This Fresh Forkin’ Friday should be marked with salad. Get your lettuce and low-fat proteins on for the next two days because on Sunday, you gotta FRY something. It’s the Super Bowl and that means one thing: bad food. Good bad food, but evil sinister bad food at the same time. It’s the paradox of our era: People judge certain restaurants for their gross fat-American making dishes and chicken-finger-plumped kiddoes, but when David Chang professes love for and cranks out a fried chicken it’s the second coming of Jesus, a finger licking Jesus that has been triple-fried with a Korean glaze. Oh it’s a heritage breed chicken? It’s all natural? Yeah, still fried chicken. I, like the drunk judges on Top Chef, am a fried chicken fool and I embrace its good badness, which is why I only make it once or twice a year and usually frame it with a long run and some lettuce. Sunday I am cranking up the oil and throwing open the windows, it’s time to get bad. But not as bad as this.

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OPENS

Blue Door Pub Longfellow opened to slammin’ crowds. The burgerrific, Blucy-driven joint is a bit roomier than the first but it looks like you might still have to wait a skosh. PS . . . did you see how the OC is trying to steal the Juicy Lucy? For shame.

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf opened at the MOA. Cali transplants, begin the freak.

REFRESHER

Rudolph’s, the BBQ joint you haven’t been to in a bit, has undergone a major menu overhaul. Q fans need not worry, the pit-cooked smoky ribs and pulled pork sammie are still there, but there’s a new selection of small plates, fish dishes, and new sandwiches. Plus, Rudy has upped the beer game with 24 craft brews along with a new round of cocktails.

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It’s the City of Lakes Loppet this weekend, so be aware if you’re headed Uptown and find people skiing on your roads. Then why not spectate and show up at the Surly beer garden or watch some skiers while noshing on a Nate Dog.

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If you don’t have tickets to the sold out Winterfest this weekend, quell your sadness with a trip to Lucid Brewery for round 1 of the Top Brewer finals! Saturday you can hang out at the brewery, warm yourself around some fire pits, listen to live music, and judge some local beer makers as they make a historic bid to be Top Brewer and have their special brew put into production. Oh, the glory.

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There’s a new way to sip your mash. Merlin’s Rest, the home of the legendary whisky bible, has introduced a Whisky Wayfaring program so that you might take a little whisky tour and sample some fine brands without breaking the bank. The pub had more than 155 single malt Scotch whiskies and some 57 Irish whiskies, which may now be sampled in drams, which is roughly a half-pour and priced accordingly. This is my kind of stay-cation.

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If you are looking for SuperBowl take-out options, DMG has a nice list, which includes some fried chicken from The Bachelor Farmer . . . but make sure to tune into Weekly Dish on Saturday for more good bad food to make this sunday super.