I read with interest the November news that Portland-based McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurants had been acquired by Houston-based Landry's Restaurants and was set to be sold for a $132 million. But what held my interest even more, was the fact that Peter Birk had left his longtime post as executive chef at Ray's Boathouse & Cafe to take the helm at McCormick & Schmick's revitalized Harborside restaurant complex on Lake Union.

After 11 years at Ray's on Shilshole Bay, chef Peter Birk has taken the helm at the revitalized Harborside at 1200 Westlake Avenue N. on Lake Union. [photo: Moffett Images]

Truth? I had no idea the dual-story McCormick & Schmick's Harborside, which made its debut in the waterfront AGC Building in 1996, had closed in August for a major makeover. But after I showed up last week for lunch at the new Harborside (now devoid of its McCormick & Schmick's moniker), I thought, "Now that's an improvement!"

Be sure to read Seattle Times restaurant critic Providence Cicero's review of Altura, the new Capitol Hill restaurant that stood atop my fall newbie list and has rocketed to the top of the star-power firmament, thanks to chef/owner Nathan Lockwood, his wife Rebecca and their stellar crew.

Open only two months, this casual 36-seat seductress has it going on on every level: food, service, ambiance, wine list -- the works. After my first meal here, I made sure to plan ahead and reserve for my next. I can't wait.

Nathan Lockwood at Altura, my new favorite restaurant. [Seattle Times/Mark Harrison]

Chef Bradley Dickinson called this week with news that he and his business partner Mikel Rogers, co-owners of downtown Bellevue's popular Pearl Bar & Dining, are at it again. Their second venture, Koral, a casual "New American Tavern," will soon be setting up shop where the Twisted Cork stands in the Hyatt Regency -- a short walk from Pearl.

According to Dickinson, landlord Kemper Development flirted with "a couple national chains" before settling on a couple local guys. And those fellas are set to fill the restaurant-void left after the ever-revolving Twisted Cork was shuttered early last year. (More recently, the Hyatt has been using the space to provide breakfast to hotel guests, as well as drinks and appetizers come evening.)

Taking on the nearly 8000-square-foot slot at 900 Bellevue Way N.E. is a big deal: one Dickinson and Rogers have been considering for more than a year. Before nailing the lease, "We've remodeled the restaurant several times and we haven't even opened it yet!" the chef said. "Trust me. That saved us money." A major makeover will begin after Thanksgiving, with an opening date expected in February. Koral is slated to seat 100 in the bar and 170 in the dining room.

Separated at birth? The bar at Pearl (left), and at the original Twisted Cork (as seen in 2007, right) soon to be reincarnated as Koral. [Seattle Times/Mark Harrison]

Cold-calling salesmen offering everything from linens to limoncello show up at Belle Clementine, David Sanford's as-yet-unopened Ballard restaurant. "Is the owner around?" they ask, ignoring the boyish restaurateur in painter pants and dusty boots laboring in the high-ceiling husk of the century-old building that once housed Olsen Furniture.

The first time I laid eyes on Sanford I was inclined to overlook him, too. It was 2008, and he was a young dishwasher. Or so I thought.

As one of the hands who helped Matt Dillon and Wylie Bush launch The Corson Building, Sanford also prepped meals in their Georgetown kitchen, though his job description included managing reservations, promotion and public relations, and, as he recalls, "taking all the creative, crazy ideas we'd come up with and figure out how to bring them into existence."

I've since come to know this food-focused brainiac, now 28, as a culinary visionary with a well-honed entrepreneurial streak -- and a Stanford University degree in entrepreneurial management to back it up.

A Mercer Island High School grad, Sanford went pre-med at UW, moved on to Stanford, hitched his wagon to the roving restaurant caravan Outstanding in the Field, lent his business-kopf to a series of Internet startups and worked as a private chef and restaurant consultant.

Dave Sanford out standing in a field at Oxbow Farm in Carnation, during an Outstanding in the Field dinner held last year. [photo: Nancy Leson]

Today his boots are firmly planted at 5451 Leary Avenue N.W., where he's come up with a creative, crazy idea of his own: a subscription-based communal-dining experience disguised as a 36-seat restaurant. If all goes as planned, Belle Clementine, named for his artist grandmother, will open by December.

Talk about a fall harvest! So many restaurants made their debut last month, it's difficult deciding where to go first. To celebrate the season, here, in alphabetical order, are 10 October debutantes to put on your check-it-out list. Want to add your two cents about these newbies -- or any others recently opened or in the offing? Please do.

By the time autumn turns to winter, dozens of new restaurants will have opened in and around Seattle. October brought the debut of many, including (from left) Altura, Mezcaleria Oaxaca, Marché and LloydMartin. [Seattle Times/Erika Schultz]

Altura
Here on North Broadway, chef/owner Nathan Lockwood is turning it out in an open kitchen and turning us on to seasonal Italian cuisine and the option of a "3-4-5" coursed dinner ($49-$69). Added attractions: paired wines and a 10-seat counter.
617 Broadway E., Seattle (206-402-6749 or www.alturarestaurant.com). Hours: dinner 5:30-10:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday.

Bako
Remember the old Jade Pagoda? Forget it! On that site across from Altura stands Keeman Wong's contemporary Cantonese restaurant and bar. Wong ditched the kitsch to make a modern mark. Cocktails are king, and you may enjoy one alongside char siu pork at "Foursies" (think happy hour).
606 Broadway E., Seattle (206-829-8958 or www.bakoseattle.com). Hours: dinner 5 p.m.-close Tuesday-Sunday (Foursies 3-5 p.m.).

Nate and I needed a little sustenance tonight after his school concert. "Hey, Mom! Did you hear Dick's opened today?" Why, yes. Yes I did. "Let's go!" he said. Good idea, I figured, seeing as it was after 9 p.m., we hadn't had dinner yet and we live only blocks from the much-anticipated new Dick's. Our jaws dropped when we saw the the traffic cops, the cars crowding the TOP Food parking lot and a sea of people waiting, and waiting, for their chance to say, "I ate at the new Dick's the day it opened!"

While Nate chatted up a classmate, I made my way through the crowd, garnering a few nasty stares as I cut in line to see what was going on up front. After chatting up a handful of folks who were far harder-core than we were, the kid and I left and went to Demitris Woodstone Taverna where we enjoyed a late-night happy hour menu. That said, we've still got the jones for a Deluxe. Ah, there's always tomorrow. Not that I think the lines at Dick's will be any less crowded then. Meanwhile, here's what was going down off the corner of Highway 99 and 220th in Edmonds tonight.

Wild Ginger. El Gaucho. Blue C and Boom Noodle. Monsoon. Cantinetta. And now make way for the Lunchbox Laboratory, another Seattle-born sensation soon to make its Bellevue debut. With a lease just signed, permits in the works and design plans underway, owner John Schmidt expects to open the Eastside version of the popular Seattle burger joint in late December.

You'll find it on the first level of the high-rise Elements complex at 989 112th Avenue N.E., in the spot that formerly housed Zen Asian Bistro.

Schmidt, owner of five Neighborhood Grills in and around Seattle, added Lunchbox Lab to its restaurant roster in January after relocating that beloved Ballard hole-in-the wall to his (now-defunct) Southlake Grill in South Lake Union. "Growth is what we're about," he told me last December, after forging a partnership with Lunchbox Lab's creative force, Scott Simpson, whose death months later shocked and saddened Seattle's restaurant community.

Yesterday's Lunchbox lunch at South Lake Union: sweet potato fries and an "Homage to Dick's Deluxe" with Kobe-style beef, American cheese and honey-cured bacon. Unlike at Dick's, I couldn't possibly eat two. [photo/Nancy Leson]

After 32 years as a restaurateur, Karen Binder has finally found her "out." Madison Park's unofficial Jewish mother has spent years in search of the right person to buy the business she's birthed, nourished and held onto through thick and thin -- and she's finally done it.

After brunch on Sunday, August 28th, Binder will bid adieu to Madison Park Cafe, turning over the keys to Celinda Norton. Norton, a talented chef, sold her 6-year-old Pike Place Market bistro 94 Stewart in July in preparation for the move. If all goes as planned, Norton expects to reopen in October as Cafe Parco. Her "New World Italian" menu should appeal to a neighborhood short on Italian restaurants.

"Oh my God, I'm so happy!" says Binder, who'd hoped to find another woman entrepreneur to take over at 1807 42nd Avenue East. "I'm thrilled about Celinda. She's got a big-enough personality so I feel I have a replacement. I think she's going to knock 'em dead." Speaking of, given the news of the impending closure, "I just hope all the people who've been eating blintzes here for the last 32 years don't have a coronary."

Karen Binder opened the Madison Park Cafe in 1979. As co-owner of the property on which it stands, she's not likely to be a stranger when her bistro reopens this fall as Cafe Parco. [photo/Nancy Leson]

In case you hadn't heard, chef Tamara Murphy's Terra Plata is finally under construction on Capitol Hill. Yes, that Terra Plata: the exciting new restaurant I told you about nearly two years ago, back when it was expected to open in February, 2010 and slated to anchor the as-yet-unopened Melrose Market. Since then, shops have come and gone at the royally refurbished building between Pike and Pine, and Murphy's hung tight to her mantra, insisting that come Hell or high water she's opening Terra Plata at 1515 Melrose Avenue. The current debut date? Late September -- 2011.

Hell, yeah. Tamara Murphy, up on the roof at Terra Plata, where the rooftop-garden dining space and long-awaited restaurant are finally under construction. [photo/Nancy Leson]

I've already told you about the restaurant Marché under construction in the old Campagne space in Pike Place Market. And now for part two of my Marché story. Chef Greg Atkinson, whose pretty prose and seasonal recipes regularly grace the pages of The Seattle Times, will soon have a French-influenced Restaurant Marché to call his own -- on his home-turf, Bainbridge Island.

"Wait a minute!" you ask. "Didn't you tell us Atkinson was hired as chef-exec at Kailash, the haute-falutin' vegetarian restaurant reportedly opening this year in Rainier Square? Why, yes! Yes, I did. Like so many fine ideas, that one went sideways. But what was sad news for well-heeled vegetarians turned out to be great news for Atkinson.

Coming soon: Restaurant Marché, scheduled to open "late fall" at 150 Madrona Lane in the heart of Winslow. [Seattle Times/Dean Rutz]

In the wake of the relocation of Restaurant Zoe, and the takeover of that Belltown spot by chefs Brian McCracken and Dana Tough, come details about the food and mood we can expect to find when that dynamic duo -- the owners of Spur gastropub and Tavern Law -- unveil their latest effort this fall.

Though initially mum on the subject, "We had a very clear vision of what we wanted to do," McCracken explained during a show-and-tell last week. Their plan: to create a restaurant and bar meant to remind us of an era of early 20th-century elegance: The Coterie Room.

Unlike their other decidedly innovative 21-and-over evening venues -- bars, really -- this one welcomes all for lunch, dinner and brunch. Here, we'll lift a fork to sophisticated takes on American standards like eggs Benedict and fried chicken.

Brian McCracken (left) and Dana Tough, in front of their newly christened restaurant, The Coterie Room, at 2137 2nd Avenue. Their Belltown gastropub, Spur, can be seen in the distance. [Seattle Times/Mike Siegel]

"Pho, pho, pho! Ninety-nine percent of Vietnamese restaurants have the same menu," carps Eric Banh, owner, with his sister Sophie, of the popular Monsoon restaurants in Seattle and Bellevue. Where, by the way, they make a mean bowl of pho.

While Sophie impresses by working magic running Monsoon -- overseeing the dual kitchens and executing their contemporary Northwest take on the Vietnamese foods they grew up eating -- her younger brother is the dude with the entrepreneurial eye for expansion. Having birthed a pair of splendiferous-sandwich shops called Baguette Box, this month he's unveiled another venture, Ba Bar.

The 55-seat cafe and bar anchors a handsomely restored building near the confluence of 12th and Cherry. Its soaring windows face Seattle University's baseball field. Miss the address, and a bold neon sign with a down-facing arrow points you in the right direction. Last week, I stopped in for a nightcap and noodles, later catching up with Eric by phone. He had plenty to say about Vietnamese food culture in Seattle -- and elsewhere.

Eric Banh, at Ba Bar, open daily from early till late at 550 12th Avenue.
[Seattle Times/Dean Rutz]

Q: Your family left Saigon when you were 12 after the city fell to the communists. What food memories did you take with you?

Barby Cohen wrote asking what gives with the "winter remodel" of Campagne. The one I told you about in January when Daisley Gordon and I discussed the closure of the iconic French restaurant -- slated to have reopened by now with a new look, a new menu and a new lease on life.

"I'm très worried that they won't reopen," says Barby, who can't ken the notion that her favorite restaurant may go the way of others awaiting "remodel" by staying closed indefinitely. "Do you have any insider information?" she inquired, after a recent visit to the shuttered courtyard site. And she's not the only one waiting for some good news on the Campagne front. I've heard from numerous Eaters left tapping their toes and checking their watches.

The Zucker clan, seen this week waiting impatiently for Campagne to reopen. With no time to waste, they could have gone to Cafe Campagne, but headed instead to that other Market treasure, Matt's in the Market. [photo/Nancy Leson]

"We just started tearing walls down," chef Gordon told me last week when I called for insider info, explaining the new design will create greater harmony between the former dining room and the existing bar. "Our goal is to be open again by the first of September" with a new French name: Marché, reflecting the Market location.

Some chefs get all the glory. And then there's Jerry Corso, whose name may not be familiar to you -- yet. But that's about to change. After 30 years spent cooking on two coasts and two continents, the Northwest native has put his name on a new "pizzeria con cucina."

Jerry first came to my attention as the coolly capable right-hand man working the tapas bar at the Harvest Vine. Later, he helped open Crow, then lent an occasional hand at Spinasse, making pasta. Most recently, I've been privileged to sit at his kitchen counter at Crow's sister-restaurant, Betty, going gonzo for his perfect pan-seared chicken breast.

Bar del Corso, with Corso presiding in the cucina -- and his graphic designer-bride Gina Tolentino as marketing manager -- will celebrate its grand opening on Beacon Hill next week. Last week, Corso took time from his busy schedule to chat.

Jerry Corso at Bar del Corso, making its public debut next week at 3057 Beacon Avenue South. That shirt says "beacon rocks!" not "bacon rocks!" Though bacon does too, of course. [Seattle Times/Mike Siegel]

Here's what he had to tell me:

When Scott and Heather Staples opened Restaurant Zoe in September 2000, Belltown was a-boom with exciting new bistros. Flying Fish held down the corner of First and Bell, Brasa (now gone) was in its infancy, neighborhoods like Pike/Pine and South Lake Union were the merest glint in developers' eyes. It would be eight years before Brian McCracken and Dana Tough -- the young comers behind the cocktail-centric Spur Gastropub -- would dig their heels into the 'hood.

Zoe became an instant classic, and its success begot two siblings: Pike/Pine's popular Quinn's Pub and Fremont newcomer Uneeda Burger. Meanwhile, Spur, down the block from Zoe at 113 Blanchard St., spawned a second innovative drinks-stop, Pike/Pine's Tavern Law.

Now, Zoe's moving out, and the Spur chefs are moving in -- with a new venture that should complement, not compete with, their first. Although the ink's not quite dry on the dual deal, they're "99 percent there," Tough said.

"We're closing our doors in Belltown on July 23," Scott Staples confirmed. He's leased space at the new Oola Distillery building at 14th and Union. You may remember the place as the former Capitol Hill bakery/cafe La Panzanella.

Scott and Heather Staples (left), in front of Restaurant Zoe at Second and Blanchard, are leaving for Capitol Hill. Chefs Brian McCracken (second from right) and Dana Tough expect to open a new restaurant in its place. This will be the third venture for McCracken and Tough, whose first, Spur Gastropub, is visible at far left. [Seattle Times/Mike Siegel]

I've found my dream diner. It sits on the corner of 14th and East Union, stocks its branded jars of Bacon Jam (if you're lucky and they haven't run out), and if the place were any friendlier it would have gotten up and kissed me.

When I walked in, a big guy with a miniature version of a Snidely Whiplash mustache smiled and called me "love." Then, a darling waitress with strawberry blond hair and matching freckles showed me some love, filling my mug with strong coffee while I sat at the counter perusing the place-mat menu.

Seated at my elbow in view of an open kitchen, a fellow polished off his cornmeal waffle with pork belly and fried egg while I bit my lip trying to decide between that -- or the mile-high stack of griddlecakes with rhubarb compote being ferried to a nearby booth. Kim, the feisty floor manager from Kent, insisted I'd made the right decision when I opted for the deconstructed corned beef hash with eggs.

"Why is this so good?" I swooned, as I lit into the best version of that diner staple I'd ever eaten, polishing off the caramelized carrots and fennel and one last bite of fingerling potato dripping with egg yolk. "Because it's made with love," he insisted.

Corned beef hash with eggs: Just like they serve at the diners I grew up with. Not.

Hot damn! It's a regular love-fest here at Skillet Diner, the sit-down version of Skillet Street Food. That Airstream trailer has been leading Seattle's slow-to-go street-food revolution, plying its trade as a bistro-on-wheels since 2007. This bricks-and-mortar ode to culinary Americana opened its doors May 18 in the Chloe apartment complex straddling Capitol Hill and the Central District, and it's been hopping ever since.

Opportunity knocked -- again -- and Shannon Galusha answered. This week, the executive chef who brought us the fine-dining restaurant Veil, and later helped Bastille Cafe & Bar build its reputation as a Ballard's French hotspot, will take his leave to partner in a new venture. As Galusha bids farewell to Messieurs Deming Maclise and James Weimann, the boys behind Bastille, he's binding ties to another team of restaurant visionaries: Jeff Chandler and Matthew Schweitzer.

At the newly formed Classic Concepts Group, Galusha and company are thinking big, with plans to open several "innovative local neighborhood restaurants" in short order in 2011, and longterm plans to plant more (and different) concepts throughout Puget Sound.

With a signed lease on a 3200-square-foot space in Kent Station (where they expect to open a classic American tavern tentatively called Cal's Classic American), a letter-of-intent filed on a second location in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood (all hail, Amazonians!) and their eyes firmly trained on Gig Harbor, it appears the trio is well on their way to living up to their group vision.

"I had a really challenging decision to make" regarding leaving a going concern to start one of his own, says Galusha. He recently oversaw the culinary direction of Bastille's new Mexican-sib Poquitos on Capitol Hill, and will leave his talented second-in-command Jason Stoneburner to fill his shoes. "There's so much potential for growth working with James and Demming."

Bastille's chef-exec Shannon Galusha, showing growth potential on the restaurant's rooftop garden in Ballard. [Seattle Times/Steve Ringman].

You never know what stage Robin Leventhal is going to star on next. One minute she's running her own show at Crave, the tiny bistro that made it big during its five-year tenure on Capitol Hill. Next she's in Vegas, as a celebrity cheftestant on "Top Chef's" sixth season. Today she's top chef at Stopsky's Delicatessen, a 36-seat restaurant and take-out shop on Mercer Island, built as a modern Jewish deli with a Pacific Northwest twist.

Stopksy's in the name of love! Snake River Wagyu pastrami? Seattle's Ebb+Flow gin-cured lox? Chicken-liver mousse stuffed in a pickled egg? Be still my beating heart attack! I caught up with Leventhal as she prepared to open for business at 3016 78th Ave. S.E., where she's been given creative license to make Mercer Island a deli-food destination.

Robin Leventhal at Stopsky's -- set to open in May, next door to Island Books on Mercer Island.
[Seattle Times/John Lok]

Q: Stopsky's, slated to open in May, gets its name via owner Jeff Sanderson, a former Microsoftie who's a softy for Jewish food and culture. I hear it's named to honor the Stopsky brothers -- his grandfather and great uncles who emigrated to the U.S. from a small Jewish village outside Kiev, Ukraine. Which (call me crazy, no?) sounds very "Fiddler on the Roof." So tell me: Did Sanderson find you via Matchmaker-Matchmaker.com?

So, have you been Tom Douglas' new restaurant?

"Which one?" you might ask, with good reason. With so many recent openings for the chef/entrepreneur (three this year so far, four if you count the Dahlia Workshop, and another slated for next week) you've got to wonder how he -- and his wife and business partner, Jackie Cross -- find time to sleep. Today in the Seattle Times, Providence Cicero casts her critic's eye on one of their "old" restaurants: Seatown Seabar & Rotisserie, which made its debut last summer as Seatown Snack Bar & Rotisserie -- before Tom determined no one "got" the East Coast snack bar reference and changed its name.

Anyway, if you were to ask me if I've been to his new restaurants, I'd say sure: I've eaten seafood at Seatown, truffle pizza and budino at the new Serious Pie Westlake and knocked back a breakfast biscuit at the Dahlia Workshop. But I've yet to try the (21-and-over) Brave Horse Tavern or his Italian entry Cuoco (say: kwo-ko) -- now open at the historic Terry Avenue Building in South Lake Union. I've got them on my radar though, and look forward to checking out Ting Momo, the adjacent Tibetan dumpling cafe geared toward the quick-lunch crowd and set to open Monday.

Tibetan chef Deyki Thonden has plenty to smile about now that she's getting a Tom Douglas restaurant to call her own: Ting Momo.

So, what's in store for you (and me) when we get to latest trifecta? I'll let Tom -- seen below at Brave Horse Tavern during a Vulcan Real Estate-sponsored media event late last month -- tell you all about it:

They've pulled it off! John and Babe Shepherd, owners of Red Mill Burgers, have scored a lease on the Totem House. This week the windows at 3058 N.W. 54th Street are papered over. Dumpsters have arrived for construction detritus. And now comes the fun part: turning the landmark fish 'n' chips joint across from the Ballard Locks into Red Mill Totem House.

Built in the 1930s as a setting for selling Native American artifacts, closed during World War II, reopened as a restaurant in 1945 and abruptly shuttered New Year's Eve 2010, the newly refurbished Totem House is expected to reopen in September. And yes, you'll still be able to get a cup of chowder alongside your fish 'n' chips -- and your Red Mill burgers.

Babe and John Shepherd, at the Totem House in Ballard. [Seattle Times/Ellen Banner]

Forget musical chairs. Chef Mike Easton is playing musical stairs. This week, he'll leave his post as chef-exec at Lecosho on the Harbor Steps in the very capable hands of Lauri Allen Carter and open Il Corvo (The Crow), just up the block on the Pike Street Hill Climb. "He's leaving already?" I wondered when I heard the news just six months after Lecosho (finally) opened its doors. What's up with that? Easton gave me the scoop -- and I mean that literally.

Mike Easton pouring it on at Lesosho. Soon, he'll be doing the same at Il Corvo. [Seattle Times/Mike Siegel]

When John Schofield ate his first prime steak at Andy's Diner in Sodo, he was a Philly-expat living in Seattle and working at Walt's Radiator. Then, in 1995 he opened A.C. Automotive at 3201 Fourth Avenue South -- next door to Andy's.

In the years since things have changed: These days they're serving Chinese food in the railcar-restaurant long known as Andy's Diner. And if John wants to get his hands on a great steak, all he has to do is step outside his shop, throw on an apron and make it himself.

I caught up with the mechanic-turned-meat-chopper in the parking lot of A.C. Automotive, now home to Philly Boys Cheesesteaks -- the Cheez Whiz-colored mobile unit where he's been putting up steaks since early March alongside another Philly boy, Frank Bucci.

Frank Bucci (left) and John Schofield, the Philly boys behind Philly Boys Cheesesteaks.
[Seattle Times/Ken Lambert]

Adam Hoffman's name isn't as familiar as Thierry Rautureau's, but it should be. For more than a decade at Rover's, Hoffman worked side by side with "The Chef in the Hat." As chef de cuisine for eight years, he ran the kitchen at that four-star French restaurant.

Always a behind-the-scenes kind of guy, Hoffman, 41, got his first taste of running the show for the owners of the late Figaro Bistro in Lower Queen Anne. He was a sous chef at Mauro Golmarvi's Assaggio in Belltown and a line cook at Peter Dow's original Cafe Juanita in Kirkland. But today he's making a name for himself: at Adam's Northwest Bistro & Brewery in Monroe.

Chef Adam Hoffman at home in his new restaurant, at 104 N. Lewis Street in Monroe.
[Seattle Times/John Lok]

Like chefs-for-hire everywhere, Hoffman has long harbored hopes of owning a restaurant. Indeed, he's had investors come calling, but potential deals fell through. Even Rautureau knew it was time to take the next step. "Chef told me, 'Adam, you have a job here for the rest of your life, but you're never going to be as happy as you can be until you get a place of your own.'" In November, he found it.

Stephen Brown, the visionary behind Eltana Wood-Fired Bagel Cafe on Capitol Hill, grew up in Toronto, where a vibrant Jewish community supported dozens of independent bagel bakeries. But Toronto bagels were nothing like the orbs that rocked his world when he arrived in Montreal as a college student. There, he feasted his eyes on the original Montreal bagelry, founded in 1919.

"There was room for four or five people to stand up" at Fairmount Bagel, Brown remembers decades later, describing a "hole in the wall" dominated by a wood-fired oven where bagels came out "skinny and irregular, with large holes in them, less like a hunk of bread and more like a chewy pastry."

Daniel Levin grew up in Ravenna a block from Seattle's premier bagel bakery, New York-styled Bagel Oasis. As a bagel-loving bar mitzvah boy in a city known for its puffy supermarket bagels, he worked at Madison Park Cafe, helping with catering, and later worked his way through college bussing tables there. Until last spring, Levin knew nothing about Montreal's bagel culture. He was about to learn fast.

Four days after signing on as co-founder and No. 1 employee at Eltana, Levin, 25, flew to Montreal to begin a monthlong internship at St.-Viateur Bagel -- Fairmount's top-notch competition. There he worked side-by-side with two lead bakers from Colombia and Poland. "Combined, they had over 50 years bagel-baking experience," says Levin, who today leads an international crew at Eltana -- a made-up name meant to evoke something warm, mysterious and Middle Eastern.

Wood-fired bagels on display at Eltana, located at 1538 12th Ave, on Capitol Hill [Seattle Times/Mike Siegel]

Trend-spotters are convinced that in 2011, pie is the new cupcake, and two new Seattle bakeshops are busy proving those prognosticators right.

At Pie, baker Jessamy Whitsitt and her partner Renee Steen have been wowing Fremonsters with the simplicity of their handheld sweet and savory pies since New Year's Eve. That's when they opened the doors of their take-away cafe for a few tentative hours "just to get a feel for it," says Whittsitt. It felt great.

What began as a pie-in-the-sky idea is now their first foray onto the food scene. Whitsitt is a self-taught baker and personal trainer who grew up in Seattle; Steen a former Pixar film editor who left San Francisco to be closer to her friend and family.

Renee Steen, left, and Jessamy Whitsitt, are co-owners of Pie. [Seattle Times/John Lok]

I stopped by the Madison Park Conservatory last week to get a look at the new restaurant that replaced Sostanza. Yeah, I loved it. So much so that by the time I hit the road for home -- with snow falling fast and Seattleites driving like eejits -- it was all I could do not to turn my car around, conserve my emotional energy and head back to the far end of Madison Park. I envisioned myself begging to spend the night upstairs in the Conservatory's "Library Study Lounge," a somber moniker for a handsome hangout that encompasses a small bar and a private dining area replete with a cookbook nook. Had my dream come true, I'd wake up and smell the coffee, then eat another Dungeness deviled egg -- or three.

Smoky pimenton adds spark to this little Dungeness devil, sold as a trio ($7.50).

Speaking of: this week marked the debut of brunch service, served Thursdays through Sundays. And indeed those devilish eggs are on chef Cormac Mahoney's daylight menu. Ditto for duckfat-roasted potatoes and pork belly banh mi. The latter pays homage to the popular "Coco Piggy" at his last creative outlet, the intentionally short-lived Eastlake pop-up, Tako Truk.

With the new year in motion, it's time to look forward, and from a restaurant perspective we've got lots to look forward to in 2011. Here's a little taste.

Spinasse, the cozy Capitol Hill cascina known for its delicate handmade pastas, is set to double its dining capacity and encompass a new bar when it expands north into the existing storefront at 14th Avenue and East Pike Street. "I don't want to mess with the intimate feeling," said chef Jason Stratton, who runs the place with a creative eye toward Piedmont and the help of manager Michael Galloway.

Their plan: to create a mirror image of the current dining room in an adjacent space, and install a corridor leading to a contemporary-styled bar, Artusi, on the corner. Artusi (honoring the author of a classic Italian cookbook) will feature a 12-seat counter where, come May, you might perch for a plate of pasta and a glass of wine. "One of the attractions of Spinasse is seeing what's going on in the kitchen," said Stratton, who intends to keep "that peek-a-boo look" into his culinary workshop and create a new glassed-in pasta-making area as a visual draw.

Chef Jason Stratton, at Spinasse on Capitol Hill. [Seattle Times/Erika Schultz]

If you're one of those people who never understood the lure of Lunchbox Laboratory -- the burger-joint some consider the best in town -- you're not alone. There are those who found the Ballard hole-in-the-wall too small, too spendy and way too funkadelic. Others were offended by gruff service and fear of cardiac failure. Even the Lab's fervent fans were known to balk at its erratic hours. "When they sell out, they close -- so call ahead" suggests the 2011 Seattle Zagat Survey, published last week touting the Lab's "`amazing', cooked-to-order creations `huge' enough to `feed two adults.'"

Bet you can eat just one. A bacon-burger deluxe with curly-fries and a handmade strawberry shake at Lunchbox Laboratory in Ballard. [Seattle Times/Greg Gilbert]

Of course, no one has complained as vociferously about Lunchbox Laboratory than the man whose love/hate relationship with food -- and his restaurants -- has been well documented. "I hate being owner of this place," owner-chef Scott Simpson told me last week -- days before shuttering his joint Sunday in preparation for its big move to South Lake Union. "I'm a terrible businessman. I'm awful at it!"

Simpson made his name as the original owner of the Blue Onion Bistro (since sold, later closed), followed by the short-lived fine-dining-place Fork. And everyone who follows such things knows he's been looking for a way out of Ballard since he moved into the ramshackle shack at 7302-1/2 15th Avenue N.W. Well, he's finally found an exit-strategy -- thanks to a new business-partnership that has him jumping out of the managerial fire and back where he belongs: into the kitchen with his French cast-iron frying pans.

Providing the platform for his jump is John Schmidt, owner of Southlake Grill.

After a rocking-party preview last night -- and a build-out that stayed right on schedule, as promised -- Revel, the latest from Joule chefs Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi, opens today in Fremont. Want to be first in for lunch? They're serving weekday lunch from 11 till 2. Miss it? Don't worry, they'll open again for dinner at 5. Can't wait till then? There's always drinks at Revel's bar-side "libation destination" -- an adjacent space dubbed Quoin (say "Coin") making its public debut at 4.

Rachel and Seif provided me with a sneak-peek, photographically speaking, and I'm getting hungry already. Their menu is divided into groupings labeled "salad" "pancake" "dumpling" "rice" "noodle" and "ice cream sandwiches." You'll find these dishes, among others, in Fremont at 403 N. 36th Street. Save me a seat.

When it comes to grand openings, Le Grand Bistro Americain -- a French-inspired restaurant set to make its public debut December 28 at 2200 Carillon Point in Kirkland -- is not exactly a first for Ted Furst. As a chef and longtime restaurant consultant he's opened dozens of restaurants around the Sound.

Longtimers may remember Furst as the chef who co-founded the original Campagne on Capitol Hill with Peter Lewis. Or for his longstanding contribution as corporate executive chef for Schwartz Brothers Restaurants, where he was the top toque behind the company's hot concept Cucina!Cucina!

That popular Italian-restaurant chain once held sway in Kirkland, though it later ceded its waterfront address to BluWater Bistro -- since closed and re-envisioned (with a zinc bar, bien sur!) as the 140-seat bistro Le Grand.

So why, 25 years after ditching the title of restaurateur, is Ted Furst getting back in the famously fickle business of restaurant ownership? "As a consultant, you're always walking away from a project when the fun is just beginning," he explained. "I've been whining to everyone I know that I need to open my own restaurant." At 55, says Furst, he hopes to someday retire "and I wasn't happy with the notion of retiring as a `midwife' -- so to speak."

Helping him birth this baby is -- sacre bleu! -- another familiar name with a French-bistro background: Scott Emerick, former owner/chef of Cremant, late of Madrona.

Ted Furst (left) has helped give birth to dozens of new restaurants. Now he's hatching one of his own [photo courtesy Furst]. Schooled in the fine art of French cooking, chef Scott Emerick will lend his talent to Le Grand Bistro American [Seattle Times/Mike Siegel].

There's a reason Sachia Tinsley has been keeping (relatively) quiet about Peyrassol Cafe at Southport, open since October 1. "It's kind of precious right now," she explained by phone last week, speaking of time she and her husband, Scott Cory, spent building-out the kitchen and building-up a clientele at the lakefront cafe near Renton's Coulon Park.

Sachia is no stranger to restaurant openings. Along with her sister Sabrina Tinsley and brother-in-law Pietro Borghesi, she introduced Seattle to the simple fare of Emilia-Romagna in 1998, when the trio opened the original La Spiga on Capitol Hill. When the restaurant relocated to grand new quarters nearly a decade later, Sachia opted out, and before opening Peyrassol spent three-plus years as executive pastry-chef at Wild Ginger.

Sachia Tinsley in the kitchen at Peyrassol with her husband, Scott Cory. Their cafe, open Mondays through Saturdays, is located at 1083 Lake Washington Boulevard North. [photo courtesy Steven Smith Photography]

It's been a while since I cast my eye on Kirkland's McLeod Project, announcing the closure of the posh Peruvian restaurant Mixtura and plans to wreck and displace a host of longer-lived restaurant and retail spaces in its orbit.

Well, the dust has since settled, and developer Stuart McLeod and his restaurant team expect to open Milagro Cantina -- an 8,000-square-foot addition to downtown Kirkland's dining scene -- in mid-Demember.

Milagro, rendered as a fussy "cantina" in the re-envisioned site of the former Kirkland Waterfront Market.

Since word got out about the October closure of the original Lombardi's in Ballard, there's been plenty of speculation as to who -- and what, exactly -- will be moving into the 23-year-old restaurant-space at 2200 NW Market Street. The answer is 5 Corner Market, a 125-seat gastropub whose kitchen, run by chef Sam Crannell, is slated to open for business December 13.

Sam Crannell: ready to corner the Market (street) in Ballard.

Corrected version

If I lived in Ravenna, I'd add Harissa, at 2255 N.E. 65th Street, to my list of neighborhood go-to joints.

The text message arrived after several rounds of steamed dumplings had been ordered and consumed: "Totally worth the hype!" wrote a pal, who just happened to be at Lincoln Square when Din Tai Fung quietly opened for business Saturday evening at 5:30. It didn't stay quiet for long. On Sunday, the wait topped out at three hours. No surprise, as rabid fans of this Taiwan-based dumpling chain had been counting the hours for months.

The view from the (sky)bridge: Din Tai Fung, now open at Lincoln Square, in Bellevue.

But come on! Three hours? No offense to the xiao long bao aficionados who'd been pining for a taste of the "real deal" since word came down that DTF planned to open in Bellevue, but I wouldn't wait that long to get into the French Laundry. Instead, I showed up Monday, just after the lunch rush, when the wait, I was told, was 40 minutes.

His name is synonymous with garlic, and his signature recipe -- a plateful of marinated garlic wings, charbroiled and smothered in a potent garlic-lemon sauce -- has seduced Seattleites for decades. He's Kamal Aboul-Hosn, whose original Mediterranean Kitchen made its debut on Lower Queen Anne in 1981 and whose latest effort, the new Mediterranean Kitchen on First Hill, has been open six weeks.

Kamal Aboul-Hosn and his wife, Ghada, profess their love for the stinking rose on their T-shirts at the latest incarnation of Mediterranean Kitchen, near the corner of Boren and Madison at 1009 Boren Avenue.

The Lebanese chef and restaurateur came to this country 40 years ago, bringing with him his grandfather's recipe for chicken wings, now holding a hallowed place on the dinner menu along with other Kitchen classics like the combo-kabob and his North African lamb couscous (a Monday-night special). Order "Farmer's Dish" and you'll be presented with a finger-lickin' pile of wings, marinated for two full days in a blend of secret spices. "There's a rule for this plate," says Kamal. "No fork and knife!"

David Makuen isn't the first guy to come up with the idea of stuffing "extras" into a burger rather than onto a burger (my husband's been doing that since he got his hands on this "Cooking Light" recipe for a ham and-Swiss-stuffed burger years ago), but Makuen's certainly the first to start a successful burger business on the web, then take it to the streets of Pioneer Square.

On Monday, after 16 months in the freeze-it and ship-it business, he and his crew threw open the doors to the brick-and-mortar version of BuiltBurger, known for highlighting global ingredients while making good use of local product. "I'm a certified burgerholic," admits the former marketing-exec for Eddie Bauer, now owner of a 24-seat burger-joint at 217 James Street, where, as BuiltBurger's tag-line insists, "We make the patty the hero." From the sound of things, his nascent burger-joint is already getting a hero's welcome.

BuiltBurger in Pioneer Square: the calm before the heroics. You may remember it from its previous incarnation as the Mexican restaurant Guajillo's. [photo courtesy David Makuen]

It seems like every time I open my email inbox, there's another query like this one, from Eater Lit Wong: "Heard rumors that Din Tai Fung is opening on November 8th, which is today. Is this true? Any update about the opening date from your sources?"

Those rumors have been coming in thick and fast these past weeks, perhaps driven by a November 11 opening date listed on the Taiwan-based company's North American website, removed shortly after it posted. Hardcore Yelpers planned their "opening day" onslaught for today, but have since postponed the meet-up at their new favorite (as-yet-unopened) restaurant, where -- according to their event-thread -- folks are staking-out the joint, chopsticks at the ready.

What's driving the madness? Soup dumplings, for one thing. Though it didn't help that owner David Wasielewski threw a big VIP grand opening party Saturday, November 6, at the new Lincoln Square restaurant. (Yes, I was invited. No, I didn't go. And yes, I'm off my rocker.)

Anyway, here's the word from my source, Wasielewski himself, who said this morning: "We're definitely not opening today. We're aiming to open this week. I have some friends coming over [to Lincoln Square] for trial meals, but the official answer is I don't have an official opening date: it will be determined day-by-day." So there. Stay tuned.

Seattle has vegetarian restaurants. And we've got fine-dining restaurants. But what we don't have is a temple of high cuisine built to offer the best of both worlds. That's about to change -- according to the team behind Kailash, a brave new vision expected to open in Seattle's Rainier Square by early spring.

"This is a very big deal," says Greg Atkinson, who'll step down from his post at chef instructor at Seattle Culinary Academy this week to take on the position of executive chef at Kailash (rhymes with eyelash), named for a sacred mountain in the Tibetan Himalayas. "I think a growing international awareness about a new vegetarianism makes this a really unique moment in time to launch a high-end vegetarian restaurant." "It's taking vegetarianism to a new level," locally and nationally, foresees chef Kathy Casey, who'll put her bold signature on the cocktail menu, set to feature "a lot of local spirits, housemade infusions, elixirs, bitters, tinctures and all that crazy stuff."

Chef, author and culinary instructor Greg Atkinson will team up with Liquid Kitchen-consultant Kathy Casey -- a pioneer in the bar chef movement -- to help create Kailash. [photos courtesy Greg Atkinson/Kathy Casey]

Remember when I told you about the debut of Tamura, Taichi Kitamura and Steve Tamura's new sushi kappo in Eastlake? That's when I first heard about plans to reinvent the former Kappo space in Fremont as an izakaya. Well, they've done it. And though some folks are already partying hearty in that second-story aerie -- now known as Showa -- the grand opening date is set for November 5.

Though it's no longer a sanctuary for sushi bar serenity, fans of the original Chiso Kappo should still recognize the place. The wall between the sushi bar and private dining area was taken down, leaving a long narrow wide-open space, Taichi says. "I didn't add too much to it." In addition to a new lounge-like nook with chairs, ottomans and coffee tables, "I just extended the bar and purchased cocktail tables so people can sit higher. I want them to feel the energy of the kitchen."

At Showa (701 N. 36th Street, Suite 200) in Fremont, you'll find drinks, Japanese bar-food but no sushi!

The Book Bindery is bound for glory, and I'm not the only one who thinks so. What? You've never heard of the darling dinner house along the south shore of the Ship Canal? The one that made its public debut this month as the fine-dining arm of Almquist Family Vintners?

Well then, you apparently haven't read about the "Restaurant Opening of the Year," nor nibbled on the delicious blow-by-blow at the Nosh Pit. Clearly, you haven't been reading McCarthy and Schiering Wine Merchant's newsletter. Nor stopping to gawk at the big banner posted on the warehouse space at 198 Nickerson: the one that reads "MAKE YOUR OWN WINE NOW." Unfortunately, neither have I. For that professional lapse, I beg forgiveness. But please allow me to make it up to you with this late-to-the-game introduction:

The Book Bindery, on Nickerson Street, is a short jaunt west from the south end of the Fremont Bridge, only steps from the Ship Canal.

I finally got to Matt Janke's latest effort, Lecosho, open since late September. And though I'm sorry I missed my opportunity to sip and sup at happy hour, I was happy to be there as the sun set over Elliott Bay on a quiet weekday evening, and happier still when I realized the woman who greeted me at the door was Sara Moot. You may remember Sara from her eight year-gig as co-owner of Persimmon in Fremont, closed last summer and since re-opened under new ownership as Hunger. You may even recognize her from her other part-time gig, at Spinasse.

When one door closes, another opens: Sara Moot, tending tables -- and the door -- at Lecosho, open since late September on the Harbor Steps, at 89 University Street between First and Western.

At Lecosho, now serving lunch and dinner, I was intrigued to find that rather than a fabulously funky space built in the image of Matt's namesake-restaurant in the Market (now owned and operated by his former business-partner), this one -- with its sleek wood accents and windows overlooking the Harbor Steps -- brought to mind the grown-up elegance of Campagne.

Not to be outdone by her Wallingford neighbors Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi of Joule (who last week divulged plans for a second, more casual restaurant), Iron Chef-champ Maria Hines today announced her intentions of opening a sibling for Wallingford's Tilth: address and debut-date to be determined.

With investors in line, Hines has her eye on the North End, and a turn-key space that she can turn around fast. Her wish list includes proximity to Tilth, and seating for fewer than 60 patrons.

"I don't want to drive south of the Ballard Bridge or east of I-5," says the Crown Hill resident. Nor does she care to build-out a new restaurant, a la Scott Staples, whose third venture is presently under construction in Fremont. Fremont's in her sight-line, along with Ballard, Wallingford, Phinney Ridge and Greenwood. "I'd love to have another restaurant tucked away in one of those sweet little neighborhoods up here," Hines says.

Maria Hines at her certified organic restaurant, Tilth, in Wallingford. [photo courtesy Tilth]

After weeks of calculation, consideration and speculation, the Spady family today announced the location of their sixth Dick's Drive-in. And the winner is (yes!) -- the city of Edmonds.

The Spady clan making the big announcement today, in Wallingford.

Celebrating the occasion -- and his 87th birthday -- founding father Dick Spady joined his family at their Wallingford drive-in this morning where nephew (and company VP) Ron Schmeer broke the news at a press conference.

The sixth Dick's, expected to open late next year, will stand on the northwest corner of Highway 99 and 220th street, in the northeast corner of the TOP Food & Drug parking lot: which is both good news and bad news for me, seeing as I'm a TOP Food Edmonds regular, and that corner is three minutes from my front door.

In today's Ticket cover-story, I do the dim sum dance at jook joints North (Bamboo Village, last discussed on the blog days before it opened) and East (Macky's Dim Sum in Issaquah, introduced here early this year). So, has anybody besides Seattle Weekly's Jason Sheehan gone to either since we first discussed? What do you think? And am I the only one who's yet to make it to Zen Garden in Mill Creek for dim sum? (I hear it's worth the trip. You?)

And has anybody seen the "Dim Sum Coming Soon" banner hanging over my neighborhood Chinese-stop, T&T Seafood Restaurant in Edmonds? I have, and I'm beside myself. Last I heard, my main man at T&T, Tony Mann, was in search of the right dim sum chef -- who may be making dumplings as soon as November. Speaking of dumplings, the ETA on Bellevue's Din Tai Fung, since so many of you keep asking, is early November. I promise to keep you posted on that one.

Amy Lee, co-owner of Bamboo Village (center, left) and Sonny and Macky Wong of Macky's Dim Sum (holding their namesake specialty) had strong ties to the ID before heading North and East.
[Seattle Times photos/John Lok]

So, did you hear the news? Chefs Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi, owners of Wallingford's darling Joule, are expecting a baby. No, not that baby. (Their son, Pike Jun Jack Chirchi, arrived in July.) I'm talking about the new kid on the block: their latest effort, Revel, due in December.

401 N. 36th Street, in Fremont: It's nothing to look at now, but stay tuned.

Yang is envisioning their 45-seat restaurant and bar as "a fun, young, urban space": casual, high-energy, and inexpensive, with dishes priced between $8 and $15. They plan to open daily, for lunch, dinner and weekend brunch. The menu, she says, will be "a spin-off of Joule."

Scott and Heather Staples have long hatched plans to open a burger joint. In fact, that's what they'd hoped to do before falling in love with the location that would become their stunning Pike/Pine gastropub, Quinn's. That corner spot was way too big for their burger ideal, but they made the best of the situation. Since then, they've kept their eyes and ears open and eventually found the perfect spot -- in Fremont.

Welcome to Uneeda Burger, now under construction at 4302 Fremont Avenue North, just down the street from Marketime Foods, up the block from Brad Inserra's Swingside Cafe and a stone's throw from Paseo. The 40-year-old building -- once home to Uneeda Auto & Boat Rebuild and more recently Urbanweeds -- came with a perfect name.

"Uneeda Boat & Auto Rebuild? Sign us up!"

Tom Douglas and Jackie Cross finally got their latest restaurant off the ground, several months later than anticipated. Adding to their Seatown smackdown, this time they've cornered the Market -- or, more precisely, the corner of Western and Virginia -- with their casual eats-joint, Seatown Snack Bar, open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Seatown Snack Bar, from the outside looking in, and the inside looking out -- at Steinbrueck Park.

If you pay attention to such things, and I know you do, chances are you've heard about Ethan Stowell's new Italian kitchen. No, not his forthcoming cookbook showcasing dishes from his four restaurants, Anchovies & Olives, How to Cook a Wolf, Tavolata and Staple & Fancy Mercantile. The kitchen I'm talking about is the focal point of that last venture, his latest. Open a week, Staple & Fancy's rustic Italian-oriented menu is brazenly brief -- if you discount the chef's fancy, divulged in a menu-note that has this to say about that:

Thanks for joining us at Staple & Fancy Mercantile. Please feel free to order as much or as little food as you like. And, if you would like to avoid the trouble of ordering altogether, please feel free to hand your menu back to your server and let the kitchen prepare you a family style supper served in four courses for $45 per person. Participation by the entire table is required. We would also like to inform you that you really should do this.

No truer words were ever said. You really should do this. And here's one of the many reasons why:

Why trouble yourself? Leave it to the chef and you might end up nibbling speck with fresh figs, part of the $45/per person family-style menu that blew my mind opening week.

The sun was shining on the sea (and nearby Shilshole Bay) when I made the acquaintance Renee Erickson's new oyster bar, the Walrus and the Carpenter. The sun was also shining through the patio doors, casting a golden glow on the zinc bar (the province of co-owner Jeremy Price), on smiling patrons supping on seafood (among other prettily arranged small-plates) and on Renee herself, who has plenty of reason to smile these days.

Huitres? Treats.

The Cheshire Cat has nothing on Ms. Erickson, whose latest venture, open two weeks, is named for the poetic oyster-poachers in Lewis Carroll's "Through the looking Glass" and the kind of wondrous warren I'd want to tumble down a rabbit hole for regularly.

The e-mail from a colleague came Tuesday afternoon, when I was hunkered down in front of my computer at the Seattle Times office: "On the Fly opened its door today. Just strolled down there to check it out. You should, too." A half hour later I was on the fly myself, strolling down street to check out the new Flying Fish's take-out adjunct, as directed.

Flying Fish's South Lake Union take-out joint, now open adjacent Flying Fish, just off the corner of Westlake Avenue North and Thomas Street.

So, there I was, perusing the goods, including a wall of wine-list-worthy wines to-go (all $18 and under), trying to decide between the shrimp tabbouleh or the tarragon-chicken salad ($4.50/$8.50) and the Frenchified ham, Gruyere and butter sandwich ($7.50) or its Italian counterpart with coppacola, salami and provolone ($6.50).

If you were hoping to wrap your hands around a sandwich today at Grand Central Bakery's Pioneer Square location, or planned to pick up one of their new U-Bake pizza crusts and attempt to grill pizza outdoors tonight, may I suggest heading to Eastlake instead? Things should be crazy at the Pioneer Square original, seeing as Obama's scheduled for a Grand Central visit with local small-business owners there just before noon.

Or maybe you can wait to get your hands on a rustic baguette, sticky bun or whatever else strikes your fancy at the company's third Seattle-area bakery/cafe, opening Friday at 626 S.W. 152nd Street in Burien. To celebrate that opening, Grand Central will donate a portion of the store's August 20 proceeds to the Highline Area Food Bank and the Highline Schools Foundation for Excellence -- an effort sure to get a big nod from the Big O.

Traffic's sure to be bad all over, with Obama in town today for a Democratic schmooze-fest. Eastlake's shop may be a better bet for lunch than the Pioneer Square location, though I suggest heading to Burien Friday to celebrate the opening of Grand Central's third Seattle-area bakery/cafe.

Last spring, I broke the news that chef Michael Mina planned to bring his San Francisco treat, RN74, to Seattle. Back then, the Mina Group was pleading the Fifth regarding the location for their long-rumored foray into Seattle-restaurant territory, but they've since made the big announcement: they'll be moving into the newly renovated Joshua Green Building at Fourth and Pike.

Michael Mina hopes to corner the restaurant-and-wine bar market at Fourth and Pike. At left, a rendering of the Joshua Green Building (courtesy Joshua Green Corp.), and seen for real (at right) touting the good news in the building's vestibule, on Friday.

Seattle's RN74, slated to open in March, 2011, will echo San Francisco's in both menu (with regional French specialties given the local-and-sustainable treatment) and Euro train-station-styled design (Rick Steves should feel at home). The wine program is set to tap the talent of Mina's pour relation, Rajat Parr, who's prepared to uncork 50-plus wines by the glass. His list will showcase -- among others -- labels from near (Washington, Oregon) and far (along Route Nationale 74 in Burgundy, from which the restaurant takes its name and inspiration).

When Trevor Greenwood opened Cantinetta on a quiet residential corner in Wallingford, things didn't stay quiet for long. The Italian restaurant, opened in January 2009, was a neighborhood hit, a critic's darling and a Seattle sensation, thanks in no small part to its talented kitchen staff, short seasonal menu and spirited bar scene. Softly lit, glowing with good energy, this honeyed haunt allowed a sense of rustic romance certain to please those of us who've had enough industrial-design to last a lifetime. And now Greenwood and company are ready to do it all over again: this time in old Bellevue.

Cantinetta, in Wallingford, will soon have a sexy sibling -- in Bellevue.
[photo: courtesy Kiyoshi Grollman]

Corrected version

There are times in my life when luck and a drive-by introduces me to a restaurant that immediately earns a space on my "favorites" list. Like the time I was driving along South Jackson Street and spotted the original Pho Bac, stopping for my first bowl of Vietnamese pho 20-some years ago. Or the time I veered off Highway 99 into the parking lot of the original T&T Chinese seafood restaurant in Shoreline only weeks after it opened -- and instantly became a regular.

Now ask me how many times I've driven past the odd little building in Firdale Village, home to a string of restaurants five minutes from my front door, and never bothered to stop at all. (Hundreds.) Indeed, I'd noticed the latest changeover -- from Pomegranat to Caravan Kebab -- thanks to the big banner on the side of the building. Certainly, the word "kebab" captured my fancy. But until I heard from trusted Eaters that what lies within deserves my attention (and by extension, yours), I'd yet to hit the brakes. Well, halt the camels: they weren't kidding!

This building, part of the Firdale Village shopping complex -- just west of Highway 99 and east of Highway 104 at 9711 Firdale Avenue in Edmonds -- houses a barber shop, a pet stop, and now, Caravan Kebab, home to a world of warm welcome and a glorious globe-spanning menu.

"Omigod, this place is amazing," wrote Faren Bachelis, who wasted no time before rushing home from her first lunch late last month -- a lamb kebab sandwich -- before shooting me an e-mail. The new chef and owner, she said, is a "very nice, unassuming guy" and the cafe's atmosphere "sweet, comfortable and inviting" with "warm tone walls, kinda funky prints and some traditional style art."

In January, I ate one last omakase meal at Chiso Kappo before Taichi Kitamura sold the original Chiso, closed his upstairs operation Kappo and put an end to his stunning one-man-show in Fremont with plans to head to Eastlake. On Sunday, Tamura Sushi Kappo made its public debut serving dinner only at the Ruby condo complex across from the Eastlake Bar & Grill , and on Monday I was seated at the sushi bar taking it all in.

Taichi Kitamura (left, center) presides at 2968 Eastlake Avenue East where the new Tamura is more Chiso than Kappo.

I was one of many customers Taichi greeted warmly by name, and the pretty young blond who strode in to unwittingly join me at the sushi bar was as impressed with that as she was with her new favorite hang-out (she lives upstairs at the Ruby). "When I told my friends how excited I was to have a sushi bar right downstairs," she told me, "They said: `Yeah! Do you know who that guy is?'" She didn't. But she was learning fast.

My Wallingford has had its sight set on Bamboo Village since Po Lee, the former owner of House of Hong, began the build-out on a new Chinese restaurant near Green Lake. Though the opening date slipped a bit (no news to anyone familiar with the city permitting process), Lee announced his daily dim-summery will open for dinner Saturday after a private grand-opening celebration -- complete with lion dancers. I took a spin by last night to see how the place was doing in the days leading up to its debut. Looking good!

Bamboo Village, at 4900 Stone Way North, "before" in March [photo courtesy Marina Gordon] and "after" [taken last night].

For those of you who don't know where 49th meets Stone Way, listen up:

If you can keep up with this month's incessant restaurant openings on Capitol Hill, you've got me beat (hello, Capitol Hill Seattle blog!). So, you been to Big Mario's New York Style Pizza yet? Me neither, seeing as it's barely been open 24 hours. But one look at this New York-style pie, courtesy of co-owner Dave Meinert -- a guy who knows how to throw a Capitol Hill Block Party -- and I'm thinking about getting into my car right now and standing "on line" (as they say in NYC) when the joint opens at 11 a.m. for another go 'round:

That's a'pizza! Or "pizza-pie" as they repeatedly say where I come from.
[photo courtesy of Dave Meinert]

Fanatic followers of Tako Truk, the short-lived street-food experiment known for its tako (octopus) and the lack of a truck (its stationary home was a walk-up window at Eastlake's 14 Carrot Cafe), will be cheered to know this: co-owners Cormac Mahoney and Bryan Jarr plan to move into the recently shuttered Sostanza. But sorry, gang. It won't be another Tako Truk.

No longer Truk'n on Eastlake, but more to come from the owners, elsewhere.
[photo courtesy of Frank Guanco]

"We're still finalizing the deal phase, but it's close-close," Jarr said yesterday, describing the dual-level trattoria at the tail-end of Madison Park. "We hope to take over by the end of the month." Once in, he says, they'll begin a remodel, which according to Sostanza's owner/chef Lorenzo Cianciusi, will involve the reconfiguration of the upstairs bar and the installation of a communal table.

For now, Jarr and Mahoney are keeping mum about the details of their latest endeavor -- dubbed the Madison Park Conservatory. In a week or so, Jarr said, he'll be able to divulge more, adding "We're still a couple months out -- at least -- until we open."

There's been a lot of action this month at the brick building straddling the corner of 10th Avenue East and East Miller Street, once home to the popular French bistro Cassis, followed by its successor XO Bistro and -- for the past three years -- known for its tapas as Tidbit. Old-timers might remember this spot from its halcyon days as Rain City Grill. North Capitol Hill neighbors will know it as the place with the little parking lot in back offering easy access to yet another succession of even smaller restaurants: Spaghetti Reds, Cellar Bistro and most recently, the pan-Asian-inspired Huiyona.

Well, this just in from the "good news, bad news" department: Tidbit has vacated the premises and relocated to a more central Capitol Hill location. The yearling Huiyona closed its doors for good Saturday night. And Cassis -- shuttered in 2004 after a lengthy run -- is back in business elsewhere as a catering company.

Tidbit owners Nicola Longo (far left) and John van Deinse, now running Tidbit at 1401 Broadway. Their former neighbors, Rachel and Mark Apuyan (right) shuttered Huiyona Saturday night.

When it comes to restaurant real estate, 3247 California Avenue is a familiar address. Perhaps you knew it as the original Ovio Bistro, its successor O2, or later as the Italian wine bar and cafe, Beato. Its most recent incarnation -- the French-accented bistro Eness -- came and went so fast it may have broken a record. But come mid-August, the doors will reopen with a new chef/owner intent on making his mark in West Seattle.

Say hello to Jacob Wiegner, who's just left his sous-chef's post at Olivar on Capitol Hill to fly solo with Blackboard Bistro. With two young children and "one in the oven," Wiegner admits he's got a lot on his plate. But with years of restaurant experience, and direction from his friend and mentor Philippe Thomelin, he's intent on putting something delicious on yours.

Jacob Wiegner hopes to see you soon at 3247 California Avenue. [photo by Ginger Wiegner]

My pal Bob sent me an e-mail wondering what gives. After I said "Adios!" to Paladar Cubano, closed last week, he drove by the corner of 90th and Aurora to find the truck still in business. And he wasn't the only one. The Aurora/Seattle blog since reported the story of new ownership and a new name -- Cubano Loco -- noting Paladar's Cubano much sought-after sandwich remained on the menu. So today around noon I took a drive over there in hope of getting my hands on one. No dice.

The pleasant fellow operating the truck said he is, in fact, selling the sandwiches, but they were temporarily 86'd (his wife had just run off to get some bread). I had no time to wait, so I asked, "What else have you got?" With no written menu to be found, he offered up tacos, burritos and enchiladas among other typical Seattle taco-truck fare. "It's Taco Tuesday!" he told me, when tacos cost a buck a piece. I had two. Which, in case you were wondering, were every bit as good as they looked.

$2 worth of "Taco Tuesday" specials, one with carne asada, the other with carnitas. A squirt of lime, a hit of bottled salsa -- Delish!

Rumors circulated for more than a year. Then came word: Din Tai Fung, the famous dumpling house with roots in Taiwan and franchises throughout Asia would be soon be coming to Bellevue. Fans of xiao long bao -- the ethereal soup-dumplings that some say have no equal -- will no longer have to fly to Taipei, or to L.A. (home to the nation's only other Din Tai Fung) to get their chopsticks on the real deal. And now I'm here to say that the opening date is slated for early fall, when a 7000-square-foot, 220-seat den of dumplingfied deliciousness will be unveiled on the second-level at Lincoln Square, next to the skybridge connecting to Bellevue Place.

Xiao long bao. Careful! It's hot in there! [photo courtesy Din Tai Fung].

As I write, a team of dumpling-makers are hard at work at a training facility in Bellevue, learning to properly weigh, roll and stuff the wide variety of steamed dumplings that are Din Tai Fung's stock-in-trade. Their instructors are part of the Asian home-team. And any day now, dumpling lovers will get a firsthand look at the fleet-fingered process when those newly minted "dumpling chefs" put their training on display behind a glass storefront in Bellevue Square. That temporary setup is an attempt to torture those in-the-know (sorry, no samples!) and whet the appetite of others new to the, uh, fold.

Perhaps, while I was away on vacation, you heard the news. In the ongoing discussion of the legal wrangling between chef Tamara Murphy and the developers of the Melrose Project -- regarding the space for her Pike/Pine restaurant Terra Plata leased and later "lost" -- Murphy prevailed.

She got the good word June 15, the day after her birthday, a month after the abrupt closure of her flagship restaurant, Brasa, and only days before the debut of her second Elliott Bay Cafe at the new Elliott Bay Book Company.

After fighting for her tenant rights under a signed lease agreement for Terra Plata and winning the arbitrator's nod "on all counts," Murphy said she's "obviously pretty happy about the outcome": Terra Plata will open at the Melrose Market, albeit much later than originally planned.

When one door closes (like the one above, at Brasa, in Belltown) another opens. Will we see this beautiful iron gate on Melrose Avenue? The jury's still out on that one. [Seattle Times photo: Mike Siegel]

You can't turn around for two seconds without another eats-joint opening in Ballard. Don't believe me? Go take a stroll and see for yourself. I was hot on the gelato trail this week, intent on paying a visit to D'Ambrosio Gelateria Artigianale where Marco D'Ambrosio (who gave up a career in wine sales) and his papa Enzo (who mastered his craft in Italy) are proud to offer the kind of gelati they adored back home. But I unexpectedly found more than I was looking for.

Happy trails to you -- in beautiful downtown Bah-lard: D'Ambrosio Gelateria (left) and its across-the-street neighbor, The Noble Fir.

It's hard to believe it's been 20 years since Mamma Melina made its Seattle debut. Back then, it was the hot new restaurant on Roosevelt, named for mamma Melina Varchetta, the place my friends and I would go for pasta and vino before or after a movie at the Seven Gables, a meal that readily recalled the family-owned Southern Italian restaurants of my Philadelphia childhood. And if, while we were there twirling our linguine, papa Pasquale would raise his voice in operatic song, well, that's Italian, si? But time flies when you're having sons.

From left, Mamma's boys: Salvio, Leo and Roberto Varchetta. [photo courtesy Varchetta family]

Today, mamma and papa are enjoying retirement in the Italian coastal city of Formia. And with their 20-year lease up on Roosevelt, their sons, the peripatetic Varchetta brothers -- owners of downtown's elegant Barolo and Belltown's cocktail-cultured List -- have moved their family flagship a short drive east: to the Corydon complex near University Village. I happened to be driving by late Tuesday when I spied a pre-opening-night crowd celebrating that transition.

Funny how time and place can affect my eating habits. When it comes to what I lovingly refer to as "soup noodle" houses, joints that specialize in the Chinese answer to Bubbie's finest, I tend to favor one place for a while, then throw it over for another.

When I moved to Seattle 20-some years ago, I regularly hung out at the noodle cafe to the left of the big stairway at Ocean City in the ID. Later shining it on for Canton Wonton House across the street. And later still for Hing Loon up the block (which isn't a "soup noodle" house per se, but a terrific little Chinese restaurant whose chicken stock and sui kau I regularly crave).

But somehow in all my slurping, I managed to miss Mike's Noodle House. Which has been on my radar for a few years, though until yesterday -- when I was in sorely in need of a restorative bowl of something -- I'd never zeroed in on it.

Mike's, at 418 Maynard Avenue South, and yesterday's late lunch

Eater Mac Kirschner wrote this week with this timely query: "I was wondering if you have any updates to Matt Janke's plans to open a new location. My wife and I owe a lot of our appreciation for local cuisine to Matt's in the Market, and I would love to give any of Matt's new ventures my patronage."

Happy to oblige, Mac. As I mentioned right here early this year -- when Matt and his business partner Jill Buchanan were still in negotiations on their lease -- the plan was to open a downtown restaurant and bar within walking distance of Matt's in the Market, which is no longer owned nor operated by Matt. In May, they signed the lease on the spot they were eying. You may know it as the former Japanese restaurant Koji Osakaya, at 89 University Street, where it overlooks the Harbor Steps between First and Western avenues.

Matt Janke and Jill Buchanan have something to smile about: they finally signed the lease on their new restaurant, Lecosho -- overlooking Seattle's Harbor Steps [photo courtesy Janke/Buchanan].

Matt had hoped to open the new place, Lecosho, in time for his 50th birthday June 27. But as he well knows, time-lines for opening a restaurant often go awry, and today that's a certain no-go. I caught up with Matt this morning by phone, and here's what he has to say:

What a month for Seattle's restaurants on-the-move. Last week, Marjorie, late of Belltown, opened in the shadow of the Chloe complex on Capitol Hill. On Wednesday, Matt Dillon introduced the ravishingly reincarnated Sitka & Spruce in the nearby Melrose Project. And today marks the debut of Chris Keff's Flying Fish, whose flight from First and Bell (discussed in detail here) has it playing "Go, Fish!" at the corner of Westlake Avenue North and Thomas Street in the South Lake Union neighborhood.

Chef Chris Keff's Flying Fish has dropped anchor at 300 Westlake Avenue North.

It's been 15 years since Keff opened the original Flying Fish at First and Bell: back before Belltown saw its boom (and subsequent bust) and long before South Lake Union was defined by the words "burgeoning," "medical research," and "Vulcanization."

I was sitting in the original Fish the night it opened, and I remember it like it was yesterday. Tonight I'll be home for dinner -- though you might consider stopping in to see what's on the menu. They're opening at 5 p.m. (as ever, happy hour starts at 4 p.m.) and will serve weekday lunch beginning Monday, in the event you were on your way to Folklife and in need of a Fish-ified fix.

With all the craziness going on at the Melrose Project -- the delays, the lawsuit, the discussion regarding who may or may not be putting a garden on its roof -- there is indeed a stunning amount of great news emanating from the fabulously refurbished building between Pike and Pine.

That news includes the recent debut of butcher Russ Flint's Rain Shadow Meats, cheesemonger Sheri LaVigne's the Calf and Kid and grower Katherine Anderson's tiny flower-shop Marigold and Mint. It also extends to the second coming of Fremont's Homegrown sustainable-sandwich shop, slated to open in June.

But the biggest news out of Capitol Hill this week -- for those of us who obsess over our foodstuffs -- was the opening of Matt Dillon's reincarnated Sitka & Spruce. When I heard-tell from a trusted source that Dillon's 12-seat butcher-block table (an extension of his open kitchen and wood-fired hearth) was certain to become the hottest ticket in town, what can I say? I just couldn't wait.

So I went. And what I found was a food-fetishist's wonderland of warmth and good cheer, and an intensely romantic space that struck me as a spiritual melding of the original Sitka & Spruce on Eastlake and its Georgetown successor, The Corson Building.

Happy customers, communing at the communal table at Sitka & Spruce -- to my thinking, the best seats in the house.

Ask me what makes a restaurant an immediate hit and I'd be quick to use Marjorie as a case study. Donna Moodie's new Capitol Hill restaurant pulses with good energy and a casual vibe, and its menu made me say, "Ooh, I want that, and that, and that too!" When a restaurant feels as if it's been open for months, or even years, on the first day in business, well, that's the real clincher. It's a feeling I wish I could bottle and sell.

It's exactly the sense I got when I walked into Matt Dillon's relocated Sitka & Spruce, which made its debut last night (more on that in an upcoming post). For the record: while Moodie and Dillon are tenured pros -- each having envisioned and opened several restaurants in the past -- both managed to make the debut of their freshman-effort appear effortless as well.

The new Marjorie is smaller and far more intimate than I imagined it would be when I sneaked a peek prior to the build-out. Walk in and you're looking at a 10-seat bar and the tiny kitchen. To the left is a communal butcher-block table for eight, plus a handful of tables: 40 seats in all, and garage-style doors that open onto a warm-weather patio with room for 30 more.

Marjorie, at 1412 E. Union Street, now (left) and then (in February).

The Capitol Hill contingent checking out Marjorie on opening night. Recognize anybody? That's Donna's son Max in the foreground, and Rick from Elliott Bay Book Company chatting up Plum Bistro's Makini Howell and friends.

As for the food. . .

I could hear Holly Smith's eyes rolling over the phone Sunday when I called to ask about the news that's hit the blogosphere. What? You haven't heard? Then obviously you haven't read this beer-blog post. Or this post, from the Capitol Hill Seattle blog. I hadn't either. But when the news was sent my way I went straight to the source and asked: "Yo, Holl: What's this about you and a brewpub on Capitol Hill?"

"Oh, for God's sake!" said Smith, the West Coast wonder who kicked Cat Cora's butt on a recent Iron Chef challenge. (You may know her better as the chef who owns one of the region's top-rated restaurants, Cafe Juanita). Clearly fed up with what she called "the rumor mill," Smith told me she'd rather wait until the deal's a done-deal before trumpeting her plans for a new project. But now that those plans are out in the open . . .

Word that she's opening a "high-end brewpub" at 1000 East Pike Street is incorrect, she said. "And despite what I'm reading, it won't be a gastropub."

That gastropub-thing's nothing but gas, says iron-fisted Kirkland chef Holly Smith. As for that 9000-square-foot space on Capitol Hill? It's not a done deal till it's a done deal! [photo: courtesy Food Network].

Ethan Stowell has finally gone public with his plans to close Union -- his first restaurant, downtown at First and Union, and expects to open Staple & Fancy Mercantile in the newly refurbished Kolstrand Building in Ballard in July. He'll be the chef in charge at the new place, which he'll run with his wife Angela, and share an adjoining space in the rehabbed building with Boat Street Cafe's Renee Erickson. Erickson's new oyster bar, The Walrus and the Carpenter, adjoins the Stowells' 40-seat restaurant. I'll give you more on the story, soon, so stay tuned.

When I bid the blog a fond adieu in mid-April, heart set on a two-week vacation, my plans were to spend a week in France taking a food-lover's tour of Paris. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other ideas. "Boom!" went that Icelandic volcano. "Ferme!" went the Paris airport. "Poof!" went my plans. So, instead I chatted up Dick Stein on our weekly radio broadcast, offering dining ideas for a European staycation. And then I hit the friendlier skies on this continent, bound for the East Coast and an unexpectedly extended visit with family and friends.

While there I ate everything from bagels to burrata, hoagies to haute cuisine and attended the 2010 James Beard Awards in NYC where I watched Seattle's Jason Wilson take the medal for "Best Chef Pacific Northwest." I also had a chance to say "Better luck next year!" to nominee Ethan Stowell and "Say cheese!" to some other big names in the business, accompanied by the women who help (try to) keep them grounded and sane: their wives.

At the 2010 James Beard Awards with (clockwise, from top left): Jason and Nicole Wilson, Ethan and Angela Stowell, Rishia and Andrew Zimmern, Susi Cahn and Mario Batali.

When I got home there was much good news on the restaurant-front beginning with this: Thierry Rautureau of Rover's had finally opened his long-anticipated French-American bistro, Luc, at 2800 E. Madison Street in the heart of Madison Valley's business district. (You may recall reading about plans for Luc right here last August.) And if that wasn't enough to help salve my Paris no-go, I got word that Luc's neighboring Voila! Bistrot will soon have a sister-restaurant in Laurelhurst: Chloe.

The Essential Baking Company's third bakery cafe opened this morning in Georgetown, joining sister-shops in Wallingford and Madison Valley. The folks at Essential are celebrating by handing out complimentary bites of the certified-organic bakery's signature brownies at their newest store at 5601 First Avenue South -- while they last. Of course, it would be nice if you'd be a sport and buy something from the Essential bread basket, or even show up for lunch (they're keeping tradesman's hours: Mondays-Fridays 6:45 a.m.-2:15 p.m.). P.S. the cafe's expanded menu focuses on something new from founder and head-baker George DePasquale: pizza.

Bread. It's Essential. [photo: courtesy The Essential Baking Company]

Speaking of pizza, 'Zaw, the artisan bake at home pizza joint with a trio of stores -- on Capitol Hill, South Lake Union and in Ballard -- is opening a fourth take-out and delivery shop at 1635 Queen Anne Avenue North. "We started training in the store last night," co-founder Greg Waring told me today, and after pounding a few more nails tonight, operators should be standing by for your order in time for the Saturday debut. Or you can order on-line.

I'm besotted. Because I've been to Bisato, the wonderfully reinvented version of Scott Carsberg's Belltown temple of gastronmy, Lampreia, open two weeks. And when I left, here's what I'd slipped into my purse:

Check, please!

When I walked through the door at 2400 First Avenue late Tuesday night, I was no stranger. I've been eating here -- though never frequently enough -- for 16 years. Which is why, when I arrived, I received a warm embrace from Carsberg. It's an amuse regularly bestowed upon Lampreia's longtime patrons, a descriptor that included the couple at the opposite end of the new counter that curves around the refashioned dining room.

For many months, if not a year, I've been hearing rumors that San Francisco-based super-chef Michael Mina -- with nearly 20 restaurants coast to coast -- is bringing his brand to town. And then I got my hands on very good information that looked like proof-positive. The word was that Mina and his team would be recreating their new wine-soaked San Francisco restaurant RN74 in downtown Seattle. So, truth or rumor?

"We are absolutely considering opening a restaurant in Seattle, and RN74 is the restaurant being considered," says Kristin Koca McLarty, V.P. of public relations for the Mina Group. Despite the "It's a fact, Jack!" info I was privy to, McLarty insists that "considering" does not mean "done deal." And yes, she says, it's a downtown spot they've got their eye on. I look forward to hearing -- and sharing -- further details if (and when) that deal's finalized.

RN74 -- a San Francisco treat -- coming here? We'll see.
(photo courtesy Michael Mina Group)

"Did you read Calvin Trillin's story in the New Yorker about those chowhounds chasing after a Szechuan chef?" wondered several of my well-read friends. That spicy talker ran this month, chronicling the appearance -- and inevitable disappearance -- of an elusive Chinese cook named Peter Chang, whose fans have been trailing him from state to state, strip mall to strip mall, unearthing his Szechuan delights at restaurants with names like China Star and Szechuan Boy.

Yeah, I read it. But I didn't have to. I'm living it -- on a smaller geographic scale.

I first tasted chef Cheng Biao Yang's cumin lamb and incendiary chong qing hot chicken in 2001, when he was selling Szechuan food out of a Greenwood storefront called Seven Stars Pepper. Not long after, the Szechuan chef -- who practiced his craft in Beijing and Shanghai before moving to the U.S. -- took his restaurant's name and moved to 12th and Jackson.

I found him there in 2003, hiding in plain sight on the second story of the Ding How Shopping Center, working with his wife -- the restaurant's ever-enthusiastic hostess Hoang Ngo. Ensconced in the heart of Little Saigon, they were running a shop built with equal parts spice and nice, offering an expansive Szechuan menu that had tongues tingling and palates piqued -- one that knocked me firmly out of my Cantonese-food induced coma.

Chong qing hot chicken: you never know where it's going to turn up.

Three years later word came down that Seven Stars Pepper's Szechuan chef sold the name, and the place, and moved once more. This time to an even larger and fussier-looking venue in Bellevue dubbed Szechuan Chef. Soon enough, the place was drawing raves for its Szechuan-style crab and hand-shaven dan dan noodles, as well as its kung pao kidneys, wild chili pork with tripe, and intestines and fish in hot spicy gravy.

Blueacre Seafood, the second restaurant for the owners of the Steelhead Diner, made its debut -- as promised -- with chef Kevin Davis in the kitchen and his wife Terresa, visibly pregnant (with twins!) throwing open their doors to the public March 19.

Those doors -- at 7th and Olive -- are familiar ones for the couple, formerly employed by the restaurant's predecessor, the Oceanaire Seafood Room. During his five-year tenure as Oceanaire's executive chef, Kevin earned a fervent following before going out on his own with the Steelhead in Pike Place Market.

Swing on in -- they're open! The late Oceanaire Seafood Room is now the site of Blueacre Seafood, courtesy of Steelhead Diner's Kevin and Terresa Davis.

You'll pardon me for being the last to talk about it, talk about it, talk about it, talk about it -- but the reincarnation of the old Sitka & Spruce as Nettletown is now complete, and the ever-talented Christina Choi -- with help from her friend Matt Dillon -- has opened her new Eastlake cafe.

Taking the sting out of spring, at Nettletown [photo courtesy Nettletown].

If you're a regular at the Saturday University District Farmers Market or the Ballard Sunday Farmers Market, you may recognize Christina as the friendly face behind Foraged & Found Edibles -- a business she co-founded with an even more recognizable face, Jeremy Faber. Maybe you even keep track of your life with her Illustrated Wild Foods Recipe Calendar.

Marta Vega, a native of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, has long called Seattle home. Here, she's worked with El Centro de la Raza and for POCAAN (People of Color Against AIDS Network), and for nearly 30 years has lent her expertise at the stove at community events. Then, early this month, "abuela" Marta did what she says she's been wanting to do "forever." She opened El Pilon, adding her native cuisine to the wide world of flavors that make her South Seattle neighborhood such a delicious melting-pot.

Today, with the help of her son Luis Vega -- among other extended-family members -- the beloved matriarch is running a 35-seat cafe at 5303 Rainier Avenue South, offering homestyle Puerto Rican comfort-food at lunch and dinner.

Marta Vega, relaxing at the grand opening celebration of El Pilon. Seated next to her -- with fork in hand -- is Roberto Maestas, co-founder and executive director of El Centro de la Raza. [photo courtesy Luis Vega]

In October, you read it here: Tamara Murphy, owner/chef of Belltown's Brasa and owner of the Elliott Bay Cafe in Pioneer Square, was exultant over plans to open her new restaurant Terra Plata in the Melrose Project. Renovations were already underway on the merger of two historic buildings between Pike and Pine, and she expected her latest restaurant to be up and running by March. But time has a way of ticking on, and the best-laid plans can -- and sometimes do -- go awry.

While some businesses have already moved into the Melrose Project, and others (including Matt Dillon's relocated Sitka & Spruce) are excitedly laying plans for a move-in, Terra Plata is not on terra firma: Murphy is in a contract dispute with her landlords that has the fate of the space headed for arbitration. Today, says her attorney Mick Fleming, she's putting up her dukes, fighting for her tenant rights under a signed lease agreement, and praying for an outcome that will eventually have Seattle diners enjoying her "earth to table" menu here on Capitol Hill.

The would-be Terra Plata: the lease is signed, the space is empty and ready for build-out, but a contract dispute between Murphy and her landlords is raging. Today, there's a "for lease" sign in the window.

News of the legal wrangling saw light Saturday when the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog posted photos of a "Notice of Unlawful Detainer" letter, courtesy of the law firm Caincross & Hempelmann. The notice, dated March 4 and sent on behalf of landlords Liz Dunn and Scott Shapiro, was found taped to the door of the would-be Terra Plata, describing $45,967 in unpaid-rent due, but few details.

In an e-mail reply to that posting, Dunn explained: "I don't know who taped the letter up there and after seeing this I just went and took it down. However it's true -- in spite of our very best efforts, this deal did not work out, and the space is now available. That's really all we can say at this point."

Contacted today at Dunn + Hobbes, the developer reiterated her position via a prepared statement. "We are not able to discuss the situation at this time, except to say that we are disappointed that it didn't work out."

Murphy and her attorney, on the other hand, have plenty to say on the subject:

"There is no rent owned under this lease at all," says Fleming, who has negotiated restaurant transactions for some of the biggest names in the business, including Chris Keff of Flying Fish and Jerry Traunfeld of Poppy. "I don't understand why they're trying to kick us out," adds Murphy. "They're doing this unlawfully, and we're going to exercise our rights under this lease."

First, we got word that Tom Douglas was at it again -- leasing the corner space adjacent to his Pike Place Market seafood restaurant, Etta's. And if that wasn't enough, word came down that Seattle's most visible restaurateur/entrepreneur had signed a lease on a more substantial slab of restaurant real estate -- in the roiling river that defines the Amazonian makeover underway in South Lake Union.

Tag, you're it, Terry Avenue Building!

The Terry Avenue Building, located between Thomas and Harrison streets on Terry Avenue North, is a designated historic landmark built in 1915. It's served as a truck factory, a cabinet warehouse and headquarters for Kelly-Goodwin, a hardwood-flooring distributor. Today it's dwarfed by the development of the new Amazon.com headquarters encompassing 11 buildings on six blocks.

Once the structure is Vulcanized (those would be the same Vulcans who helped convince Chris Keff to move Flying Fish around the corner), we can expect it to open under the Tom Douglas banner in June 2011, when it's slated to look something like this:

The bluest skies you've ever seen -- in Seattle. South Lake Union's green as green -- in Seattle [rendering courtesy Vulcan Real Estate].

So say the folks at Vulcan Real Estate, who have formally announced the news they're "positively thrilled to welcome Tom Douglas to South Lake Union." Tom's thrilled, too. "It's one of the few old buildings left around South Lake Union," he says. Plans call for restoring the exterior, but "inside, it'll be all brand-new." Once renovations are complete, a courtyard will provide a leafy oasis amid the office-hustle of the new South Lake Union, with outdoor seating on two levels.

For nearly 20 years it housed the Union Square Grill. For a mere three months we knew it as the Lost Lady American Cantina. And now the downtown restaurant space in Two Union Square -- vacant since May -- is set to get a new tenant: Sullivan's Steakhouse. Billed as a "1940s Chicago-style steakhouse," the twentieth member of the national chain is slated to make its debut this summer as Seattle's latest bastion of beef and booze, with live jazz offered nightly.

Sullivan's is set to open in June or July as a dual-level restaurant and bar in nearly 10,000 square-feet anchoring Two Union Square. That must be thrilling news for the many steak-and-chophouses staking their claim on similar territory, including but not limited to nearby Ruth's Chris, Morton's, the Daily Grill, the Capital Grille and the Metropolitan Grill (to say nothing of Belltown's El Gaucho and South Lake Union's Daniel's Broiler).

Happy days in the bar at the former Union Square Grill, now gutted and ready for a new tenant [photo courtesy Consolidated Restaurants].

P.S. If you've heard the rumor that John Howie is involved in the Sullivan's enterprise, rest assured he is not. Well, not exactly.

It's not uncommon these days to see former restaurant-owners tending bar, tables and kitchens while they wait for their ship to come in during a search for a new venue. Which is why Seattle's fooderati have spotted Marjorie's Donna Moodie at How to Cook a Wolf, sushi chef Yutaka Saito at Mistral Kitchen and Matt Janke, late of Matt's in the Market, working at Bastille and Wild Ginger.

Janke, whose name remains synonymous with a beloved restaurant he no longer owns, has been in the market for a new restaurant -- figuratively if not literally -- for many months. "I'm in the Catch-22 of needing the lease to get my investors, while needing investors to get my lease," he told me earlier in the game. Like others before him, he had his eye on the former Market Street Grill-spot in Ballard. And though he came close to inking a deal there, he says, instead he's bucking the neighborhood-restaurant trend. Today he's planning to do what few other independent restaurateurs are doing: opening a downtown restaurant.

Burgers. Pizza. Ballard. Burgers. Pizza. Ballard. As reported on the My Ballard blog this morning, today's the day for the grand opening of the Seattle Burger Company, pledging "gourmet burgers at affordable prices" -- along with hand-dipped shakes. No, the photo below isn't the new burger company's. It's that other gourmet burger joint's: the one that wanted in at a former pizza place closer to Ballard's central shopping district -- though that ended up being a no-go, so they're staying put, for now.

Another science project at Ballard's Lunchbox Laboratory.

Last week, Eater Greg Maass could hardly contain his enthusiasm. "I just walked by the new Samurai Noodle location on the Ave," he wrote in an e-mail. "Looks like they will be opening any day. Can't wait." Can't wait. That's what people have been saying since word first came down about the second version of the tiny ramen shop at Uwajimaya Village -- whose anticipated opening at is nearly two years overdue. Well, this just in via General Manager Ryo Izawa, whose U-District ramen shop (finally) made its debut on Saturday: "Grab your chopsticks!"

Why I love soup noodles: the Samurai Armour Bowl, rich with roasted pork and "flavored egg." [Seattle Times photo/Ken Lambert]

So, what took so long?

Last summer, Hussein Khazaal's family mourned the loss of the gregarious West Seattle restaurateur whose familiar face and Mediterranean menu were fixtures on Alki Beach since 1992. That "family" extended from blood relations to the many customers he adored and embraced since opening the original Phoenecia in the Alaska Junction in 1973.

When Khazaal died in his sleep after another busy night at Phoenecia at Alki, the fate of his restaurant was uncertain. In the months since, his widow and children made the decision to carry on with the family business by breathing new life into the old place, as reported in the West Seattle Blog. Today, the next generation has taken over where their doting dad left off.

It's a family affair. From left, Inaam Khazaal and her children, Sonya, William and Nadia. [photo courtesy West Seattle Blog]

"About two months after he passed I decided we should try to reopen, but I wanted to do it differently," said William Khazaal, who, with his mother and sisters, threw open the doors to the new Phoenecia on January 28. Under his father's direction, Phoenecia "wasn't a high-volume place, and it was spendy. A table of four had a hard time getting out of there for less than $200, and they could easily spend more than $300." For many patrons, "it was a special occasion place, and I wanted people to come through two or three times a week."

With a casual, updated atmosphere in mind, remodeling was a necessity. To that end, they've pulled out false walls to open up the dining room, built two small bars (one seats four, the other three), striped the old carpet, stained the concrete floors, ditched the white linen, refinished the wood tabletops, reupholstered the chairs and added color to the walls as well as chalkboard paint so they might list -- rather than recite -- the daily specials, as dad so famously did. The menu also got a major makeover.

Eater Thomas Hall wasn't one to pooh-pooh the recent closure of Luau Polynesian Lounge, and wrote to tell me so: "I stopped by one of my neighborhood stops, the Luau Lounge, and the sign in the door indicated that their last day was January 26th. Sorry to see them go. Two good big screens and a `burger and a pint' on Thursdays was a great deal. The ribs were reliable. Hate to see anyplace close. Have you heard anything about what might be moving in?" Why, yes sir! I have:

Coming soon: The Pour House (across from Eva) on the corner of N. 56th St. and Kirkwood Place.

News just in from the CHS Capitol Hill Blog. Uyen Pham -- who was inspired by NYC's Rickshaw Dumpling Bar -- is set to open a dumpling house of her own next month in the former Siam on Broadway. Pham's Dumpling Dojo will only be housed there temporarily, says CHS, as Bank of America has plans to take over that site. Speaking of dumpling dojos, I'll be elsewhere on Capitol Hill tomorrow as the willing student of dumpling diva Andrea Nguyen. Andrea's in town this week to promote her latest cookbook "Asian Dumplings" -- and host a (sold out) lunch at Bellevue's Monsoon East.

I've got the goods here at home, now all I need is some hands-on instruction.

Am I excited? Oh, yeah. I've yet to master the art, and though my radio sidekick Dick Stein (who'll be along for the lesson) swears he makes some mighty fine xiao long bao, even he is hot to learn a few new tricks.

Nah, these aren't Stein's, but don't they look good?

If you're a talented chef in search of a new restaurant, there's no doubt that at times like these, when one door closes, another opens. The door I'm talking about today is Cremant's: one that has seen it's share of adoration, though it's also been a portal for much controversy -- as you may have read right here.

1423 34th Avenue, in the heart of Madrona.
[Kevin P. Casey/special to the Seattle Times]

As I mentioned last week, Donna Moodie came close to signing a lease on the old Cremant space, but decided instead to relocate Marjorie to new digs at 14th and East Union. With that deal off the table, the building's owner and architect Roy McMakin turned to another Seattle restaurateur who had his eye on the prize. "We got a pretty good deal on it," chef Vuong Loc told me last week. "We've been debating it for, like, six months."

Loc, the owner of Queen Anne's petite Portage bistro, doesn't have firm plans for the new restaurant yet, but says we can expect "something along the same lines as Portage, but with more of a Vietnamese influence." He hopes to have the place open by May.

Chef Vuong Loc, and his wife and business partner, Tricia.
Seattle Times/Greg Gilbert

It's been a year and a half since I wrote about the impending closure of Marjorie, divulging Donna Moodie's plans to relocate her Belltown bistro and bar after the building that housed it was sold. "When I found out I had to move, I felt really devastated," she said at the time. "But then I looked around and saw it was a great opportunity, too." At year's end, opportunity knocked, and plans are now underway to recreate Marjorie in a new space adjacent to the Chloe Apartments on Capitol Hill. Sure, the site isn't everything Donna wanted when she was dreaming of her next move, but in this economy, she says, it's got everything she needs.

Dig the new digs -- just off the corner of 14th and East Union.

"Last year wasn't a bad year to sit out the restaurant business," insists Donna, who spent 2009 making plans for her restaurant, consulting on others, and waiting tables at bustling little How to Cook a Wolf. "Working at Wolf has inspired me to think smaller," she says. How small? Forty seats, including bar stools. As for Marjorie's opening date, she's guessing April or May -- barring permitting problems.

With the downtown commercial real estate market in a free-fall, his plans for moving Lampreia into a grand new space in the nearby Gallery building off the table, and his Belltown restaurant looking at a slow year ahead, Scott Carsberg did what he says he had to do. The James Beard-award winning chef closed his four-star restaurant Tuesday. He's in the process of remodeling Lampreia, set to reopen mid-February as Seattle's second Venetian-inspired cicchetti bar, Bisato.

Scott Carsberg, at Lampreia in 2008.

Eater Anne Wheeler wrote this week to give two thumbs up for Macky's Dim Sum, an Issaquah newcomer. A faithful Top Gun go-er, she said she's happy to have another worthy dim sum alternative on the Eastside. Especially one where dim sum -- offered daily and at dinner -- is "made in small batches so it's always very fresh and very hot."

What's more, Anne writes, Macky's serves "incredibly good BBQ duck," and offers a twin whammy: great service and plenty of parking. Seeing as the joint's tucked away in Gilman Village, though, she voiced concern that not enough people will find it. Which is why she encouraged me to search the place out, see what I think and, if I'd be so kind, spread the word. To which I replied: "Been there, ate that! -- last weekend. P.S. Loved it!"

Shanghai soup dumplings and an $8.50 "appetizer" portion of BBQ duck at Macky's in Issaquah.

In 1995, chef Chris Keff opened Flying Fish in what was then a burgeoning business district in the heart of Belltown. Fifteen years later she's flying out of there, setting her sights elsewhere and readying "The Fish" -- as we've come to know and love it -- for a big move to another up-and-coming neighborhood: South Lake Union.

Christine Keff, at Seattle's Flying Fish in Belltown. (photo: Mark Bauschke).

Flying Fish is slated to make the move this spring to the Westlake/Terry Building at Westlake Avenue N. and Thomas Street -- also home to neighboring Portage Bay Cafe.

See that corner? Now envision it with a neon sign that says: F-L-Y-I-N-G F-I-S-H.

Chef Seth Caswell is ringing in the New Year with good news. After setting his sights on neighborhoods from South Lake Union to South of the Market, losing his big investor and readjusting his grand vision of a LEED-certified restaurant, he's finally found home for the long anticipated restaurant he's named emmer&rye. You may recognize the address atop Queen Anne Hill as the 100-year-old Victorian that's presently home to Julia's.

Caswell takes the reins at 1825 Queen Anne Avenue North from restaurant owners Karsten Betd and Eladio Preciado -- who dropped a half million bucks on the place in 2007, turning what was a former law office into their fourth Julia's restaurant. "The plan is to close Julia's on January 20 and to reopen as emmer&rye with my staff, food and decor on February 1," Caswell says. "Initially, emmer&rye will be opening as a 70-seat restaurant serving dinner seven nights and brunch on the weekends (think faro fries with wild mushrooms and poached eggs)." "It's a short time for the flip, but there in not a lot of physical work to be done, and I hope to accomplish a lot prior to January 20."

Chef Seth Caswell will be keeping busy on Queen Anne with emmer&rye (photo courtesy Seattle Chefs Collaborative).

When Kevin Davis left Sazerac to take the creative helm as executive chef at Seattle's Oceanaire Seafood Room in 2001, he was the happiest guy alive -- or so he thought. Five years later, with the chain's corporate bean-counters dampening his spirit, he stepped out on his own with a new source of inspiration -- the Steelhead Diner. "The Steelhead has been successful beyond our wildest dreams," Davis says of the three-year-old Pike Place Market restaurant he owns with his wife Terresa. "It allowed a level of happiness I didn't think was possible."

Kevin Davis happily wearing his Steelhead whites.

Yet even in their wildest dreams, they never imagined what the new year would bring: twin sons, due in May, and a lease on the shuttered Oceanaire site -- slated to re-open by spring as Steelhead's downtown sibling: Blueacre Seafood.

As the world turns in the restaurant business, the upcoming closure of Atlas Foods will come as no surprise to those who know it's been the least emotionally satisfying property for Peter Levy and Jeremy Hardy (who announced their business divorce earlier this year after 20 years in partnership). "We've never been a fit in a shopping center," says Levy, whose 10-year-old University Village restaurant is set to shut its doors December 31st following lunch service. With its lease at an end "we'd run our course," he says, adding that save for his employees, "I think it's a good thing for all parties."

Atlas Foods -- closing after a decade at U-Village [photo courtesy Chow Foods]

A few weeks back, I treated myself (and my music lovin' buddy Andrew Matson) to dinner at Toulouse Petit -- the new New Orleans-styled Lower Queen Anne brasserie that's had tongues wagging here, there and everywhere. Trust me: your tongue would wag too if you got a good look at Toulouse's extensive dinner menu, showcasing seafood, steaks, charcuterie and the kind of dishes you'd expect to find if you were tooling around the French Quarter in search of something other than a frozen daiquiri. It's a menu I'd be happy to show you, if only they'd get it up on their (presently non-existent) Web-site. Meantime, here's some professional food porn -- oops, I mean a photographic preview -- to tantalize your tastebuds:

These `Barbecued Shrimp" are flown in from the Gulf Coast, and served over creamy corn grits. (photo: Lara Ferroni)

When I moved to Edmonds from Seattle in the late '90s I wasn't thrilled with the spectrum of dining options -- no offense to local favorites like Chanterelle, Anthony's Beach Cafe and "Claire's Panty" (as the city's downtown diner is known in my house). But as the years passed (as I've mentioned before), my adopted hometown has come into its own culinarily speaking. That notion was reinforced by my colleague Lynn Thompson in a recent NW Weekend cover story, where she singled out a number of eat-and-drinkeries I adore. And now we've got another winner to add to the growing list: Epulo.

Edmonds street scene: it's a beautiful day in my neighborhood.

Open early this month, Epulo takes over where the late Shell Creek left off, with a remodel that kept the basic setup but tones down the fine-dining aesthetic of its former incarnation.

The view from my banquette seat last Thursday.

Friday night, after a delightful dinner elsewhere, I drove to Eastlake for a drink at Cicchetti -- the new bar-centric hangout hidden behind that Italian siren Serafina.

Say "chi-KET-tee."

Word was out that Cicchetti was quietly open for business with "friends and family" showing up to give the new place a first-look -- and the staff the opportunity to make sure their mojo was working before tomorrow night's grand opening. From the minute I walked in (and ran into my pal Ernie Pino, who was walking out), I couldn't have felt more at home if I was at home.

On the eve of the Dahlia Lounge's 20th Anniversary celebration , Jackie Cross confirms what I heard this morning: she and her husband and business partner Tom Douglas will open another restaurant next door to Etta's in April.

Pots, pans, another restaurant. You'd be smiling, too.

You know the space as the home furnishings store, Habits, on the corner of Western Avenue and Virginia. The idea for the new place "is a work in progress," says Jackie, and while the details remain under wraps for now, it will not be an extension of Etta's, she says. It will, however, "be a whole new world, a whole new thing. We're super excited."

Be still my beating BBQ lovin' heart: that rascal Casper Townsend has gone and done it again, only this time he's opening another outlet of Casper's a Taste of the South even closer to my front door. If all goes accordingly -- and I'm counting on it -- he and his staff of rib-ticklin' Southern foodstuff-savvy servers will be yelling "Come and get it!" in Shoreline by early next month.

Casper, smiling at his Lake Forest Park "Come-get-some, Sugah!" shack.

This week the food mavens at the alt-weeklies are hard at it. At the Stranger, Bethany Jean Clement puts a lid on the story of the antagonism that is Chow vs. Chao (in which Peter Levy, now sole owner of Chow Foods, filed a lawsuit against the owners of Chao Bistro-Bar for alleged trademark infringement). In yesterday's update on the subject, she explains, "Chow Foods owner Peter Levy, sounding profoundly weary of the entire matter, said via telephone, `Am I going to drop the lawsuit? Yes. I'm just done. I've got more significant concerns than this. I'm fine with what they're doing -- good luck to them.'"

Over at Seattle Weekly, Jon Kauffman gives some deeply-researched juice to Seattle's yoshoku scene in a dual review of the Cutting Board and Fort St. George. "Both serve yoshoku cuisine, a style of Japanese food in which nostalgia, outsiders' fantasies, and sometimes even good taste come into conflict," Kauffman explains, adding "Yoshoku dishes are Japanese interpretations of Western ones," and that the cuisine -- known for such dishes as kare raisu (say it slowly while affecting a Japanese accent and you won't need a translator) -- dates back more than a century.

And, go figure. Both of those stories come to play at a little Japanese restaurant in Mukilteo, Cafe Soleil. Not to be confused with the charming little Ethiopian cafe in Madrona, and other same-name restaurants nationwide. That lawsuit, one can only pray, will not be forthcoming.

Thoa Nguyen has a Vietnamese-accented downtown restaurant that bears her name (Thoa's) and a Queen Anne sushi bar and pan-Asian cafe that's long been her neighborhood stalwart (Chinoise). This week marks the debut of her latest venture, Wabi-Sabi, an 80-seat sushi bar and restaurant expected to open Wednesday in the heart of Columbia City.

Photo courtesy Thoa Nguyen, of Thoa's, Chinoise on Queen Anne and now, Wabi-Sabi

I spend a lot of time, and not an insignificant amount of my paycheck, in the area's best sushi bars. Places where the sushi chef knows my Indian name (Nancy Eats Too Much Sushi-san) and modus operandi (omakase? hai!). I also spend a lot of time at kaiten sushi-joints. Which is to say you're as likely to see me at the sushi bar at Taka Sushi, Kisaku and Mashiko as at Sushi Land, Genki Sushi and Blue C Sushi -- which opened its sixth store downtown this week across the street from Gameworks.

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's -- Blue C Sushi?

I like kaiten (conveyor-belt) sushi because it's quick and easy. It can be cheap (see: Sushi Land), it's certainly convenient (Genki offers free parking in a covered lot not far from the Seattle Times office) and it can be a ton of fun, especially if you're dealing with a sushi-novice or you've got a kid like mine who's a sushi-freak.

Tamara Murphy's at it again. It's been a decade since she opened Belltown's Brasa and nearly a year since the celebrated chef breathed new life into Pioneer Square's Elliott Bay Cafe. Now she's back for another helping of the Seattle restaurant pie -- with Terra Plata.

Tamara, hanging out at Brasa with sculptor Carla Grahn's fine artwork (Seattle Times/Mike Siegel 2007).

Her restaurant-to-be stands in a prime Capitol Hill location: 2,200-square feet of space at the Melrose Project, a merger of two historic buildings presently undergoing redevelopment between Pike and Pine streets.

Murphy gets the point (seen in this architectural rendering, courtesy Melrose Project LLC).

Terra Plata will stand at the apex of the triangular building, and Murphy's jazzed to count as her new Melrose Project-neighbor another culinary icon, Matt Dillon -- whose Sitka & Spruce will relocate from its unlikely little Eastlake location.

Tomorrow will see the end of Troiani -- closed after a six-year run. As part of the Mackay Restaurant Group and sibling to the Seattle-based El Gaucho steakhouse chain, it was originally envisioned as an upscale, downtown Italian grill. One that opened to great applause, then quickly lost its chef (Walter Pisano -- who made a triumphant return to his longstanding gig at Tulio), its namesake (managing partner Rich Troiani) and some might argue its raison d'etre. Today Mackay Restaurants announced plans to transform the spacious restaurant and bar at Third and Madison into Sharp's Fish Market, an unfussy showcase for seafood. ETA for the re-do debut: late October.

Chad (left) and Paul Mackay of Mackay Restaurant Group at El Gaucho, 2005
Seattle Times photo/Harley Soltes

Say the word "pizza" (as I have, recently), and you'll get people talking. But will it get folks buying condos in the Issaquah Highlands? The brain trust at Incolo hopes so and sent me a news-release today detailing the offer. During a fall promotion, they're giving away a year's worth of Zeeks Pizza to anyone who takes a Starpoint condo off their hands.

That's approximately a $1000 incentive explained Mark Mullet, owner of the new Zeeks in the Highlands, when I called to get his take on the creative ways in which real estate agents are attempting to lure buyers to this "urban village." Mullet was more than happy to oblige the creative minds who came up with the promo.

That's a large pizza a week, diner's choice, says the Zeeks franchisee, who's new to the pizza-purveying game. "People who live in those condos are in the restaurant a lot. They come in all the time," he said of the denizens of the mixed-use complex housing 92 residential condos.

For years -- years! -- I've been hearing rumors that Rover's jaunty "Chef in the Hat," Thierry Rautureau, has longed to hang his chapeau at a little bar-centric bistro, something far less formal than his four-star restaurant, Rover's. Maybe you've heard those rumors, too: that he's planning to take over the Falling Waters space (didn't happen), spending time in the company of real estate brokers (I've seen that with my own eyes) or chatting about the idea with other chefs who've gone beyond the "one, singular sensation." In the end, it turns out he need to look no further than the nearest corner.

Break out the Champagne: "The Chef in the Hat" is opening a new bistro!

With all the early press -- both locally and nationally, my guess is there won't be a lot of room to move at Tavern Law when the Capitol Hill restaurant and speakeasy-styled drinks-joint makes its public debut at 12th and Madison tonight. Doors open at 5 p.m. and listen up: it's 21-and-over.

Considering the talent at hand (chefs Brian McCracken, Dana Tough and their barman David Nelson -- who brought us Belltown's Spur gastropub), and the foot traffic alone on this Pike/Pine corridor (they're ensconced in the Trace Lofts complex), chances are you might just have to poke your nose in and head elsewhere. Not that you'd have far to go given the implosion of worthy places to eat and drink within a few short blocks.

Chefs Dana Tough (left) and Brian McCracken want you: to check out their new place.
photo/Kristin Zwiers

Say hello to a sandwich well worth waiting for: Paladar Cubano's cubano, a $6.50 two-fister so bountiful the construction crews (and other trenchermen) who seek out this parking lot pit-stop on the corner of 90th and Aurora can't finish their lunch either.

The classic cubano with roast pork, ham, cheese, pickle, mustard -- plus a side of terrific tostones ($2.50)

Laredos had barely been open a week when the hits just kept on coming from curious Eaters. Like this one, from Brandon Olin, who wrote: "I'm wondering if you've had a chance to eat at Laredos yet, the new restaurant that has taken the place of Veil in Lower Queen Anne? I saw your earlier report of the transition, and it looks like they've opened up. Curious to know your opinion!" OK, Brandon, since I was already out and about on Friday I stopped by for your benefit, and this is what I saw:

A shot in the dark -- and make it a double!

Talk about a Capitol Hill Block Party. Last Friday night, tooling down the street with friends toward dinner and drinks at Barrio, it occurred to me there are an astonishing number of terrific restaurants commanding our attention near 12th and Pike. And no sooner had the words shot out of my mouth than I saw this:

Plum -- a new vegan restaurant, not quite open for business a week ago.

Aha! I thought. So there's that place my vegan buddy was carrying on about: the one with ties to Hillside Quickie. Plum, the latest addition to the Pike/Pine Triangle, had taken over the former Cafe Stellina space -- right next door to La Spiga.

There's been reports of yet another restaurant closure in a month all-too-full of them. West Seattle's Ama Ama Oyster Bar & Grill will close July 25. "Economic conditions, being what they are, have reluctantly forced our hand," owners Rob Coburn and Paige Crandall told friends and patrons via email.

Back when things were looking up at Ama Ama (John Lok/Seattle Times)

"It's pretty scary out there," says Mark Fuller, Food & Wine's 2009 "Best New Chef" and owner of West Seattle's much-lauded Northwest bistro, Spring Hill. "It's real close to home." Is he worried for his young restaurant's well being? "We're not as well-established as people who've been around for 10 or 15 years," he said today. "But I think we're fine, I think things are looking up."

Around the corner from Ama Ama, 2-month-old Fresh Bistro -- a spinoff of West Seattle's long-running catering company Herban Feast -- is coming off a busy Sunday brunch. "It always makes me nervous when restaurants close," says co-owner and chef Dalis Chea, who's saddened by the loss of Ama Ama for personal as well as professional reasons. "I didn't see it coming, though I'd heard rumors." He and his co-workers like to stop in for late-night happy hour when they're off the clock.

Jon Jacobs gave me a major thrill in 2007. That's when he opened the closest thing we've got in Seattle to the kind of old-fashioned Jewish deli I grew up with: I Love New York Deli in Pike Place Market. There, I regularly waddle away with a hot pastrami sandwich in one hand and a warm kasha knish in the other. So what if the "deli" is a mere 105-square-feet of kiosk space parked in the holy triangle (you'll forgive the expression) between DeLaurenti and Daily Dozen Doughnuts? It's brought to us by a Brooklyn-born fresser who knows from Jewish deli-food. And today Jon's got great news:

He's going big-time, branching out with a second I Love New York Deli. In addition to all the delectables he's been dispensing at the Market, he'll offer a complete line of smoked fish imported from Homarus/Marshall in Brooklyn (belly lox! kippered salmon! smoked sable!), a dedicated deli case filled with kosher meats from Brooklyn's own Empire National, plus kugels, kasha varnishkes, stuffed cabbage, rugalach, egg creams and Chock full 'o Nuts (the "heavenly coffee").

Did I mention 50 seats and 20 parking slots?

So, where's it gonna be? Why should I tell you when you can get it straight from the horse's mouth? Heeeeeeeer's Jon-ny.

When a longtime Seattle chef-celeb like Tom Douglas opens a pizzeria, you expect the place to garner lots of early buzz. But why is Delancey -- the Brooklyn-styled pizzeria dreamed up by 27-year-old Brandon Pettit -- getting so much juice when Ballard's already got umpteen pizza parlors?

Maybe it's because the cook and former music-teacher has been offering us the blow-by-blow of his buildout via his Twitter page, keeping us in-the-know when he installs beer taps and bar-tops, scavenges at Goodwill and suffers the agony of the "economic anti-stimulous package" -- his description of the inevitable permitting and inspection delays. Perhaps Delancey's hot before it's even hot because it sits right next door to Seattle's latest red-hot bakeshop, Honore Artisan Bakery . There, the neighborhood is closely watching Brandon's every move, and not infrequently joining him for pain au chocolat.

Or maybe it's just because he's as earnest as he is adorable.

Cleft chin, curly hair, makes a mean pizza using great products, or so I hear.

When chef (and radio personality) Dan Thiessen partnered with financial-guy Matt Bomberger two-plus years ago, they twisted a cork off a new restaurant concept -- 0/8 Seafood Grill and the Twisted Cork. Conceptually speaking, it turned out to be a good idea: an elegant dining room embracing a more casual wine bar adjacent to the Hyatt Regency in Bellevue. And apparently, landlord Kemper Development was impressed enough to ink the duo another deal.

Chef Dan (right) schmoozing with patrons at the Twisted Cork [Seattle Times/Mark Harrison]

It's been nearly 20 years since Susan Kaufman introduced Seattle to Eastlake's sexy little osteria and enoteca, Serafina. Here, every night's a party, and for some, the scenery in the bar is as appealing as the secluded courtyard's lush greenery.

The bar at Serafina: this place drives me to drink.

Something different this way comes.

Did you know the Triangle closed Sunday night? It was news to me. Fremont Universe has the word though, and describes what's up next for that well-known slice of the Fremont universe. According to the neighborhood Website:

Bartender Nate Rezac recently bought the bar and plans to reopen it later this month with a new menu and a new look. "It will be a 30s and 40s gangsta bar theme," he told us. "9 Million in Unmarked Bills," as the bar will be called, will feature a diverse menu, a smaller bar in the back room and drinks named after old gangsters. Rezac says he hopes to reopen on June 18th.

The Triangle's neon arrow will soon be pointing us in a different direction [Seattle Times/Ken Lambert]

When traffic's bad on I-5 as I'm heading north from Seattle, I frequently take the Lake City exit and travel along 15th Avenue Northeast toward home. Recently, a certain sign has been catching my eye:

Slave over a hot stove? Fuggetaboutit!

MistralKitchen, spawn of the late Mistral, dream of chef William Belickis, is expected to be a reality by fall. Touchstone Corp. announced today it has signed Belickis (and, presumably his financial backers) to a long-term lease: 5000-square-feet of ground-level space at 2020 Westlake Avenue. MistralKitchen will anchor the West 8 Office Tower, a 28-story skyscraper rising high above the confluence of Westlake Avenue, Eighth Avenue and Virginia Street.

West 8, at right, under construction (Seattle Times/Chris Taylor, 2008)

At the bar, several fellas sat watching the game on TV. One took a last swig of his beer, paid his bill and grabbed his bike helmet, perhaps heading back to the nearby Burke-Gilman Trail. With happy hour in full swing at Lake Forest Bar & Grill last week, my son and I arrived for an early dinner. Measuring the menu's merits we got happy with a starter of garlic buffalo wings ($4.99, him) and a short margarita ($3.99, me). Even the Shoreline cops were getting into the act. I watched as officers in full regalia came in for a bite, joining a fraternity of northenders at the hottest thing to hit the 'hood since Third Place Commons made its debut:

Sign 'o the times.

When last I spoke to Shannon Galusha regarding the vacant restaurant space formerly known as Veil, he acknowledged "nothing's official yet" -- but said it was this-close to being sold and transformed into a taqueria. And when I drove by this week I found the doors open and a guy at work scraping paint off a door frame.

Aloha from the corner of Aloha and Taylor streets.

This your place? I asked. Nope. But he was there to transform Veil's uber-designed restaurant space -- now completely gutted -- into a taco-and-tequila joint. ETA? "I've got two and a half months," he said. But who's counting? According to the liquor license posted in the doorway, that would be B & B Restaurants, Inc.

It's been less than a year since chefs Dana Tough and Brian McCracken's Spur Gastropub made its daring debut, setting the town afire with such branding-iron signatures as carpaccio with deep-fried bearnaise, and pork-belly sliders. These crackerjack kids with the modern Western-themed haunt wasted no time knocking food fanatics off their Belltown bar stools -- where they'd been perched precariously already, thanks to alcohol's artful alchemist David Nelson. Now they're set to do it all over again with Tavern Law -- a "speakeasy bar" expected to open late next month at the Trace Lofts complex on Capitol Hill.

Getting Tough (left) and (Mc)Cracken in the kitchen at Spur
[photo by Kristin Zwiers]

One of the frequent complaints I hear about Korean restaurants involves what's perceived as lousy service. "We had to hail our waitress six times!" "Customers were holding up their empty side dishes, begging for more!" "I watched people get up pour their own tea!" Yeah, yeah, I know. That's the charm of Greater Seattle's many Korean restaurants: they're here to cater to the Korean community. And therein lies the rub: those perceived deficiencies are merely the cultural norm at the multitude of Korean joints I regularly frequent -- the very ones that make Highway 99 (north or south) my very own highway to Korean-food heaven.

To better understand the food and dining culture, neophytes should get their hands on Steven Shaw's helpful compendium, "Asian Dining Rules: Essential strategies for eating out at Japanese, Chinese, Southeast Asian, Korean and Indian restaurants." Or, if you've yet to be introduced to Korea's vibrant cuisine, pay a visit to Kaya Asian BBQ & Grill in Shoreline, open just over a month (at 20109 Aurora Ave. N., 206-546-2848) and conveniently located due west of the Aurora Village Costco.

Polish sausage at Costco or grilled rib-eye at Kaya? You decide.

For months, people have been talking about the transformation of yet another historic Ballard building (sold last year) and the French restaurant set to open in it -- after a couple of Seattle restaurant entrepreneurs shelled out $3.62 million to seal the deal. Now, with contractors hard at it, a liquor license application in the works and an opening date slated for "early summer," it's high time somebody dished the details. Here goes:

When one of my buddies lost 30 pounds over several months by sticking to a raw-food diet, I was impressed. He looks better, feels infinitely better and was able to ditch the medications he'd been taking to control various weight-related ailments (high blood pressure, diabetes). The fact that he also managed to continue cooking great food for his family and friends during the process never ceases to amaze me. That said, when it comes to weight loss and raw foods, he's got nothing on Angela Stokes.

Ballard's Snoose Junction now has a Greenwood sibling: Snoose Junction Part Dieu. The new pizzeria and lounge got a rousing thumbs-up from Eater Nancy Bryant, who wrote cautioning, "Please don't review it until I've had time to take some friends there!" (Don't worry, Nance: this isn't a review, it's an intro, and an impromptu one at that.) You see, the other day I was driving past the familiar junction where Greenwood Avenue meets Holman Road when an Un Pho Gettable sign caught my eye: