The much anticipated food-and-music venue called Anthology opens on June 6 just south of Little Italy. Visitors will be afforded a multi-level modern supper club replete with indoor/outdoor lounges and dining areas that provide open, unobstructed views to a state-of-the-art stage that will make way for live performances by musicians of every genre. Chefs Bradley Odgen and Jim Phillips will oversee Anthology’s two kitchens, offering a menu of upscale contemporary American fare.

Anthology is the brainchild of local real estate developer Howard Berkson, who is originally from Chicago. His goal is to give San Diegans a taste of what he had growing up in the Windy City: “A place where you can get a great meal and enjoy terrific live music.”

Old-fashioned ice cream favorites such as banana splits, cherries jubilee and mint julep sundaes are among the “parlor classics” being offered throughout the summer at Hyatt Regency La Jolla’s Barcino Grill. The cooling creations are made to order and use Haagen-Dazs ice cream along with a variety of high-quality ingredients and infused syrups. Forget those paper-wrapped ice cream sandwiches that stuck to your fingers as a kid. Chef Hans Sebelin makes them from scratch using freshly baked chocolate chip cookies as the “bread” and decadent hot chocolate sauce as the topping.

A new downtown café called Pierre’s Place opened this week to help support Toussaint Academy of the Arts and Sciences, which has served as a refuge and educational outlet for more than 750 homeless youth ages 14 through 24 in metro San Diego. The colonial-style café will serve as a training ground for students while presenting customers with a menu of specialty pizzas, salads, sandwiches, homemade desserts and coffee drinks. Profits will go towards the academy’s scholarship fund and alumni support services. Pierre’s is located at 1404 Fifth Ave.

Rare California cabs, fine Bordeaux, Opus One and other hard-to-find vintages are available for purchase on a newly launched Web site: www.lacaverouge.com. The online store currently includes more than 1,000 labels from a temperature-controlled wine cellar in La Jolla owned by Mark Lippman, an avid wine collector and distributor. Reviews by well-known wine experts are included with many of the listings.

The California Restaurant Association this month named The Oceanaire Seafood Room “best seafood in fine dining” and also bestowed its “Chef of the Year” award on the restaurant’s executive chef, Brian Malarkey. Since opening three years ago in downtown San Diego, the seafood house has netted more than 20 awards from various culinary organizations, media and reader’s polls.

The long-established TK&A Custom Catering is reaching out to the estimated 46,000 Jewish households in San Diego with a new company called Simcha San Diego Kosher Catering, operated under the supervision of the Rabbinical Council of California. Simcha is equipped to cover both large and small events, from Brises to Bar Mitzvahs to weddings, and adheres to the strictest standards for cooking traditional and gourmet cuisine within an entirely kosher environment. For more information, call 858-444-8822.

After hearing Oggis rave about how its pizzas are “the official pizzas of the Padres and Del Mar Thoroughbred Club,” I decided to check out the hoopla. Ordering a sausage-topped pie made with the famous “house crust,” I ended up with one of the most flavorless, obnoxiously bready pizzas that ever crossed my lips. When I called four of the 15 franchises (located mostly in some of San Diego’s blandest burbs) to inquire about the supposed honors these pies have earned, nobody knew what organizations doled them out. Nor could I find any official awards listed on the Web site, other than several “trophies” won at state fairs for some of the company’s brews.