Pi is across from the Sears Mall inside the Embassy Suites. I'd watched the hotel slowly being built last year, with the restaurant finally opening in June. The hotel is a little gem, in what can be a lackluster area of town where you'll often find people panhandling for cash on the corners.

After parking in the spacious lot I walked through the automatic door. Pi is elegant and modern with dark, exposed beams on the ceiling. Maroon and cream striped chairs dot the large open dining room and I could hear the water fountain bubbling in the distance. Luckily the soothing sound drowns out the squawking from the plasma TVs on each side of the dining area. A brown bear is splayed against the wall like a flattened fly and a roaring fire crackles nearby. The colors are soothing and peaceful.

Food and beverage director Jeremy Fike said the restaurant is currently going through a few tweaks. He recently hired former Ginger co-owner, Marcus Biastock, to work on the overall quality of the restaurant. Fike said Pi gets plenty of business from hotel guests, but aims to get more locals in for the food he describes as, "eclectic new world cuisine."

"One goal is to have great service ... now we also want to capture more outside guests," Fike said.

Sitting down I order a soda. My hyper-attentive waitress returned with an uber-chic, super-tall, skinny glass. I'd love to own a few of these.

There are lots of curious choices on the menu. Starters include fish & chips ($16) made with halibut cheeks, fried sweet potatoes and spicy tartar sauce. Hawaiian sliders ($12) are a combination of Kalua pork, mango relish and Asian slaw on sweet rolls. Duck cigars ($12) are a mix of crispy duck, blue berries and cream cheese, with sweet soy, lemon grass creme fraiche.

The menu also has a handful of pasta dishes along with soups, salads and sandwiches.

The North Slope chicken sandwich ($12) has grilled chicken breast, caramelized onions, apple wood bacon, pepper jack cheese and avocado on ciabatta bread. I was also interested in the Kalua pork sandwich ($12). It's pork piled high on a ciabatta bun, with sliced tomatoes.

I eventually settled on the beef dip ($12), a large, thinly sliced beef sandwich served on toasted ciabatta roll with horseradish cream, cheddar cheese, and caramelized onions. I also ordered a cup of potato, lentil and ham soup ($3). My meal came with a choice of fried sweet potatoes or a house salad. I settled on the fries.

My order came up in a couple minutes with a huge, and I'm talking huge, mound of fries. Skinny, crisp and hot there was no way I can make a dent in it. My sandwich was OK. Nice cuts of meat, but nothing really special. The au jus was also a bit watery.

The prize of the meal is the soup. The potatoes are tender and the ham is a nice quality -- not the usual castoffs you often find in soup. I should have ordered a bowl ($8). It's a real gem.

When I eventually made it in again to Pi, I was starving and knew one of the dinner plates was the only way to go. One option was the house stir fry ($13). It's wok-fired, with an Asian vegetable blend, sweet ponzu sauce, candied ginger, edamame, jalapenos, peanuts and egg noodles. You can also add chicken ($5), shrimp ($7), scallops ($7) and grilled Portobello for ($4).

The scampi angel hair pasta ($12) also sounded good. It had lemon juice, caper berries, butter, parsley, roasted tomatoes and white wine.

Ultimately I couldn't resist the crab macaroni & cheese ($23). It's a large portion of penne pasta with crab, mascarpone, asparagus tips, asiago cheese, roasted tomatoes and a herb crust.

It was delicious, but I'm not sure it's worth the price. I was left longing for more, larger pieces of crab meat. The asparagus pieces were plentiful and crisp, and the cheeses were a great combination.

Pi Kitchen + Bar is a nice addition to dining in Anchorage, and I'm curious if it can compete with similar spots with downtown addresses.

Fike said he hopes the same folks who enjoy Simon and Seafort's or Glacier Brew House will trek over to Midtown. The ambiance makes it worth giving Pi a try.

If your finances have left you feeling light in the wallet but you aren't ready to settle for dollar menu fare, a trip to the Pepper Mill may be right on the money.

On Sundays the spot offers $5 single-topping regular-sized pizzas. Munch appetizers Monday through Wednesdays from 5-7 p.m. for the same price. The menu also features three varieties of half-pound New York strip steaks for $10 each and an 8-ounce filet mignon for $14.99.

The value of Pepper Mill's victuals isn't limited to prices. Nearly everything on the menu is house-made, from the avocado & chicken rolls ($9.99) to the multi-grain pizza crust. You can also find all of Alaska Brewing Company's suds on tap ($3.99 a pint or $15.99 a pitcher.)

Andy Kriner, general manager of both Pepper Mill and Sea Galley, said he decided to reinvent the Pepper Mill a couple of years ago and reworked the menu. He grew up with a love of cooking and said his mother owns Sal's Klondike Diner in Soldotna.

I brought my boyfriend and his son to dinner on a Friday night. The bar was packed when we arrived at 8 p.m., but there were plenty of open tables in the dining room. Images of Alaska and flat-screen TVs hang on the walls. The sound was turned down on the TVs, so it felt more like a family-friendly restaurant than a loud sports bar. Our server was attentive and friendly.

The blue York steak was a steal at $10. Savory blue-cheese butter shone across the top of the New York Strip. It was grilled to a precise medium, though it would have been easy to overcook the somewhat thin steak. Plenty of hot crispy fries came on the side.

I was intrigued by the menu's promise of Thanksgiving flavor in the fresh roasted turkey sandwich ($9.95). The restaurant roasts a bird every day and then serves it sandwiched between enormous slices of white or multi-grain bread.

The round loaves are baked in coffee cans by Europa Bakery from a Kriner family recipe. The "Alaskan-sized" sandwich was lightly buttered and grilled to delectable golden crispness and topped with melted American cheese, mayonnaise, shredded lettuce and sliced tomato.

The meat took comfort food to a grand level with a freshly roasted and hand-pulled flavor.

I chose jojo potatoes and house-made ranch dip as my side. The seasoned wedges were slightly crispy on the outside and soft inside. The ranch was chunky and complemented the jojos well. I ordered the half sandwich and regretted skimping after the 10-year-old hockey player at the table set his sights on it. You know it has to be a great sandwich if it can get a kid to pass on pizza.

We also ordered a regular-size Pepper Mill combo pizza and chose the butter crust over the multi-grain ($13.99). The crust was soft and covered in marinara sauce, garlic oil, pepperoni, Italian sausage, Canadian bacon, hamburger, mushrooms, green peppers, red onions, tomatoes, olives, mozzarella, provolone, cheddar, and Parmesan cheese. The dense toppings packed a punch and made a hefty pie. The flavor was unique, with the scrumptious blend of cheeses.

I returned with a friend for a weekday lunch a few days later. I was impressed with the iceberg wedge salad's ($4.99) flavor and freshness. The handcrafted blue cheese dressing was tasty and topped with a superb mix of diced tomatoes, sunflower seeds, bacon and seasonings.

The Pepper Mill burger was 8 ounces of ground beef with two slices of American cheese, lettuce, onion, tomato and mayo ($9.99).

The Mill uses the same bread for burgers and sandwiches so the bun had the girth of a coffee can.

The burger was well flavored, but the bread was a little large for the patty. I tore the crust off to get a better bread-to-beef ratio.

Fans of the Travel Channel's "Man v. Food" can get a taste of Adam Richman's I-bet-I-can-eat-that mission by taking on Fat Andy's Pizza Challenge.

If two people devour a 12-pound pie topped with two meats, cheddar and mozzarella cheese and marinara sauce in one hour or less they win $500 and get their photo on Fat Andy's Wall of Pain. Currently Fat Andy remains undefeated, taking out about 50 competitors over the past two years. Five slices stood between victory and the challenger who was closest so far. The mammoth pizza costs $49.99, is equal to four large pies and takes about 30 minutes to bake.

The Pepper Mill recently fielded a phone call from "Man v. Food," and an Alaska episode may be in the works. Even without the extra publicity, Kriner said the restaurant's business is steadily increasing.

If you look at Pepper Mill's menu and want more than the steaks, salads, pizzas, burgers and sandwiches ($4.99-$23.99) featured, you can also order from the Sea Galley housed in the same building. Just don't go looking for the Mill's house-made fares anywhere else.

"I feel like my advantage is I can make all my own food. I don't take orders from corporate," Kriner said.

A well-honed cast and tight direction make "Make Good the Fires" a good night of theater. Arlitia Jones has built her new play, which opened Friday night, around an engrossing local historical subject with often beautiful language, sometimes poignant, sometimes humorous and shaped the telling with a certain elegance.

Yet, though the piece stirs curiosity about and something like sympathy for her key character, at the end of the action we're not sure why it matters.

Sara Wagner portrays Lena Morrow Lewis, an activist with the Socialist Party of America who labored for organized labor in Alaska for five years. Jeff McCamish has several roles, including Judge James Wickersham, Lena's husband Arthur and a delightful French prospector. Krista Schwarting plays Lena's Fairbanks friend, Jessie, her caregiver in later life and assorted bit parts.

The play appears to take place in the mind of the aging Lewis, living on charity in New York after World War II. A seamless stream of memories flow in and out in realistic episodes. Director Bostin Christopher's pacing lets the scenes emerge without jarring, while maintaining an edge of surprise.

The constant set rearrangements are managed by the trio of actors during the dialogue, never stopping the action, so that the full two acts and intermission ran just 2 hours and 10 minutes on opening night.

This fluidity is also reflected by the actors. Each performs with energy and polish, managing repeated shifts of voice as well as character. The difficulty in shifting in and out of a credible Irish brogue between scenes, as Schwarting does, or switching between the accent of an Ivy League swell, a Midwest rabble-rouser, Russian laborer and that amiable Frenchman, as McCamish does, boggles the mind; yet they pull it off with precision.

Likewise Wagner's swings in her portrayal of Lewis in her robust and optimistic youth, then in her exhausted and bitter senility, sometimes within the same scene, are impressively believable and effective, disclosing Lewis' life in patches, like a quilt.

The patches, however, don't present much contrast. Lewis never encounters an epiphany or a serious doubt. Nothing in the play shows us why she makes her choices other than, "I go where the party sends me." Whatever decisions she has made about herself are unchanged from start to finish. She enters and departs as a complete structure upon which nothing further is built.

The facts behind the play will fascinate history geeks. But specifics are sidestepped (a literary liberty and perhaps the right choice in some cases) and slogans like "Educate, agitate, organize!" sound dated nowadays; indeed one character suggests they were already past tense by the 1930s.

Most 21st century American -- knowing nothing about Eugene Debs, or President Wilson's jailing of Socialists, or Stalin's purge of Trotskyites, or railroad bulls and the notion of communal commonwealth -- won't find out much here and probably won't be inspired to learn more. Jones has placed, or copied, fiery speeches into Lewis' mouth; but while this style of preaching may have been motivational to listeners 100 years ago, it borders on comical parody now.

The playwright realizes this and uses it to draw laughs on several occasions, notably the debate between Lewis and Wickersham.

Flitting on the periphery of Jones' tableaux is the question one wishes she had explored more: What do we give up in order to fulfill what we think our mission to be?

Did an inflexible Lewis give up love, more than once, to advance her hopes for a socialist paradise? That would be a great story to hear, but it never comes into focus. Hence "Make Good the Fires" doesn't make good on theater's promise to show us why people make the enormous decisions that constitute life and whether the trade-off is worth it.

But seeing the show is worth the trade-off of admission for those who love Alaska's past.

One of the thrills of watching it from a seat at Cyrano's 4th Avenue and D Street theater is the realization that the real Lena Lewis stood and spoke these very words right at this very spot -- or nearby at least.