Zipps Sports Grills plans to open its 10th Valleywide location at 48th Street and Warner Road this July.

Forget the tie. Think bespoke booze for Father’s Day, specifically a beverage tailor-made to suit the hobbies father knows best.

There’s no smoke and mirrors about it — Americans are eating a lot more smoked seafood than they used to.

The art of the summer cocktail is something I take most seriously.

The Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department will ban open fires in city mountain and desert preserves effective Monday, May 13. In consultation with the Phoenix Fire Department, smoking and charcoal fires are included in the ban due to the extreme fire danger that the combination of low humidity, increasing temperatures and frequent high winds creates each spring. Additional information on the ban is available online at phoenix.gov/parks.

On Sunday, the popular PBS restaurant review show, “Check, Please! Arizona,” hosts its first food festival at CityScape in Phoenix. While attendees enjoy a plethora of food and wine samples and live demonstrations from award-winning chefs like Robert McGrath and Chris Bianco, one humble festival booth — Pittsburgh Willy’s Gourmet Hot Dogs — takes the next step in its Cinderella story.

More than 25 barbecue vendors gather at Salt River Fields for this annual event, which will feature the inaugural Redneck Games. This cornpone competition includes a hub cap hurling challenge, a watermelon seed spitting contest and dead lawn mower races. Live music also plays throughout the day.

A Valley home builder with plans to build a development in Ahwatukee Foothills has just received its fourth consecutive “Homeowners’ Choice Award” from Eliant.

Famous Dave’s barbecue restaurants are teaming up with Arizona law enforcement officers to give some comfort to kids caught in the middle of tragedy.

Even though Stan Luketich manicures the Desert Vista baseball field so much he probably has a name for every grain of dirt that covers the infield and has coached just about every inning since the program’s inception in 1997, the thing he might be most proud of is something he has no involvement in.

Deep-fried gator, barbecued turkey legs, monster baked potatoes, funnel cakes and cotton candy. These are just a sampling of menu items at Piggly’s at the Fair, a new restaurant in Mesa.

Last year “Money Magazine” rated Chandler as one of the 50 best places to live in America — in part because of its annual mouth-watering barbecue and beer festival in AJ Chandler Park.

Super Bowl Sunday surely is one of the meatiest eating days of the year. But it’s still somewhat surprising the lengths some people will go to push their game day feed over the top. Last year, for example, some enthusiastic carnivores went as far as to build football arena replicas out of deli meats, cheese and bread.

After a successful year reaching a goal of $10,000 last year for Valley Dogs, an Ahwatukee Foothills couple is at it again organizing a local golf tournament for a cause that means so much.

My mouth is watering, and there’s not a thing I can do about it.

Ahwatukee injury lawyers, Mark and Alexis Breyer, also known as the Husband and Wife Law Team, are hosting a free tailgate party on Saturday, starting at 4:15 p.m.

The nice thing about cooking a monster brisket for Hanukkah — aside, of course, from the fact that the meat can be mouth meltingly delicious — is that it is a dish you can mostly ignore as it cooks.

Few foods are as satisfying as a golden potato pancake that is soft and tender inside, but crispy outside. But this simple dish so often is bungled. It can be undercooked, overcooked and/or soaked in grease.

Choose from more than 40 toppings and different crusts made in a stone oven, and top off these pies with olive oil, pesto or barbecue sauce, or traditional tomato sauce.

The Legends of Baseball Vintage Showdown is being played at Scottsdale Stadium on Sunday.

Mmmm. Nothing says good eats like soy residue.

Smoked Jerky, Beef, Turkey, or Cajun: Buy 1 pound get 1 pound free of equal or less value. Expires Nov. 4.