It’s the battle of the burrito.

Moe’s Southwest Grill opened this week in a 2,800-square-foot leasehold at 304 S. Ninth St. The 90-seat restaurant, located between Campus Bar & Grill and Shake’s Frozen Custard, features burritos, tacos, quesadillas, salads, fajitas and more. Beverages include beer on tap and "Moe-ritas" frozen margaritas.

Franchise owner RJ Williams of Joplin was on hand Thursday to greet customers and watch his employees in action during a free food promotion that drew scores of diners. Williams said the handout was "very expensive" but good publicity to promote the new restaurant.

Williams, 39, is a former AT&T Wireless employee who ate lunch at a popular mom and pop burrito restaurant in Boston. That experience turned into a dream to own a similar place. He did some research and found the Moe’s Southwest Grill franchise. "I liked the food, people and atmosphere," he said.

Moe’s Southwest Grill restaurants are promoted as "quirky, irreverent and fun" with "no freezers, microwaves or MSG," colorful interiors and rock music.

A few feet from Williams’ new restaurant sits Chipotle, a fresh-made burrito restaurant that’s part of a nationwide chain spun off by McDonald’s Corp. in an initial public offering in January. The transaction raised more than $170 million and left McDonald’s with a 69 percent stake that it intends to divest by year-end.

Williams is undaunted by the competition. He said his site, leased from local businessman John Ott, is ideal. "I love the location," Williams said. "It was too good to pass up."

Williams said his father and a brother are co-owners in the venture that he expects will sprout restaurants throughout a territory that includes Columbia, Jefferson City, Springfield and Joplin. The Columbia location is their first outlet, but a Joplin outlet is expected to open later this month, he said.

Moe’s Southwest Grill touts 800 franchised units in 38 states. The franchises are part of Atlanta-based Raving Brands, which includes Mama Fu’s Asian House, Doc Green’s Gourmet Salads, Boneheads Grilled Fish and Piri Piri Chicken, Monkey Joe’s, Planet Smoothie, Shane’s Rib Shack and PJ’s Coffee and Lounge.

AROUND DOWNTOWN

In other downtown news, Hamid’s Café at 23 S. Ninth St. has closed. Owners Hamid and Denise Dianaty could not be reached for comment. The place opened October 2000.

Nothing But Noodles, which opened about two years ago in the Paramount Building at 29 S. Ninth St., is changing its name and not much else, General Manager Alann Severinsen said.

Severinsen, a distant relative of trumpeter Doc Severinsen, said the restaurant’s owners wanted more flexibility to run the place. They decided to sever ties with its Scottsdale, Ariz.-based franchiser and operate independently as Ninth Street Noodles, he said. "We’re still here, and we serve the same basic stuff," Severinsen said.

Chez Monet, a bakery, lunch and dessert shop, recently opened in The Tiger at 23 S. Eighth St. Owner Joan Fairfax has a similar shop in Jefferson City, which she has operated for 15 years.

And finally, a sign on the door of the Lion’s Choice at 406 S. Ninth St. says, "We are now closed; Please visit our Stadium and Ash location." The roast beef sandwich shop next to The Heidelberg sold a popular 10-cent ice cream cone. An official at the St. Louis-based franchiser could not be reached for comment.

CHANGE IN THE AIR

St. Louis-based Trans States Airlines plans to drop its 6:16 a.m. flight leaving Columbia Sunday through Friday after Wednesday and replace it with a 5:23 p.m. flight, spokesman Bill Mishk said. The other two flight times remain unchanged at 11:13 a.m. and 2:53 p.m., he said.

In February, the airline gave 90-day notice that it wanted out of the Columbia market. The U.S. Department of Transportation is working to name a replacement airline under provisions of the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act.

Smyrna, Tenn.-based RegionsAir and Wichita, Kan.-based Midwest Air filed proposals to replace Trans States. Midwest Air is part of Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group.

This week, the city’s Airport Advisory Board voted to endorse the Mesa Air Group proposal. The Phoenix-based firm has offered to use 19-seat turboprop Beechcraft planes to provide daily flights to Kansas City and St. Louis with an annual federal subsidy of $598,751.

FULL COURT PRESS

A project launched about seven years ago looks to be under way for a new federal courthouse in Jefferson City, according to a news release from the U.S. General Services Administration.

The GSA has selected Boston-based architectural firm Kallmann, McKinnell & Wood to design the 128,600-square-foot, $75 million facility slated for an 8-acre site at Lafayette and State streets donated by the state. The new facility will house the Western District of Missouri’s Central Division in the U.S. Court’s Eighth Circuit, located at 131 W. High St. and in offices at various downtown leaseholds.

Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2008 and be completed in about two years, said Michael Brincks, a spokesman for the Heartland Region of GSA.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Barry McCaffrey, retired U.S. Army general and NBC news analyst, will be the keynote speaker at a public policy forum hosted by Missouri Department of Transportation Director Pete Rahn on June 22 at the University of Missouri-Columbia Reynolds Alumni Center. Topics include the future of the nation’s interstate highway system in Missouri.

The forum, which begins at 8:30 a.m., coincides with the 50-year anniversary of the federal highway system and the plan to widen and improve Interstate 70, said Bob Brendel, a spokesman for MoDOT.

For more information, contact Elizabeth Holden of MU’s Harry S Truman School of Public Affairs at 884-3381 or holdene@missouri.edu.