Screenshot from the Food Network website

Duff Goldman

July 2 will mark the emergence of a new platform for food television, thanks to former Food Network and Cooking Channel veteran Bruce Seidel. The Associated Press reports that Seidel, the creator of Food Network Star and Iron Chef America, will spearhead the launch of HUNGRY, a specialized YouTube interest channel that will feature one- to three-minute how-to and celebrity-driven food videos. The programming of HUNGRY is part of YouTube's $200 million plan to create about 100 niche channels.

HUNGRY also will star Duff Goldman, Food Network's former Ace of Cakes host, who will focus on food culture in "Duff's Food World." So far, two other series are mid-production. "Brothers Green" features two Brooklyn brothers who are both musicians and "underground caterers." Two women from Austin will cook retro food and entertain in "Casserole Queens." Also expected to come from HUNGRY are series on pork, gluten-free cooking and Italian desserts.

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Kathy A. McDonald

Inside Everson Royce

Opened last Saturday, Old Town Pasadena's Everson Royce is not quite a sequel to Silverlake Wine. Think character spinoff. Two out of three Silverlake Wine owners are involved; approximately 25% of the same small-production wine brands are stocked. Potential customers are greeted immediately at the door. Everything else is different, from the look to the wine-tasting schedule and the amount of spirits for sale. Once the inventory is complete, says owner Randy Clement, there will be eight times the amount of hard stuff on hand.

Located in a historic building between the Armory Center for the Arts and a multilevel parking garage, the Raymond Avenue store is more citified than the original Silver Lake location. Exposed air-conditioning ducts (painted navy blue), brick walls and steel shelving give the store a loftlike feel. Some details are eye-catching: Designer Ana Henton of MASS Architecture repurposed previous tenant Heritage Wine Shop's wine racks as decorative finishes to the bar and checkout desk.

What else is on tap at the brand-new wine, beer and spirits outlet?

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MillerCoors

Miller Lite punch-top can

MillerCoors is about to change your Miller Lite drinking experience. Are you kept up at night by the difficulties of enjoying that great, less filling taste so feverishly that you just can't unleash it from the can fast enough? Do you pine for a time when drinking your beer from the can will be just like drinking it from a glass? Rest easy, friend. The new punch-top can is here to ease your troubles.

Yesterday MillerCoors launched the ad campaign that will accompany the new Miller Lite and MGD 12 oz. and 16 oz. cans. The can features a depressible tab that admits air as it is releasing liquid, removing that "glug" effect that has long characterized drinking from a can. Director of innovation and activation for Miller Lite Amy Breeze says, "On our testing, consumers told us they prefer the punch-top can 3-to-1 over the standard beer can because it's more like drinking from a pilsner glass." The advertisers did not run with the glassware-like effect or the improved shotgunning implications of this new design. Focus of the ad campaign, "How will you punch it?" will instead be the personal creative possibilities for your own method of opening the punch hole.

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Erika Bolden

Biggest California craft beer producer

The Brewers Association has just released this year's numbers on U.S. beer sales. If you prefer Manifesto Eagle Rock Wit to Blue Moon (which is owned by MillerCoors), the news is good. Beer sales slowed overall, slipping 1.3% by volume. Within the craft beer industry, however, numbers continued to rise, with a 13% increase by volume (almost 11.5 million barrels) and 15% increase in dollars (compared with 12% and 15%, respectively, in 2010). Thanks to 1,940 breweries in operation last year, including brewpubs, microbreweries and regional craft breweries, the number of small beer producers is the highest it's been since 1880.

Why is this small but steady increase important? In the last few years, big beer advertising has shifted (slightly) less toward bikinis and beaches, and more in the direction of "top-shelf taste," "triple-filtered" and "triple-hopped." This is an industry acknowledgment that the average beer consumer now is looking for a brew offering quality in flavor and not just a fermented corn juice buzz or barbecue accessory. A continuously growing craft beer market means more stability for your favorite local brewer, and additional brewery openings.

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Let's start by stating the obvious: There have been big changes to the L.A. Weekly's food section recently. And there are even more on the way.

After our longtime critic Jonathan Gold departed for the L.A. Times, we've been nibbling on this and that: a reflection on cookbooks from Roy Choi, a piece by "reverse coyote" Bill Esparza, who takes foodies to Tijuana, an essay by restaurateur Jason Bernstein about L.A.'s craft beer revolution.

We've enjoyed these amuse bouches, but it's time to sit down to an actual dinner. And so, to that end, we've assembled a team intent on publishing the best food coverage in L.A. -- both in print and online, and all gloriously free.

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flickr user/lesbal123

Fundraiser Frites + Wine

Wally's Central Coast Wine & Food Celebration, a nonprofit wine and food tasting event that began eight years ago to support the Michael Bonaccorsi Scholarship Fund, has unexpectedly been cancelled this year.

"We just don't have a place to do the event," says the event's volunteer publicist, Jannis Swerman. "Wally's has always hosted [the event] but told us they can't this year."

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UCLA

Cellphone-based E. coli detector

Want to check if that meat is really spoiled, or just smells off? UCLA reports that a new attachment for smartphones may be able to detect E. coli and Salmonella contamination and save you from a trip to the emergency room. Researchers from UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have invented a device that could lead to a cost-effective, portable means to check for food-borne pathogens once it runs through the gauntlet of peer-review and the thickets of commercial development.

From what we can parse in the abstract of the journal The Royal Society of Chemistry, it's a proof-of-concept that's in early development, and still a long way from showing up in your local Apple store.

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A car slammed into popular Echo Park restaurant Pizza Buona shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, shattering the glass window in front, smashing through tables and chairs and sending a pregnant woman to the hospital.

The dining room was empty at the time, but a 20-year-old pedestrian was dragged when a red Acura smashed into the pizzeria. She sustained minor injuries, reports NBC Los Angeles, which has pictures of the crash shot by Pizza Buona owner Israel Palacios.

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Mr. Gold, we hardly knew thee.

Anne Fishbein

Yes, it's true. The Weekly's longtime food critic, Jonathan Gold, has accepted a job with the L.A. Times. He'll be leaving here in a few weeks.

We're sad to see him go, as Gold is not just the first -- and only -- food critic to win a Pulitzer Prize (in 2007), but a brilliant writer and intrepid explorer of the L.A. culinary scene. We wish we could have kept him. Hell, we tried to keep him. But time marches on. He's been here since 1982, for God's sake. We wish him the best of luck in his new adventures.

We'll still be publishing his work for a few more weeks. Our spring restaurant issue March 1 is going to be as good as ever -- and he'll be at the Gold Standard event with us to celebrate it. There are very few tickets left, but if you act fast, you may even be able to join us in toasting a legend one last time.

Courtesy of the Heart Attack Grill

Everything is bigger and flashier in Las Vegas, even the heart attacks. Halfway through eating a 6,000-calorie Triple Bypass Burger, a customer at the Las Vegas outpost of Heart Attack Grill began experiencing chest pains and had to be wheeled out of the restaurant by paramedics -- all while diners snapped photos and video because they though it was an elaborate publicity stunt. A rep for the chain, which allows people who weigh more than 350 pounds to eat for free, denies it was a publicity stunt, according to The Daily Mail.

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