Qdoba restauarants are celebrating Cinco de Mayo with free kids' meals and $1 beer.

Kids eat free all day on Saturday with the purchase of an adult entree. No coupon required.

The beer offer applies to all bottled beers. And you don't need a coupon for that deal either.

Qdoba restaurants in the Raleigh and Charlotte areas are participating.

A former UNC football player has purchased He's Not Here, the Chapel Hill beer garden.

Matt Mehok of Durham, who worked at He's Not Here back in the early 1990's, and his business partner Bennett Roberts of Chapel Hill, have purchased the bar, according to Neal DePersia of National Restaurant Properties in Cary, who brokered the deal,

DePersia said the change of ownership should be seamless, with the new owners keeping on the current staff.

The previous owner, Dave Kitzmiller, is retired and living in Canada.

Mehok is also a co-founder of Bull City Barbeque sauce, which is sold at several locations around the Triangle.

As expected, the venerable craft beer pioneer Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. is coming to North Carolina.

Gov. Bev Perdue just announced the California-based brewery will locate an East Coast facility in Mills River in Henderson County. It will also include a restaurant.

The project will be partly funded by a $1 million grant from the One North Carolina Fund. Sierra Nevada says it plans to have 95 full-time employees, and will invest $107.5 million in the county over the next five years.

Another 80 part-time employees and about 60 construction and mechanical jobs are also planned during a two-year building phase.

The jobs are expected to begin later this year and continue through 2013. The average wage will be about $42,000, according to the company.

Staff writer Craig Jarvis

Carolina Brewery is capitalizing on the steadily growing interest in locally brewed beer and is now offering fans a new option that travels a little easier to the pool, the beach or a party.

The company, which has locations in Chapel Hill and Pittsboro, has started selling its Sky Blue Golden Ale in six-packs of 12 ounce cans.

Carolina Brewery has long sold its beer in 64 ounce growlers and kegs, both in its two restaurants and in local stores inlcuding Whole Foods, Total Wine and Harris Teeter. The cans are already available at the two brewery locations and at some local specialty stores including Sam's Quik Stop in Durham, Carrboro Beverage Co. and Weaver Street Market. Larger grocery chains have longer lag time for orders but should have the cans by Memorial Day.

Owner Robert Poitras said the cans allow people to take Carolina Brewery beer to new places.

"We chose the can for a variety of reasons including its ability to go places where bottles are not welcome such as pools, golf courses, boats and beaches," he said. "Cans have a low environmental impact and ease of recycling which further attracted us to cans over bottles."

RA Jeffreys Distributing Company of Greenville said today that it has completed its purchase of Harris Wholesale, a Raleigh-based distributor of Anheuser-Busch and other beverage products.

The deal was first announced late last month.

RA Jeffreys has operations in Greenville, Wilmington, New Bern and Goldsboro. Harris Wholesale has 235 employees at its facilities in East Raleigh and Fayetteville. The company distributes to more than 3,000 retailers, restaurants and bars in a 16-county region.

Harris Wholesasle CEO Worth Harris III has said the deal would result in some layoffs, though he said the "vast majority" of the company's workers would remain.
 

A local farmer finds food for his animals in a brewery's spent grain. Read more about it here.

Taiseer "Taz" Zarka and his wife Gigi's downtown Raleigh empire is about to get bigger.

On Friday, the couple will hold a grand opening and ribbon cutting for their fifth downtown business, a wine, tobacco and gift shop at 17 E. Martin Street across from the RBC tower.

Mayor Charles Meeker is to personally inaugurate the business at 1 p.m. (Unclear what this involves, but we can only hope Meeker does it the sailor way and christens the store by shattering a bottle of wine against the side of the building. Or maybe just pour some malt liquor on the pavement outside.)

The new store will include more than 1,000 brands of wine and beer plus a variety of tobacco, fine cigars, greeting cards, etc.

Taz's other ventures include a check-cashing business at Wilmington and Davie streets and a convenience store at Wilmington and Hargett where he also sells beer and wine.

Here's some good news for fans of Raleigh's Big Boss Brewing: The company is planning to expand its bottled beer options this year.

Brewmaster Brad Wynn said today that his popular seasonal wit beer Blanco Diablo is currently available at the company's bar in Raleigh and will be offered in bottles year-round starting in about two months. It will join other Big Boss Beers including Angry Angel, Bad Penny and Hell's Belle that are already sold year-round in stores all over the state.

In addition, this fall, Wynn plans to add a fifth beer -- the brewery's IPA -- to the year-round bottled line up, as well as a 22-ounce bottle option.

And here's one more thing fans can look forward to: Wynn also hinted that the company's holiday seasonal coffee stout may also appear in bottles this year.

Here is something you can do with part of that extra hour you earned when Daylight Saving Time ended; whip up some beer and cheese soup. I'm sure you can think of something to do with the rest of the six-pack.

Want to learn how to brew your own beer? You can learn tonight from 7-9pm at Tir na nOg, which is hosting a class for beginners called Homebrewing Made Simple. Co-sponsored by American Brewmaster, the class will cover basic homebrewing equipment, ingredients and recipes for various styles of beer.

Naturally, you'll need to taste those different styles, so samples will be provided. Attendees will also receive a binder filled with lots of useful info and discount coupons to the shop and pub.

Tickets are $25, and are available at Tir na nOg or American Brewmaster.