"Mr. TS from Wash post just left the house. Suprised us on our second night."

In last week's Young & Hungry column, "Critical Distance," Sietsema dished a bit about his policy on reviewing new restaurants. While the city's senior-ranking food critic says he tries to abide by the standard one-month wait when working on his starred reviews for the Post magazine, he sometimes takes an earlier peak for the paper's separate "First Bite" column: "I feel free to visit new establishments as soon as their doors open to paying guests, although I’m not big on going the first night, when the paint is still drying.” He said nothing about going on the second night.

Photo by Greg Powers

People are pissed off about environmentally unfriendly plastic. But people are even more pissed off about the noise level of SunChips' new compostable bag, which the Wall Street Journal reports is as loud as a  jet cockpit, registering 95 decibels on a sound meter.

The inevitable Facebook group has emerged. Its name is in ALL CAPS, no doubt to emphasize the SHOUTING required to talk over a SunChips bag. SORRY BUT I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THIS SUN CHIPS BAG already has nearly 40,000 followers — or whatever Facebook calls these people now.

Over at Serious Eats, Y&H's friend Erin Zimmer has put together this video to give you an idea of exactly how loud the new bag is. You might want to grab earplugs first.

How sweet is this? The Sweetflow Mobile, that rolling froyo operation from Sweetgreen, will be giving away "FREE small cups of sweetflow with toppings this Saturday," according to its Facebook page.

And not just once, but twice. The truck will be parked from noon to 2 p.m. at 25th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW and from 3 to 5 p.m. at 5th and K sts. NW. Freebies will be available at both locations on Saturday.

"There will be more freebies that won't melt in your cup," the Sweetflow folk promise, "so bring your friends and your dancing shoes — let's make this Saturday an epic one!"

"We don't know what happened yet," Kassoff Gray told Y&H just a few minutes ago. She couldn't talk more at the moment and asked if she could call back later.

In the meantime, this announcement is on Kassoff Gray's facebook page:

Equinox has suffered from a devistating fire. We will be operating from Aria Restaurant. -please call 202-409-3157 for more information. Thank you and with the help of good friends we will be up and running again soon. Wish us luck!

More as we know it.

UPDATE, 11:55 a.m.: D.C. Fire Department spokesman Pete Piringer told Y&H this morning that the fire at Equinox was limited to the kitchen and the hood and duct systems above it. He described the fire as "small," but mentioned that it did cause some damage to the surrounding walls and ceiling.

The restaurant, Piringer added, is closed for now until the Health Department and other city agencies rule that it is ready to reopen.

About 60 to 70 firefighters were dispatched to the building at 818 Connecticut Avenue just before 3 a.m. today. Piringer says that is a "normal amount" of firefighters for that location, which is just blocks from the White House.

The fire was "under control very quickly," Piringer says. The last unit left the scene around 6 a.m. today.

There were no injuries, and the fire was ruled accidental, Piringer adds. The estimated damage is between $30,000-$40,000. The spokesman did not know the exact cause of the fire yet.

UPDATE, 12:07 p.m.: Piringer e-mailed Y&H just now with the cause of the Equinox fire: As you might suspect, it was a grease fire.

UPDATE: 3:58 p.m.: DC Fire Department spokesman Pete Piringer says that firefighting crews are back on the scene near Equinox. It's not actually in the restaurant itself, he adds, but in the exterior exhaust system between buildings.

Piringer believes there may have been debris left in the duct work from this morning's fire, which started to smolder this afternoon. Crews are still on the scene now.

You have probably heard this awful news by now, but Coppi's Organic co-owner Nori Amaya was found dead yesterday in her apartment. D.C. Police Department spokeswoman Traci Hughes confirmed to Y&H this afternoon that Amaya's death has been ruled a homicide. The cause of death is strangulation.

The horrific news has inspired an outpouring of grief on Amaya's facebook page. Below is a selection of the comments on Amaya's Wall:

• Nori, I had the pleasure of knowing you for years and am better to have had you in my life. We will all miss having you as a part of our lives. This is a tragedy and a shame. I wish you peace.
• I'AM SO SICK AND FUCK UP ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU BABY I LOVE YOU AND I'LL MISS U MY FRIEND , YOUR SMILE WILL ALWAYS BE WITH ME R.I.P ..................

• Nori I had the joy of knowing you. I always admire the way you cope with obstacles in life. I will miss you and I will always remember you.
• R.I.P. Nori I will always remember you as the good friends we always were...Im so glad we got to know eachother as little kids and share those wonderful moments.you are in a better place now and I will miss you....
• Growing up with you during our high school years left an indelible mark on me. We all shared so much together and memories of those times are times that I will always cherish. I deeply regret that I lost touch in the last years but it serves as a reminder that you need to reach out, and reach out often, to those who mean something to you. Take care, you leave many better off for having shared time with you.
• THIS IS FUCKIN BULLSHIT. I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT SOMETHING SO BAD, SO TERRIBLE CAN HAPPEN TO A PERSON WHO IS KIND, LOVING, AND AN ANGEL. NORI IS MY FRIEND AND I WILL MISS HER. I WILL PRAY AND I KNOW THAT GOD IS WITH HER. I LOVE YOU NORI AND OUR FRIENDSHIP, R.I.P.

How anyone could confuse this with this is beyond us, but it seems that as Monster explores the world of alcoholic beverages, they are looking to squash all perceived competition, even when that "threat" is a nine-person operation in rural Vermont. The Lagerheads' response: truly scary, but it doesn't really sound like what a natural beverage company would do.

When we started hearing about the conflict over the past week, we recalled the similar struggle that Dogfish Head Brewery and Anheuser-Busch had over the use of the words "punkin" and "chicory" several years ago. It turns out that there is more than just a haunting connection between the two stories. The same majority market-share-holding brewing giant that came after Sam Calagione at Dogfish Head happens to distribute Monster energy drinks. A true monster strikes again. More details after the jump.

The most obvious person to make this connection, Beer Wars filmmaker Anat Baron, posted about it on her blog yesterday. At the heart of her film is the struggle between what she calls "corporate behemoths" and small, independent craft breweries. In Beer Wars, she attempts to reveal to consumers the cutthroat practices the brewing industry's big three, Anheuser-Busch (now owned by Belgian giant InBev), Miller and Coors (who have since merged), use to eliminate any and all competition. If you are interested in even more sordid details on the most recent example of said practices, BeerNews.org has a timeline of events for the scuffle between Monster, Hansen, Anheuser-Busch, and Rock Art that goes back to 2007 (so get out your legal pad).

Angry calls to boycott Monster energy drinks and all Hansen products have been creeping and crawling all over the Twittersphere, and a video response from Matt Nadeau, who owns Rock Art Brewery with is wife Renee, popped up on YouTube yesterday. The video strays into a bit of a preachy, patriotic diatribe towards the end, but the sentiment is sincere. This guy needs help.

If you are an advocacy-type you can tweet and RT your little heart out on Twitter or join a Facebook group to show solidarity with the cause, but we're not sure how much good that will actually do. We'd suggest the obvious (not buying Anheuser-Busch or Hansen products and demanding that your friends don't either), but our guess is that if you are a Lagerheads follower you probably already abstain from Bud and energy drinks. However, you may be surprised what beverages fall under the Anheuser-Busch umbrella. We certainly are sometimes, so it might be interesting to take a look.

We'll be at this annual beer mecca, and, if you choose to follow our progress on Facebook and Twitter, you can be there, too (virtually). iPhone in hand, we'll be sending photos and updates about what we're drinking, eating, seeing, and learning–as much as we can each day until the combination of heightened elevation and alcohol take hold. If you have any tips to help us keep our wits about us or suggestions for places we should go–let us know in the comments section. Details on our trip after the jump.

Much like DC put on an unofficial beer week for Savor, Denver builds its own beer week around GABF so all the beer fanatics like us in town have plenty to do. Events on our beertinerary include a progressive Great Divide beer dinner and brewery tour, a rare beer tasting at Wynkoop, and the Boulder County Brews Cruise, an all-day trip with tours and tastings at Avery, Oskar Blues, Left Hand and Boulder Beer. We are planning a day trip to Fort Collins to tour New Belgium Brewery, and we hope to drop by Falling Rock and Cheeky Monk, two great beer bars in Denver, if our livers hold out.

So, if you're looking for a beer staycation, bookmark us now and then check in later for updates. Cheers!

Photo by Herkie used under a Creative Commons license.

We get all kinds of unwanted crap in the mail. Yesterday, Amanda Hess got this package from Red Bull, advertising its latest product line — the Red Bull Energy Shot, these two-ounce poppers designed to give you a sugar-and-caffeine rush when, say, your boss calls for yet another hour-long, narcolepsy-inducing meeting.  All of which is fine; I don't have to buy or drink this product.

But Hess showed me the hand-written note that came in her package.  It ended with this sentence: "Please share with Tim Carmen [sic], who is also a friend of Red Bull."

Now, I didn't take this note literally. I mean, I've never knowingly drank a Red Bull in my life. I considered this fraternal reference more like a facebook friendship, in which you horde all sorts of virtual "friends," like a politician collects votes, in order to market to them, manipulate them, and generally convince them you're one charming motherfucker.  As such, I thought I should get to know my new friend better.

So I drank a Red Bull Energy Shot. Or tried to drink one.

It smells like cough syrup, and it tastes like cough syrup cut with SweeTarts and mixed with Kool-Aid. I'm sorry, but I expect more from my friends.