San Francisco's Blue Bottle Coffee Company comes recommended by GQ (Photo by Roshan Vyas)

• In its November issue, GQ travels the States to pick America’s best coffee shops. Blue Bottle Coffee in San Francisco scores high marks for its siphon coffee (it should—the machine costs $20,000), along with famed L.A. and Chicago coffee house Intelligentsia. Bizarrely, the article ends by negating everything it has already stated, telling readers to simply “shut up and drink it.” [GQ]

• In the wake of the Ruby Restaurant closure, BlogTO questions why the guidelines for the city of Toronto’s DineSafe program are offered only in English. The garbage disposal calendar comes in various languages, as does the city’s official newsletter. Even the TTC offers 70 languages on its switchboard. What gives, DineSafe? [BlogTO]

• The Brewers Association, a trade organization of American craft breweries, held a meeting at Beerbistro this week about getting more craft beers into the Ontario market. Sales of U.S. craft beers are up 92 per cent over last year. The only deterrent for the smallest microbreweries will be the LCBO’s stringent labelling rules, which are too expensive for the small producers to follow. [Toronto Star]

• Canada is the world’s number one exporter of durum wheat, which is converted into semolina and used to make pasta. Canada can be particularly proud of this fact on Monday as people across the globe celebrate World Pasta Day. Atkins is rolling over in his grave. [Winnipeg Sun]

• In Japan, Burger King and Microsoft have teamed up to release a seven-layer Whopper in conjunction with the release of Windows 7. Microsoft Vista warns users before they take an action that could have a potentially negative outcome. We wonder if this burger comes with a security warning for one’s arteries. [PC World]