Luna Grill to Open Its Sixth Restaurant at Liberty Station in Point Loma

Luna Grill has announced the addition of a sixth restaurant at Liberty Station in the Point Loma area of San Diego, bringing "The Ultimate Kabobery" fast casual Mediterranean restaurant to the former Naval Training Center.

Luna Grill was founded six years ago when Pourteymour's wife, Maria, became concerned that the couple's children weren't getting healthy nutrition when they ate out. She wanted to provide wholesome, natural, made-to-order food that is so healthy and convenient, that she would feel confident enough to feed it to her own children every day. Now the restaurant's Chief Cuisine Officer, Maria develops every menu addition, is involved in selecting all spices, produce, hormone-free meats and works closely with the staff to ensure quality controls across the Luna Grill brand.Luna Grill is owned by Premier Food Concepts, LLC, which has headquarters in San Diego. Other Luna Grill locations include Carmel Valley, Mission Valley, Carlsbad, Hillcrest, and coming soon to EastLake and Point Loma - Liberty Station. For more information about Luna Grill, visit www.lunagrill.com or become a Facebook fan .Luna Grill keeps growing at a strong pace and the anticipation builds as the grand opening at Liberty Station gets closer. The former Naval Training Center is now a community hub and is an idyllic location for Luna Grill's Near East and Mediterranean healthy cuisine . The family-centered community provides everything from golf to movies in the park.Contact: Marisa Vallbona 619-708-7990 Email Contact or Brian Williams 619-954-4276 Email Contact"We have been slowly adding to our team with locations in Carlsbad, Carmel Valley, Mission Valley, and over the past few months in Hillcrest and EastLake. The Point Loma - Liberty Station location is especially exciting because we love the community there and everything they are doing to make it a 'family first' neighborhood," said Sean Pourteymour, CEO of Luna Grill.Add to Digg Bookmark with del.icio.us Add to Newsvine

Contact: Marisa Vallbona 619-708-7990 Email Contact or Brian Williams 619-954-4276 Email Contact

UFood Grill Offers Online Ordering at Downtown Crossing Location in Boston

UFood Restaurant Group Inc. (OTCBB: UFFC) is offering customers online ordering at its UFood Grill in the Downtown Crossing area of Boston starting today.

"We believe that online ordering will be a great convenience to our busy Downtown Crossing customers who work nearby in Boston's professional and financial services industries," said UFood CEO George Naddaff. "This option should also provide economies of scale in our operations and drive sales. After an initial trial period, we hope to roll this out to our other locations."Add to Digg Bookmark with del.icio.us Add to NewsvineThis press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 involving known and unknown risks, delays, and uncertainties that may cause our actual results or performance to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks, delays, and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: risks associated with the uncertainty of future financial results, our reliance on our sole supplier, the limited diversification of our product offerings, additional financing requirements, development of new products, government approval processes, the impact of competitive products or pricing, technological changes, the effect of economic conditions and other uncertainties detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.A button on the UFood homepage ( www.ufoodgrill.com ) takes consumers to the Downtown Crossing ordering page, where they can place an order for anything on the menu. Customers can pay online or at the store. A separate online orders pick-up register will expedite the process.According to the National Restaurant Association's 2010 Restaurant Industry Operations Report, 53 percent of people ages 18 to 34 say they would order online.The place where "delicious meets nutritious," UFood Grill is committed to offering consumers food that tastes great, is lower in calories and fat, and healthier. UFood boasts a wide-ranging menu that includes lean burgers, rice bowls, salads, wraps and smoothies.Forward-Looking StatementsAbout UFood Restaurant Group, Inc. Headquartered in Boston, Mass., UFood Restaurant Group, Inc. is a franchisor and operator of fast-casual food service restaurants. UFood Grill offers a healthy lifestyle alternative to consumers in the fast-casual restaurant space and is positioned to become a leading player in the "better-for-you" quick-serve restaurant category. The Company is led by franchise innovator George Naddaff, who founded Boston Market and led the franchising of several companies including Sylvan Learning Center and VR Business Brokers. Mr. Naddaff has assembled a veteran management team with a successful record in the franchise market. UFood is currently launching a growth plan to franchise nationwide. To learn more, visit www.ufoodgrill.com .

Contact: UFood Restaurant Group, Inc. Charles A. Cocotas COO 617-787-6000

VooDoo BBQ Franchise Signs 26-Location Expansion in Florida

VooDoo BBQ & Grill Franchise has reached an agreement to open 26 restaurants in Florida -- a move that will double the Louisiana-based company's locations and signal VooDoo's emergence as a regional brand with national aspirations.

The first VooDoo restaurant will open in Miami within eight months. The territory encompasses most of Florida and will have locations in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Tampa, St. Petersburg and Jacksonville.But most important, he said, was the food. VooDoo specializes in competition-style barbecue and serves unique, chef-designed side dishes atypical for barbecue restaurants, such as corn pudding, Gris Gris greens and sweet potato soufflé."For us, this is absolutely huge," said VooDoo CEO Tony Avila. "We're establishing a large footprint in the nation's fourth-most-populous state. I think years from now, we'll look back at this agreement with BBQ Boyz as a monumental moment for VooDoo BBQ."VooDoo was founded by a group of entrepreneurs with roots in the Ruth's Chris organization. They opened the first VooDoo BBQ & Grill on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans on Mardi Gras day 2002. Over the next nine years, the company grew steadily, proving itself in the competitive culinary arena of south Louisiana and building a huge fan base.BBQ Boyz plans to open 13 restaurants in the next five years and the full complement of 26 within a decade. The deal is the largest in VooDoo's nine-year history. Recent expansion has boosted the company's total number of scheduled openings to 41.For more information, visit www.voodoobbqfranchiseblog.comThe Florida franchisee is BBQ Boyz LLC, owned and run by friends and neighbors Jack and Ilene Flechner, Fred Burgess and Joe and Barbara Sloboda in Broward County."Now we're ready to take our New Orleans-style flavor and magic way beyond Louisiana," Avila said. "Florida has great food. We're excited and confident that Floridians will appreciate and love what VooDoo BBQ has to offer.""There are good barbecue places down in Florida," Flechner said. "VooDoo is different in that it's fast-casual rather than the kind of mom-and-pop shack or the much larger sit-down restaurants that are prevalent. I think VooDoo is really well situated to fill a niche in between."

Media Contact: Chad Tramuta 877-902-4BBQ Email Contact

High life

Gstaad

She resigned her popular TV chat show when the pig was appointed a minister, claiming it might be a conflict of interest. It was nothing of the sort. She had inside info that the show was about to be cancelled, so she bailed out.Of course, Glover is right in calling DSK a chauvinist sexual predator, untrustworthy, greedy and unscrupulous. He is all that and more. His wife's billion dollar fortune, incidentally, derives from her grandfather Rosenberg's dodgy art dealership.no one in their right mind took it seriously, not even the hacks, who 20 years ago believed me when I wrote in these here pages that Mrs Saddam Hussein had moved in for the duration. Journalists arrived and began snooping around. The owner, Ernst Scherz, a very old friend, found it amusing and refused to deny it. The hacks drank copiously at the bar and everything was hunky-dory until the powers back home froze their expense accounts.Which brings me to a Don Giovanni wannabe, the Frog DSK, newly free to seduce more good-lookers from Africa and its environs. There's not much I've found in Stephen Glover's writings to disagree with, except for his recent description of that phoney socialist pig's wife as a tolerant French woman because 'her class and background' require it. Actually, it is she who wants the top prize even more than the short fat man with bulging eyes and an oversized ego. Let's not forget that DSK's first wife got him connected with the right people in les Grandes Ecoles which landed him his first good job as a lecturer.Oh, my God, say it ain't so.Which I failed to do last week by announcing Saif Gaddafi's arrival at the Palace hotel;Nothing serious: if one went down that was the end of it. Wildenstein I never hit because he was so skinny, ugly and miserable, although if anyone deserved a knuckle sandwich it was him. There were rumours galore about his dishonesty, but the French covered things up, as they tend to do. He is now dead, and his son Guy is being investigated for a massive fraud, which obviously I cannot possibly comment upon, although I expect that he's guilty as hell on the basis of like father like son.Gildo, the greatest maitre d' ever, still talks about it when he's not singing arias from Don Giovanni, which he knows by heart.He then used his second wife to get him in tight with the civil servants, who steered him and recommended him to become minister of finance, and now, his third one, a billionaire, was and is financing his bid for the top spot. Anne Sinclair is no babe in the woods.Rosenberg's deals were as shady as Wildenstein's, but unlike the latter he never got caught. Daniel Wildenstein I knew quite well from my El Morocco nights during the Fifties in the Bagel. He was an awful man, always complaining about the waiters or not having the right table. Back then we used to get into fights quite regularly over women.It's been very sunny and hot, with the bluest of blue skies above and the greenest of green mountains around me; in fact, it does not get any better than this. The farmers have cut their grass and packed it for the winter's feed, soon the cows will be coming down from the hills, and the Swiss franc will continue going through the roof. Life is now so expensive in Switzerland that even the rich are starting to complain. Forty pounds for a grilled cheese on the terrace of a top hotel is a bit steep, unless one has access to the Gaddafi sovereign wealth fund, which some Swiss bankers I am sure do. Still, I know worse places to be, such as the Hamptons during Labor Day weekend; in Tripoli, while the mongrel dog and his eight perverted children are still on the loose; and if one's really unlucky on the Carlton Hotel terrace in Cannes, watching rich Russians guzzle warm champagne in the afternoon sun.I used to play a lot of polo with Guy Wildenstein in Paris and he was perfectly behaved and very well mounted but none of us liked him. I cannot put my finger on it, but he was extremely dislikable, just like his old man. I hope he goes down but it's ten to one against. The French protect the rich and powerful, just look at DSK. That other arch phoney, the pseudo-philosopher BernardHenri Levy, would have been laughed off the campus of a school for retarded 12-year-olds, yet he regularly appears on French TV as an adviser to Sarkozy and as a well-informed source. Source for self-promotion and bullshit, says Greece's greatest philosopher since Plato. DSK, BHL, Rosenberg, Wildenstein, what did the French people do wrong to deserve such people? Is it punishment for collapsing so quickly against the Wehrmacht? Or for collaborating so eagerly with the conquerors? (After General Weygand's collapse, a wit wrote Veni Vidi Vichy! ) It could also be that because the French have such a beautiful country, with Paris the most beautiful city on earth, God made sure the French people have DSK and BHL and Rosenberg and Wildenstein to balance things out.So, for the moment I'm sitting pretty on my lawn, trying to make some mischief.

Oh, my God, say it ain't so.

Change4Life top tips for top kids

Sugar swaps: swapping sugary snacks and drinks for ones that are lower in sugar can make a huge difference to kids' calorie intake and it''s better for their teeth.

60 active minutes: kids need to do at least one hour of activity a day to help them stay happy and healthy. It doesn't need to be sport - running around and having fun outside count too.Five a day: it's easier than you think to give your kids five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. For kids, one portion is roughly a handful. * Cut back fat: grilling and baking rather than frying it can reduce the fat content by as much as two-thirds. Cut down on snacks such as crisps, cakes, biscuits and pastries.Meal time: it's important for kids to have regular, proper meals as growing bodies respond better to routine. * Me size meals: even though they are growing, it's important to make sure kids get just the right amount for their age - not too little and not too much.Up and about: the way life is today means that most of us spend too long sitting down doing nothing. It might be worth setting a 'two hours max' of screen time each day.

Up and about: the way life is today means that most of us spend too long sitting down doing nothing. It might be worth setting a 'two hours max' of screen time each day.

OKC Events: August 29, 2011

Whether guests came to taste great wines or gourmet foods, their wishes were accomplished when Prevent Blindness Oklahoma presented its annual Taste for Sight. The crowd filled the Meinders Hall of Mirrors at Civic Center Music Hall to sip, dine and hear DJ Brian Smith play his music.

For tickets, call Erin McMurtrey at (405) 232-2709, ext. 141.Proceeds will benefit the Cherokee Nation Veterans Center under construction. For information, call (918) 453-5000, ext. 7691.Wineries included Wines from Constellation, California Wines, International Wines and Rodney Strong and Francis Coppola Wines, thanks to Republic National Distributing Co.On the Taste for Sight committee were Mary Blankenship Pointer, chairwoman of the board of Prevent Blindness Oklahoma; Alaina McGlothlin; Alanna O'Keefe; Charlet and Greg Sauls; Dana Coles; Deemah Ramadan; Donna Hamilton; Kyle Hayles; Tracey Burton; Julie Moore; and Dianna L. Bonfiglio, president/CEO of Prevent Blindness.Cherokee Nation runThe event will kick off the mission's annual appeal to raise $2,241,859 - half the annual operating budget that provides solution- based ministry to homeless men, women and children.Restaurants providing the delicious foods included 1492 New World Cuisine, Bourbon Street Cafe, Chica's Mexican Cafe, CocoFlow, Coolgreens, Cuppies & Joe, Gopuram Taste of India, Iguana Mexican Gill, Johnny Carino's, Kamp's 1910 Cafe, Kona Ranch, La Luna Cafe, Mediterranean Imports & Deli, Museum Cafe, Old Germany Restaurant. Opus Prime Steakhouse, Paseo Grill, Sauced on Paseo, Whole Enchilada, SugaPlump Pastries and Catering, Teaoli, the Melting Pot and VZD's Restaurant and Club.Proceeds will benefit PBO's programs to prevent blindness and preserve sight. In the 2010-2011 school year, Prevent Blindness provided free vision screenings for more than 278,000 children from more than 1,100 schools throughout the state's 77 counties.The Cherokee Nation's 59th National Holiday celebration will include a 5K run to benefit veterans on Saturday at 7:30 a.m. Start will be at the main tribal complex, 17675 S. Muskogee Ave., Tahlequah. A one-mile fun run will begin at 7:45 a.m. Registration at 6 a.m. race day is $20 per person. Prizes will be awarded."Stepping Into the Future" is the theme of the 12th annual Mission of Hope Banquet planned Thursday by the City Rescue Mission. The dinner will be at 7 p.m. at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City.

Proceeds will benefit the Cherokee Nation Veterans Center under construction. For information, call (918) 453-5000, ext. 7691.

Vicki Estes: Sayonara, summer

Break out the brats, hot dogs and hamburgers and dare to cook on a charcoal grill in your white attire --- today marks the unofficial end of summer.

"I think the grass is going to catch on fire," he announced. He didn't have to elaborate. The worried look on his face had "spontaneous combustion" written all over it.Vicki Estes is a Topeka freelance writer. She can be reached at vaestes@sbcglobal.net.We stopped watering the grass in July so we could keep the leaking backyard pool filled with enough water to make us salivate for relief. Any rain forecast that month brought us intermittent raindrops that dusted the newly washed car, falling far short of saving the turf, flowers and other plant life. By Aug. 10, my husband surveyed the damage from the upstairs bedroom window- -- with binoculars -- and declared a code brown.The scorching heat is the only aspect of summer I will miss. The car repairs are a close second, especially the window that won't close. When I admit I prefer winter to summer people shake their heads, laugh at me and utter something like, "Hardly anyone likes winter, especially me. I love summer!"Usually by August, kids are bored and parents anticipate -- sometimes beg for -- the beginning of the new school year. Not this year. Every mom I encountered couldn't believe it was time to relinquish the kids back to the classroom. Time together this summer was simply too short. Perhaps it's a sign of the simple times returning. Or maybe we are so overscheduled we don't notice how quickly the days are slipping past us.No more lazy river rides at the Shawnee County North pool. No more ice cream trucks circling neighborhoods, enticing us with Eskimo Pies. No more white shoes, shorts, pants or skirts for the fashion-conscious. My daughter, on the other hand, can't stand artificially imposed fashion rules and plans to wear white socks with white shoes, white shorts and a white shirt after Labor Day. "I'm gonna rock the white," she rebelliously claims. Where does she get that attitude?I attempted to save a cactus from the chill of our air- conditioned house and moved it to the front porch so it could thrive in the heat. Who knew it would be too hot for a cactus? Its condition is terminal and it may not make it through today's celebratory cookout. We will toast to its full, yet prickly life with ice-cold drinks and grilled Polish sausage, and be thankful that fall, football and cooler weather will arrive about the time I fix my car window.If that describes you, you must have been feeling the love Aug. 2. The temperature reached 112 degrees, which, I believe, was recorded by a thermometer positioned in the shade of a sycamore tree and fastened to a block of ice. No one should be outside in that kind of heat, unless the reason is to sear mouthwatering steaks on a barbecue grill. You can always add layers of clothes to keep warm, but when it's 100-plus degrees nakedness is the only option, and it's not a good one. That's why I prefer to attend NFL games played in the winter.

Vicki Estes is a Topeka freelance writer. She can be reached at vaestes@sbcglobal.net.