A parking attendant sat on a folding chair just outside the restaurant. Less than 10 feet away, small orange cones "reserved" parking spaces for customers.  

Dave Johnson/Contra Costa Times

SWEET OR HOT, late summer is when capsicum reach maturity, developing peak capacity sugar and heat through September and October. Rated on the Scoville scale from 0 (bell peppers) to 5 million (pepper spray) — and everywhere in between — peppers can either leave a scorch or not.  

GO INTO a brewpub almost anywhere in America and there's almost certainly a beer on the list called "ESB." The initials stand for Extra Special Bitter, and every one of those beers are brewed with one beer in mind: Fuller's ESB, the champion strong ale from the historic London brewery Fuller Smith