• A Crain’s investigation reports that Chicago’s beer market is infected with pay-to-play practices, which often leave micro-breweries out of bars. [Crain’s]
• Break out the bubbly: The National Restaurant Association is reporting that sales — from fine dining to fast food — are up. [USAT]
• The Food Network announced that the upcoming tenth season of Ace of Cakes will be the show’s last. Pie, meanwhile, is off in a corner gloating. [AP]
• This year’s holiday season brings record-breaking demand at food banks; in some areas, bread lines have become commonplace. [WP]
• Why settle for just one Thanksgiving fowl when you could have a large bird stuffed with two smaller ones? The turducken rears its head(s). [NYP]
• Farmers on Virginia’s coast can’t keep up with demand for Haymans, an “ugly, sugary, creamy-white” heirloom sweet potato that is only now becoming known outside the region. [WP]
