Now Open
Gnocchi Bar, from chef Lisa Nakamura, is open for business on the corner of 12th and Pine on Capitol Hill. The restaurant takes its inspiration from the handmade pasta dish that was a favorite at Nakamura's last restaurant, Allium, located on Orcas Island. Nakamura, who has also worked at the Herbfarm and French Laundry, spent the last year running a successful gnocchi pop-up and IndieGoGo campaign to fund the launch. In fact, one of the restaurant's walls is dedicated to its community backers, with the names of individual donors listed prominently on the "Gnocchi Bar Wall of Fame." Gnocchi Bar is open daily at 5 p.m.—and is still serving gelato made by the restaurant's former tenant, D'Ambrosio.

The owners of Capitol Hill's Pie Bar have opened a second location on Market Street in Ballard. The new Pie Bar, just like the original one, serves pie (both sweet and savory), beer, wine, cider, and pie-infused martinis.

Biscuit Bitch has also added a second location, in Belltown. What began in 2010 as a late-night pop-up at Caffe Lieto near Pike Place Market has expanded into two spots serving breakfast all day. Biscuit Bitch's late-night operations will move to their new home. Full hours and information here.

Soon-to-Be Open
Kraken Congee, which also began as a pop-up, will be taking over the Pioneer Square space recently vacated by Little Uncle (don't worry, the Capitol Hill walk-up window is still open and the owners are working on finding a second location that better suits their needs). Look for Kraken to start serving up their pan-Asian-inspired rice porridges in early April.

Now Closed: Admiral Benbow in West Seattle and Bloom in Ballard. (According to Bloom's Facebook page, the restaurant will be pursuing an "alternate business model," including hosting several pop-ups.)

Also ending: lunch service at Ballard's Stoneburner, effective Friday, March 27. Stoneburner will open every weekday at 3 p.m. (with dinner service starting at 5), and weekends at 10 a.m. for brunch.

Joshua Henderson's Huxley Wallace Collective Plans a Bunch of Openings in the Next Year
Joshua Henderson, chef and founder of Westward, and Quality Athletics, recently announced big plans to open up to six new restaurants around town over the next year. To that end, he's made an impressive hire, bringing in Eric Rivera (who is currently serving as director of culinary research operations at Chicago's Alinea, Next, and Aviary) as director of operations. Rivera will help oversee the launch of what, at this time, are plans for two burger joints, a bistro, a taco bar, and a culinary complex that will offer, among other things, rotisserie chicken, growler refills, and a full-service restaurant.

Henderson, who grew Skillet from a food truck into two brick-and-mortar diners before bowing out of the company (he also had a hand in opening the Cone & Steiner mercantile locations in Capitol Hill and Pioneer Square, as well as Woodinville's Hollywood Tavern, and also moved on from those projects), is obviously a smart businessman and restaurateur, but I'm inclined to hold my enthusiasm for these projects until opening dates get closer and we see what actually ends up materializing.

Last week's announcement reminded me of another one Henderson made in 2013, when he hired Laura Pyles (at the time pastry chef at Revel and Joule) to open Parchment, a bread-, pastry-, and beer-focused concept in Sodo. The whole project fell through, and Pyles was laid off without much of an explanation.

Luckily, Pyles kept the name Parchment and has kept going. She said that Parchment, which she now runs as a Sunday morning pop-up out of Ballard's Brimmer & Heeltap, is celebrating its official, one-year anniversary at its next pop-up on Easter Sunday, April 5. Pyles says it'll be "a big one" with "hot cross buns, babka, and carrot cake for sure, along with the ever-popular Mallorca breakfast sammies we do." And, of course, birthday cake.