Did you ever wish there were a Mad Taco in the Burlington area? Starting today, there almost is. Winooski's Mule Bar, owned by the same team that owns Mad Taco, inaugurates its Taco Tuesday today with a menu similar to the small chain that has links in Waitsfield, Montpelier and Waterbury.

Each Tuesday the bill of fare will be different, but will likely always include a range of tacos, tortas and dinner plates. Today, those include several different toppings for both tacos and tortas that feature tender pork carnitas. The al pastor features salsa verde, while another is bathed in chef Jean-Luc Matecat's long-cooked mole sauce. Other meats include a beef carne asada and "roadside chicken." Vegetarians will opt for kimchee, black bean and cilantro tacos.

A deck overlooking the Connecticut River. A glass of house-brewed hefewiezen. Some mahi-mahi tacos. Blinding sun. These things defined my last May afternoon.

Brattleboro's Whetstone Station Restaurant & Brewery opened just about a year ago, but since Brattleboro is at the opposite end of the state from Burlington, I hadn't yet made it — until today, a 90-degree scorcher that feels more like late July.

Fortunately, Whetstone has a breezy deck — two, in fact — with plum views of the Connecticut River, which resembles an estuary here. On May 6, Whetstone finally began brewing its own beer in a cozy brewhouse just off the main dining room. The bar taps one of these at a time, and the first — a pale ale called SMaSH Pilot Batch #1 — apparently kicked pretty quickly.

Lucky for me, today brought another fresh beer: Heifer-Wisen, so named for Brattleboro's Strolling of the Heifers, which takes place next weekend. Brewed on May 20 using organic malt from Valley Malt of Hadley, Mass., and New York-grown hops, Heifer-Wisen flows "unfiltered, unpasteurized, and served straight from the fermenter," as the menu says.

Back when he was an assistant manager at Magic Hat Brewing Co., 7D music editor Dan Bolles and his then colleagues tried to push a fictional Magic Hat #6 on April Fools Day. "The joke was that it was a light version of #9, with one-third fewer calories," writes Bolles. "We even had fake logos made up with the number six mimicking the #9 artwork."

Bolles' prank was eerily prescient. Last week, Magic Hat filed an injunction against a year-old Kentucky craft brewer, defending one of its flagship beers, #9.

The complaint against West Sixth Brewing Company alleges that that brewery's beers, branded with the numeral 6, have a mark that's "confusingly and substantially similar" to #9, a beer Magic Hat has been making since 1995.

West Sixth was founded by four friends in spring 2012. Cofounder Ben Self, who lived in Vermont briefly during Howard Dean's presidential campaign, says his company wasn't trying to imitate Magic Hat. They chose the name because their brewery is located on, well, West Sixth Street. "We worked on it for a long time," he says of the logo, which features a swirly, encircled number 6 next to a star dingbat. It was created by the Lexington company Cricket Press. "From the beginning, we were very comfortable with our logo design," says Self.

A lot of people and organizations leave posts on the Seven Days Facebook wall, and most of them are crap that no one wants to read. But every now and then there's a weird little gem. Last week we spotted this post, which, WTF:

A little background: In most parts of America, you can get a nice big jug of beer that can fill many pint glasses with beer, thus fostering a communal atmosphere around your pub table filled with merriment, joy, German drinking songs and maybe a few drops of brew spilled.

But you're out of luck here in the Green Mountains — the buzzkills that control liquor sales here prohibit bars from serving you beer in anything that holds more than 32 ounces, aka two pints. From item #37 of the Department of Liquor Control's General Regulations:

This week brings happy news for lovers of the drink, both hot and cold. Penny Cluse Café co-owner Charles Reeves has announced that he and his wife, Holly Reeves, are purchasing the building next door, at 163 Cherry St., to build out a new 25-seat café devoted to "espresso, smoothies, beer and wine, with limited food service," writes Reeves.

The new spot will be called Lucky Next Door and should be open by September, adds Reeves. Though plans are still taking shape, "It seems like word has started to spread," he says — which is why he let the cat out of the bag. It's the first expansion in Penny Cluse's 15-year history. 

Up the road a piece, Winooski's restaurant row will welcome Mule Bar, which opens at 38 Main St., this Thursday at 11 a.m.

Co-owner Joey Nagy says he and his partners are keeping mum on exactly what beers will flow from the bar's 15 taps. “We want to surprise everyone,” he says. However there will be ginger beer from Dave Rooke of Rookie’s Root Beer.

They've spread from Austin to LA to Montréal, and now food trucks have reached a critical mass in Burlington. In a few weeks, Pine Street will gain its own semipermanent mobile food lot: the South End Food TruckStop.

Every Friday night beginning May 24, the parking lot behind Speeder & Earl's will morph into a bazaar of trucks and carts peddling barbecue, tacos, ice cream, fresh juices, beer and even maté. Live music and a few late-opening galleries will add to the festivities.

"There's enough food vendors around to constitute a rally, and we said, 'Hey, other places do it and it's a lot of fun,'" says Felix Wai of ArtsRiot, who organized the event with his partner, PJ McHenry. He says they will put out tables and chairs, provide access to bathrooms, and carve out "a little stage for music." 

Nine vendors have signed on so far, says Wai, each with its own niche. There will be tacos from Muchacho Taco; burgers from the Burger Barn; ethnic street food from ¡Duino! (Duende); sandwiches and hot dogs from Cloud 9 Catering ("Either the Hindquarter or the [Local] Grind [will take part]," says Wai); barbecue from Southern Smoke Foods; fresh juices from Tomgirl Juice Co.; maté from Mocean Maté; ice cream from Lake Champlain Chocolates; and beer from Fiddlehead Brewing, which is one of the event's sponsors.

"We're at max capacity now," says Wai. He and McHenry will see how the space shakes out before changing the balance of vendors. 

The event will run from 4 to 9 p.m. every Friday until November 1. ArtsRiot plans to donate a portion of each week's proceeds to the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf. "That's what we hope to do," Wai says. "Our mission is to destroy apathy through art, food and music."

The corner of Main and Union streets in Winooski is returning to its barroom roots on May 1, when Scott Kerner and Wes Hamilton of Montpelier's Three Penny Taproom and Joey Nagy of the Mad Taco open a new craft beer spot, Mule Bar, in the former Pho Pasteur space.

Yes, Pho Pasteur closed this morning, and Mule Bar will take its place in about four weeks. "We've been waiting to get into Winooski for a long time," says Kerner. "This feels like a city with a great vibe." Kerner told Seven Days a few weeks ago that he's "freaking pumped" about the new spot at 38 Main Street.

Mule Bar will have 49 seats — including 16 outside — with a long bar along one wall and a few high-tops along another. The room will be airy, like the dining room at Three Penny — or what contractor Eyrich Stauffer of Stauffer Woodworking calls "Danish modern saloon." Mule Bar will be open seven days a week for lunch and dinner, with brunch on Sunday (more on the food below).

Many Winooski-ites had already heard rumors about Mule Bar, but Kerner and Nagy were reticent to reveal their plans to the media until their proverbial ducks were in a row: a liquor license and a signed lease.

Two weeks ago, Guy Page of the Winooski Bridge was at the Winooski City Council meeting in which Kerner applied (and was approved) for a city liquor license, and Page reported it in his newsletter. 

This morning at 11, Kerner and Nagy finally signed their lease in a deal that was brokered by Peter Yee of Yellow Sign Commercial. By 12:30 p.m., they were in the space with Stauffer and their new chef — Jean-Luc Matecat, former chef at Amuse at the Essex.

Matecat says that Mule Bar will have a "local, ever-changing" menu to complement the tap list. He's already started seedlings in his living room for the restaurant's future garden, which will be up the street in the Landry Community Garden.

Congratulations are in order for the Alchemist once again: Heady Topper is the winner of the 2013 Vermont Brew Bracket, presented by Three Penny Taproom.

Heady Topper's road to victory was a little bit bumpier this year. Last year it bowled over Switchback in the Final Pour, and Lawson's Double Sunshine IPA in the championship. But Switchback proved a much more formidable opponent in 2013. The vote was a nailbiter all weekend, as a few lead changes ultimately ended with Heady Topper squeaking out the win over Switchback, 51 percent to 49 percent. The margin was fewer than 100 votes out of 2822 total.

We started with 32 local beers. By Monday, only one will be left standing. We've made it to the championship round in the 2013 Vermont Brew Bracket, presented by Three Penny Taproom.

In one corner we have the Alchemist Heady Topper, the winner of last year's inaugural Vermont Brew Bracket. In the geekier of the two Final Pour matchups, Heady Topper soundly beat its brother in glorious balanced hoppiness, Hill Farmstead Edward, 66 pecent to 34 percent.

In the other corner we have Switchback Ale, which won a Final Pour matchup between two of the state's most popular and widespread beers, defeating Long Trail Ale, 59 percent to 41 percent.

We're down to the Final Pour in the Vermont Brew Bracket, presented by Three Penny Taproom. The choices were tougher than ever last round, and it's only going to get tighter now. A look back at the third- round results:

• The Cinderella run for 14th Star Valor came to an end, as this bracket's own Florida Gulf Coast University lost big to the juggernaut that is the Alchemist Heady Topper. The defending Vermont Brew Bracket champs won by a 2-to-1 margin.
• In the most exciting matchup of the round, Long Trail Ale defeated last year's runner-up, Lawson's Finest Liquids Double Sunshine IPA, by 55 percent to 45 percent. The two traded the lead multiple times before Long Trail made a late run to win it, avenging its loss in this same matchup in last year's Final Pour.
• Another close race pitted Hill Farmstead Edward vs. Otter Creek Copper Ale. This was the closest vote margin of the round, at 54 percent to 46 percent, but Edward led the polls wire to wire.
• In the last match, Switchback Ale handily defeated Wolaver's Oatmeal Stout by 20 percentage points.

Now there are just four Vermont craft beers left as the best of the best. Interestingly, three of the four Final Pour finalists are holdovers from last year's bracket, with Edward replacing Double Sunshine IPA as the only change.

The Alchemist Heady Topper vs. Hill Farmstead Edward. Long Trail Ale vs. Switchback Ale. One altbier, one IPA, two pale ales. You have until Thursday at midnight to vote. Choose wisely. Click here to make your picks.