan Zias (Kai, Fiamma) at Phoenix Knife House. The two decided to combine their efforts when Zias found out that his store's original location on Indian School would be demolished to make way for a new development. He will continue to operate Phoenix Knife House within the bigger, better confines of the Chef Shop.

The Chef Shop and Phoenix Knife House are located at 7607 E. McDowell in Scottsdale. Starting tomorrow, store hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Call 480-946-2758 for more information.

It landed in my mailbox on Saturday, but I'm not sure if it's on newsstands yet. Anyway, it includes a great feature on Scottsdale restaurateur Peter Kasperski and his creative approach to wine pairings at Cowboy Ciao, Sea Saw, Kazimierz, Digestif, and the as-yet-unopened Mexican Standoff and Shell Shock. The piece also gives props to chefs Nobuo Fukuda, Bernie Kantak, and Payton Curry, and includes several of their recipes. Go grab a copy!