When a headline about a new menu item includes the words “28-hot-dog crust,” it is your duty to click on it and then to get out your perfectly folded American flag and wave it around as you run through the neighborhood shouting the news that starting next week Pizza Hut will be making a pizza that has 28 MINI HOT DOGS BAKED INTO THE CRUST. “Take a moment to let this concept work its way through your mind,” the lead of this Washington Post story invites. Take a lot longer to let this beast of an American creation work its way through your digestive system. 

Big local restaurant news came Thursday, when it was learned that meat whisperer Chad Colby is no longer behind the charcuterie boards and massive steaks at Chi Spacca. Thankfully, we didn't have to wait long to find out what his next move is: a restaurant with Maude's Curtis Stone and Stone's brother, Luke. The L.A. Times talked to both of them and there isn't much info out there yet (not even a word on the possible location), but with Curtis' love of single-ingredient menus and Colby's mastery of meat, expect an epic concept befitting this supergroup. 

Is Crystal Pepsi coming back? For the sake of cognitive dissonance, we hope so. But we still need to “stay tuned,” according to a cryptic message Pepsi sent to the guy who has been leading an online campaign to bring back the long-gone clear soda, which was rolled out in 1992 and disappeared a few years later. Pepsi tweeted at Kevin Strahle with an official letter saying it has heard fans' requests for the drink and “we think you'll all be happy with what's in store.” 

Jezebel did a journalistic mic drop on both Vox and Mother Jones this week when it posted a hilarious and clever op-ed: “Cheap Wine Sucks: A Manifesto.” The op-ed concerns a Vox video (and the Mother Jones piece promoting it) that showed 16 staffers blind-testing cheap wine and expensive wine and preferring the former, thereby proving the nonscientific point that expensive wine is bullshit and your wine friends who say otherwise are just ignorant snobs. Not only does writer Sarah Miller punch holes in all the flawed logic with snarky aplomb, she also manages to work in the best burn ever against Mother Jones, which she likens to “the resting place of old potatoes on your weirdest uncle’s kitchen table.”

Eater celebrated 16 of the country's top hospitality industry wunderkids this week with a party at the Viceroy in Santa Monica. The annual Young Guns list this year includes beverage directors from South Carolina, pie bakers from Detroit, chocolatiers from Houston and the 27-year-old restaurant director of Vegas' only three-Michelin-star restaurant. Representing Los Angeles on the interesting list of culinary stars: Alicia Kemper, general manager and beverage director at Fundamental L.A., and Rebecca Merhej, chef de cuisine and pastry chef at Love & Salt.

And in other L.A. restaurant news: Hinoki and the Bird has hired a new executive chef, Brandon Kida, who comes from Clement at the Peninsula in New York City; the Edison bar in downtown is expanding to Florida with a lucrative deal with Walt Disney World; and Salt's Cure is moving into the Ammo space on Highland Avenue while Ammo is moving to a smaller location on Melrose, where it won't have table service and will focus on takeout and delivery. 

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