The week in Cafe Society bloggery: Wade Kirwan exits Vesta, street food costs more than we thought and everyone has something to say about Marco's

Lori Midson

Welcome to the end of another full week filled with fascinating, weird and scintillating food news.

Here's what you may have missed while you were, I don't know, doing something else, like working, or slathering aloe vera on your sunburn.

On the same night that Share Our Strength, one of the best parties of the year for foodniks, came down at Mile High Station (awesome food porn), Wade Kirwan, executive chef of Vesta Dipping Grill, announced that he was leaving the line to soul-search, zip around on his motorcycle and carve out noontime lunch slots. I give Kirwan six months before he's back in a kitchen; this restaurant thing is in his blood, plus the dude can cook as well as anyone.

Jean-Philippe Failyau missed the Share Our Strength event, a forgivable offense since he was, uh, opening a new restaurant, Park and Co, in Uptown, which he calls the "big brother" to Park Burger, his convivial neighborhood gathering spot in Platt Park.

Meanwhile, Pizza Basta in Boulder built an urban garden, Pisco Sour celebrated nearly a month slinging stiff drinks and doling out Peruvian food on East Colfax and Sweet Action Ice Cream was bestowed with a sweet honor from SmarterTravel.com, which pronounced the ice creamery one of the best in the country.

Ice cream wasn't included in our listage of five food companies ballyhooing the health benefits of the decidedly unhealthy crap they claim to call food -- fried chicken from KFC, for example, which the delusional company once claimed was healthier than Burger King's Whoppers. Like that counts for anything.

Brad Birky, chef/owner of the SAME Cafe, wouldn't be caught dead serving that kind of stuff in his pay-what-you-wish East Colfax cafe, which smothers kindness on anyone who walks through the door with good-for-you foods procured from local farmers and urban gardens. See what else Birky has to say in this week's Chef and Tell interview.

In news that made us all roll our eyes and wonder why marketing agencies make the big bucks, parent company Coca-Cola had to issue an apology for Dr. Pepper's really, really fucking stupid "2 Girls 1 Cup" Facebook blunder, in which the soda company essentially hijacked Facebook user statuses to "promote" Dr. Pepper by referencing a joltingly disgusting porn video.

There was better news for Marco's Coal-Fired Pizzeria this week, which was named one of the ten best pie hole joints in the country by American Way magazine. Of course, whenever you mention the words "pizza" and "Marco's" in the same breath, there's a food fight!

Speaking of food fights, don't miss the brawl that's brewing over the price of Denver street food.

That's it from us this week. See you right back here on Monday morning.