Getting ready on Friday morning for the Gaslight Festival Street Party

If you’ve been following EatDrinkTalk this week, you know about the openings of two great new additions to the local restaurant scene — Guy Fieri’s Smokehouse on Fourth Street and Pho Ba Luu in Butchertown. Plus there was the much-discussed move by Dallas McGarity to take over the Fontleroy’s location in the Highlands with a new concept he will call The Fat Lamb. And of course we got in the middle of the Tony Palmobino-Griffin Paulin dust-up by having Tony on our podcast (listen here).

Here’s more to know and look forward to:

We Tried Callin’ Paulin: In response to Tony Palombino’s assertion that rival chef Griffin Paulin created a persona, Marcus Weston, to write a scathing review of Joella’s Hot Chicken, Paulin declined our invitation to speak on next week’s podcast. He did, however, between sips on a beer, put out a video challenging Tony to a chicken cook-off for charity, and then repeated his refusal to remove the review from his web site. You can watch that here.

Lunch Anyone?: It’s 502 Lunch Week, which actually lasts through Sept. 23. For 14 participating restaurants, you can order from a special menu with $10 and $15 price points.  My top picks — Wild Rita’s, Napa River Grill, Birraciba, Brasserie Provance and of course Captain’s Quarters, featured on this week’s podcast.

EDT1MarianneBarnesFortunate Choice: Fortune put together a list of “women who had the most transformative impact in the last year on what we eat and drink.” Making it was Marianne Barnes, the master distiller at Castle and Key. Being the first female master distiller in Kentucky since Prohibition has been the ticket for plenty of press attention for Barnes, who we spotted at last week’s Mint Julep Tours grand opening.

For Your Social schedule: Check out these newly-added items on the EatDrinkTalk calendar: On Sept. 21 the Speed presents “Ants on a Shrimp”. Sept. 23 is the Louisville Brewfest at Slugger Field; Sept. 29 at Varanese, an “Old Forester Whiskey Bourbon Dinner”. Oct. 4 it’s the English Grill’s Red Red Wine four-course dinner; Oct. 5 at Bowman Field is the Taste of Louisville.

After the GAME: Once the Cardinals conquer the Seminoles, join me for my annual corn dog at the Gaslight Festival in Jeffersontown. The street festival is from 7-10, but afterward you can walk to some of the area’s newest nightspots — the 3rd Turn Brewery, RecBar, Loui Loui’s and Chubby Ray’s Pizza, which will be rocking all night.