Is it fair to include a California-based restaurant chain with 60 outlets in a column called “Eat Local?”

Well, the Islands Restaurant in Boulder is the chain’s only location in Colorado, and the themed eatery is one of the more welcoming food options in the area of the Twenty Ninth Street Mall. Plus, it employs a bunch of local kids who seem to be having fun working there, passing on the spirit to local diners.

So we’ll call Islands “local enough” for these purposes and suggest you check it out next time you’re looking to keep it easy and affordable in that way that only chain restaurants, for all their built-in faults, can offer.

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Love among performers in the insular world of stand-up comedy is common. If you play long enough with the same group of people, you’re eventually going to sort your friends from your enemies.

Still, it’s rare when two comedians praise each other as highly and openly as Paul F. Tompkins and Kristen Schaal. The “Best Week Ever” host and “Flight of the Conchords” regular, respectively, have been unabashed fans of each other since performing together on a bill at New York’s Comix in 2006.

“It was one of my favorite shows I’ve ever done,” said Tompkins, a veteran of HBO’s cult sketch comedy “Mr. Show.” “It’s rare when you watch and enjoy the whole show you’re working on. Usually there’s one act on the bill where you’re like, ‘Eh…’ But I watched her whole show every night.”

We chatted with Tompkins and Schaal in advance of their Boulder Theater show on Saturday, Sept. 12, about working together, their upcoming projects and why sex books should be funny.

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Have a drink at the zoo — but try not to get too close these hungry felines.

Watching drinkers in their native habitats is always interesting. Figuring out where everyone fits into the ecosystem is a fun way to waste time over a beer or two. Take a typical neighborhood joint: There’s the sad local guy who always sits at the bar, looking up occasionally to stare at the TV or signal for another beer. He rarely speaks — a lion in winter.

Over in the corner, gathered around the Golden Tee video game: A cackling horde of males. Passing females get eyes from the outer edges of the group, and now and then an emissary is sent to the bar for another pitcher. The Golden Tee is their watering hole, the rest of the bar their hunting ground.

And then, from outside the bar, a chorus of giggles and shrieks announces the arrival of the most fearsome of all the bar creatures: the common bachelorette party. The night’s course is set: Courtship rituals will be performed, emotions grandly displayed, social order rigidly enforced. (The guy at the bar left after the first “Woo!”.)

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Could this be you as you prepare for your next trip? You’d better hope not.

Dave Foley has always been the perfect everyman. Whether it was through his relatable characters in the beloved, influential Canadian sketch troupe “Kids in the Hall” or his put-upon news director Dave Nelson in NBC’s long-running sitcom “NewsRadio,” Foley has had a knack for turning deadpan, nice-guy delivery and an absurdist sense of humor into the deadliest of comedic weapons.

In addition to nearly half a dozen new films in various stages of production, Foley recently released five episodes of his new web series on Babelgum, “The Sensible Traveler with Bobby Fargo,”, a short-form sketch show that finds Foley in a series of increasingly ridiculous situations (hazmat suits on the beach, anyone?)

We recently spoke with Foley about the show, its inspiration, the value of hostels and why blackmail came in handy while filming the episodes.

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Labor Day parties take over this weekend, including at Suite Two Hundred (pictured above). Photo from denvernightclubparties.blogspot.com.

Labor Day doesn’t officially signal the end of summer and the start of fall, but it might as well. The Memorial-Day-to-Labor-Day timeline is so entrenched in our minds that it’s hard to shake, even if the weather probably won’t truly cool off for another few weeks. (Please?)

Still, the evidence is all around. Leaves are already turning, kids are back in school and it’s — horrors — getting dark earlier. During the day, the light is getting that peculiar fall tinge, too: a certain yellow hue that calls to mind football and beer.

Sunday, of course, is one of the most highly anticipated football days on the Colorado calendar: the University of Colorado vs. Colorado State game. Sports bars all over town will be crammed with fans for both teams. If you don’t have a stake in this game, it may be best to find a neutral location.

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