July 3, 2025

Dahlia Kitchen + Bar is celebrating Independence Day with an all-day happy hour. In addition to specials on food, there will be $5 draft beers and wine – or $10 if you add a bump of tequila — $7 El Mulo cocktails and $8 to $10 house margaritas.

Remedy Brewing Co. is embracing the picnicking spirit of the Fourth of July by serving $2.50 hot dogs all day.

BB’s Pub is hosting its third annual Independence Day Bash featuring the Big Dog Eating Contest. Other fun includes a Larchwood-style dart tournament that starts at 10:30 a.m., music by Gabriel Michael from 2 to 5 p.m. and The Kidney Foundation Happy Hour following the hot-dog eating contest, which begins at 1:30 p.m. Fifty percent of registration fees for the contest – which closed earlier this week — will be donated to The Kidney Foundation, with the other 50 percent going to the winner. Reigning champ Ethan Harvey’s record for eating three of the jumbo hot dogs is 4:46.

Club David has been hosting monthly Sunday Night Blues events, and this weekend will be the first Sunday Night Bluegrass Revue & Jam. Sunday’s show features longtime local acoustic bluegrass band The Crabgrass Crew, with an open jam class at 4 p.m. and the show at 6 p.m. Dinner will be shrimp and grits for $20 and a slice of bourbon pecan pie for $7, served from 5 to 9 p.m. Featured drinks are Stumpf Fiddle and Dreadnought. The next blues night is July 20.

The kids-only buffet is back on Wednesday nights in July at Pinz in Dell Rapids. It’s filled with items like chicken strips, hot dogs, teriyaki chicken noodles, green beans, fried potatoes, fresh fruit, apple sauce and chocolate pudding. Hours are 4:30 to 8:30 p.m., and kids eat for free every Wednesday of the year with an adult purchase.

605 Island Guy is remembering Emmy Gorman, who died a year ago in a tubing accident on Lake Madison, with a fundraiser throughout July. The food truck is adding mac-and-cheese to the menu – one of Gorman’s favorite foods – and will donate a portion of those sales to Hungry Hearts.

Monks Ale House is offering a featured pizza and sandwich for July. Chicken Enchilada Pizza includes chipotle cream, cheese blend, chicken, peppers, red onions, tortilla and avocado crema and is topped with cilantro. The Windy City Combo has beef, hot Italian sausage, giardiniera and au jus on a hoagie.

Grouper is the centerpiece of Mirabella Ristorante’s featured dish for July. Pesce Confit includes pan-seared grouper on cherry tomato confit. The dish is accented with garlic, olives and capers.

R Wine Bar & Kitchen’s feature for July is the Midsummer Salad. Smoked salmon is served on a bed of baby spinach, with cucumber, heirloom tomato, radish, red onion and toasted sunflower seeds, finished with fresh dill and a creamy avocado dressing.

For brunch on Saturdays in July, R Wine Bar is serving a Nicaraguan dish. Gallo Pinto features sauteed red beans, rice, bell pepper and onion and is topped with two over-easy eggs and fried plantains.

At Invictus Pizza Kitchen, Mac-n-Cheese Pizza is back by popular demand as the featured pizza for July. The crust is covered in garlic herb oil and topped with mozzarella, cheddar, mac-and-cheese and bacon bits.

Check out the July food and drink specials at Tailgators Grill & Bar in Brandon.

Botski’s Bar & Grill has a new Friday night special: Cajun Chicken Pasta. It will be available from 4 to 11 p.m. or until it’s gone.

Godfathers Pizza has a new pizza: Chicken Bacon Garlic. It features a nondairy creamy garlic sauce and is topped with grilled chicken, bacon, mozzarella and seasoned cheese.

The “cupcake ninjas” at Oh My Cupcakes have baked up three new flavors for July. Poppy & Pearl is a lemon poppyseed cupcake filled with lemon curd and topped with whipped cream, lemon drizzle and poppyseeds. Soda-licious is a Dr. Pepper-infused cake topped with Dr. Pepper-flavored icing and whipped cream. Tiramisu is a signature vanilla bean cupcake with a sweetened condensed milk filling that’s topped with whipped cream and cocoa powder. It includes a pipette of espresso to squeeze into the cake. Returning favorites include Dreamsicle, Cookie Cutter and Lemonberry Sunrise.

Sugar Palace by Emily in Harrisburg has crafted a new cupcake flavor: Neapolitan. Vanilla, strawberry and chocolate cake batters are all baked into one cupcake that’s topped with vanilla buttercream. Find it in the bakery case for a couple of weeks.

Squealers Smoke Shack in Tea has a featured dessert of the month for July. Strawberry Heaven Dessert has fresh strawberries, angel food cake, ice cream and whipped cream.

The Avalanche flavor of the month for July at B&G Milkyway locations is Americana. Vanilla ice cream is blended with blue raspberry and cherry cone dips.

If you’re a Potbelly Sandwich Works Perks member, get half-price shakes through July 13 after 3 p.m. on weekdays and all day on the weekend.

Check out the drink specials for July at Josiah’s Coffeehouse, Cafe & Bakery.

7 Brew Coffee has a new limited-time drink lineup.

Here are the July drink features at Fit Revolution Nutrition.

Buddies & Co. won the Brandon Valley Area Beverage Challenge, which featured crafted drinks from nine businesses. Coconut Paradise was created with the help of customer Audie Mercado. The nonprofit drink and snack shop has the ingredients to keep making it.

Purchase a Blizzard at the DQ Grill & Chill in Hartford on the Fourth of July, and the business will give $1 to help fund Midwest Honor Flight.

This year’s addition to the “Wall of Notability” mural at Sunny’s Pizzeria is being put to a public vote. The three finalists are sprint car driver Doug Wolfgang, golfer Kris Tschetter and college football player and coach Joe Salem. Voting continues until early next week on Sunny’s Facebook page. Learn more about the finalists there.

Changes in hours, service

• Windy City Bites’ brick-and-mortar location is closed for the next few weeks while it’s undergoing changes. Customers can find locations for its food truck on Street Food Finder.
• North End Bakery and Deli is adding Wednesdays to the days it’s closed for summertime and staying open later on Friday and Saturday. New hours: 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday and Sunday and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday. It’s also closed on the last Sunday of every month.
• Phnom Penh Restaurant will be closed Friday through July 14.

Here are other food and drink headlines from the past week.

Roscoe’s Kitchen features Cheeto Balls, food truck favorites

Ready for your best home-grilled burger yet? Start with this beef

Neighborhood pizza shop, throwback bar owner looks for new ways to serve community