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Food fights aren't supposed to involve chemical spray and trips to the emergency room. But after a fifteen-minute, 200- to 300-person food fight at South High School in Minneapolis turned into a violent brawl, police had to intervene. According to a sergeant, students were throwing "anything they could get their hands on," sending four people to the hospital with minor injuries. So far, no arrests have been made, but the cops are reviewing surveillance video. These kids should probably dye their hair and start donning disguises; the charges can be extensive. School officials maintain that the cops sprayed above the crowd, but students are complaining about the effects: Mace doesn't taste as good as pie to the face. [Earlier, AP]

So, it looks like pizza is going to continue trending for the foreseeable future. News of new pizzerias have been washing over the city like a succession of San Marzano tomato sauce waves ever since Marc Vetri dropped word of his forthcoming pizza parlor last week. Since then it’s come to our attention that Tria owner Jon Myerow is getting in on the pie action with Tria Taproom, which Foobooz reports will soon begin tossing pizzas and pouring beers in the space that last housed Rum Bar. No sooner did that news arrive that we began hearing rumblings of Pizza Bar, a tiny pizzeria that’s come to life inside the Piazza’s Kings Oak.

Curtis Duffy's Grace in Chicago has earned, in two months of being open, national acclaim as one of America's most ambitious restaurants, Duffy's eyes set on every prize to be had. What few have known, and only rarely came out in the press about Duffy, was that his ambition and drive as a chef — which led him from a Colorado country club to Charlie Trotter's, Alinea, and two Michelin stars at Avenues before opening his own restaurant — was rooted in a troubled childhood, which climaxed horrifically with the murder-suicide of his parents in 1994, when Duffy was 19.

Throughout this scandal, food-manufacturing companies have protested that hidden horsemeat is an issue of mislabeling, not food safety. News broke today that adulterated meat ended up in school meals, hospital food, and restaurant dishes in Britain, which is particularly alarming because yesterday, public authorities announced that small amounts of the meat contained a powerful equine painkiller. The phenylbutazone drug is potentially harmful to humans, but the chances of getting sick are low: Out of 206 horse carcasses, eight tested positive for phenylbutazone, and only six of those carcasses were exported to France (French meat wholesaler Spanghero is the current culprit). Horsemeat isn't typically harmful; the issue here is that these horses weren't sourced responsibly and raised to become part of the food chain. [AP, NYT, Earlier]

We have some good news, and some bad to share about this year’s supply of cult craft brew Pliny the Younger, which sends the ordinarily mellow beer-nerd set into a tizzy while lining up and standing outside of bars for hours just to get a taste when it makes its fleeting appearance on local tap lists each year. First the bad: Russian River Brewing Company, the California-based brewery who’s responsible for the heinously-hopped triple I.P.A. made less of the stuff this year. Due to a change in the recipe, the yield was considerably smaller than in years past. “It wasn’t hoppy enough for my husband (Vinnie Cilurzo),” Russian River co-owner Natalie Cilurzo told Grub Street. “So we added a few more hops, but when you do that, you get less liquid.”