• After Sarah Palin had tomatoes hurled her way at a book-signing at The Mall of America, a Costco in Utah removed the fruit from its shelves when she visited. [Huffington Post via Yahoo! News]
• A lawyer with the Cochran Firm in Memphis has admitted that he bit part of a man’s nose off and swallowed it in a restaurant fight. [WMCTV]
• Boutique vineyards are springing up in Syria and Lebanon, bringing back an ancient tradition of wine-making. [CNN]
• A music teacher in Arizona whose class performed at a presidential inauguration event has been placed on leave after taking 40 students to Hooter’s. [MSNBC]
• The founder of a small chicken restaurant that became the Boston Market chain has died at 52. [MSNBC]
• An Ohio restaurant is offering a lifetime 25% discount to anyone with a tattoo of a grilled cheese sandwich. [Star Tribune]
• Australia’s most famous food critic won a landmark case against a restaurant trying to sue him for defamation after he slammed their food and they closed. [Earth Times]
• Scientists studying champagne say that every one of a bottle’s twenty million bubbles alters the beverage’s taste and smell. [WSJ]
• Maine’s attorney general is investigating allegations of price-fixing among some of the state’s lobstermen. [NYP]
• Working at German corporation BASF SE has one notable perk: access to the company’s 108 year-old wine cellar. [WSJ]