This week in food news, all eyes are on chef Edouardo Jordan as he prepares to open his much-anticipated new restaurant Lucinda Grain Bar in Ravenna, Meg's Hamburgers brings nostalgic burgers to Pioneer Square, and Salumi completes its big move. Find all that below, plus this weekend's big food and drink events, like the Winter Solstice Beer Festival and CookieFest. For more ideas, check out our full food and drink calendar.

OPENINGS
Beer Star
This White Center beer hall and tap house opened a new all-ages location in Tacoma's Stadium District on Thursday, December 6, with fifty taps, a limited menu of sandwiches, a kids' play area, and room for 100 guests. Guests can also look forward to frequent visits from food trucks parked onsite.
Tacoma

BOPBOX
This new veg-friendly spot, which opened recently in Georgetown and had its first Yelp review on November 16, serves up modern Korean-inflected customizable grain bowls, with options for black or white rice, grilled-to-order proteins, and toppings, and house-made pickles, marinades, and kimchi.
Georgetown

Dick's Drive-In
Seattle's favorite iconic burger chain will unveil its newest location in Kent, which was voted as the next home for a new Dick's by fans, on December 12. The grand opening will include a high school marching band, a hydroplane, and a holiday gift pop-up shop.
Kent

Lucinda Grain Bar
Chef Edouardo Jordan, who's received numerous accolades and national attention for his Ravenna restaurants Salare and JuneBaby and was the recipient of two James Beard Awards last year, will open Lucinda Grain Bar, his highly anticipated new casual restaurant, on Saturday, December 8. The new bar, which is named after Jordan's sister and great-grandmother and will seat about 20 guests, will highlight heirloom grains in every dish: the menu includes a bread basket, bar snacks, pressed sandwiches, grain bowls, and desserts like steel-cut oats and red quinoa porridge with einkorn ice cream and sorghum syrup. (In other news, November 28 has been proclaimed Edouardo Jordan Day by Mayor Jenny Durkan, and Jordan was named one of ten finalists for People's sexiest chef alive.)
Ravenna

Meg's Hamburgers
This new retro burger joint from the team behind Altstadt just opened in Pioneer Square last Friday, Dec. 1, serving smash burgers on potato rolls, fries cooked in beef fat, and milkshakes made with chocolate and coffee from Intrigue Chocolate.
Pioneer Square

Salumi
The beloved salumeria and restaurant, formerly owned by the Batali family and now owned by Martinique Grigg and Clara Veniard, has completed its relocation in the former space of Rain Shadow Meats Squared. Much roomier than the famously tiny original space that Salumi occupied for 20 years, the new spot has tables and stools at a counter as well as room for private lunches.
Pioneer Square

CLOSURES
Cafe Kopi
This Lake City Way cafe specializing in baked goods has shuttered.
Lake City

The Lemongrass
This longtime Vietnamese restaurant near Seattle University is no longer open.
Capitol Hill

Magnolia's Restaurant and Lounge
This modern American and Indian restaurant and cocktail lounge closed after less than a year.
Magnolia

Scratch Deli
Beloved Capitol Hill sandwich shop Scratch Deli is set to close soon after six years of business, in part due to competition from other businesses on Capitol Hill and the cost of expensive upgrades for the kitchen. Fans are encouraged to come in for one last visit before it closes later this month.
Capitol Hill

OTHER FOOD NEWS
Modernist Cuisine opens its new gallery
Modernist Cuisine, the Bellevue-based venture from culinary mad scientist and local author Nathan Myhrvold, has opened its newest gallery in Pike Place Market, displaying Myhrvold's signature style of mind-bending photography of sights like cutaways and extreme close-ups of food.

Ethan Stowell sells Bar Cotto
Restaurateur Ethan Stowell has sold his Capitol Hill pizzeria Bar Cotto to Brandon Barnato, who's previously spent time as a bartender at Via Tribunali and who plans to maintain the original name and menu with only a few additions. Barnato will also expand Bar Cotto's hours to seven days a week.

By the Pound plans to re-open
Capitol Hill deli By the Pound, which recently was evicted from its premises for owing over $75,000 in rent, is planning to re-open with the help of a "strategic partner" who will help rebrand the space as Bar Justice, the name of the speakeasy that was previously located in the back of the deli.

Mr. Saigon expanding with downtown location
The Central District banh mi shop Mr. Saigon, which opened in June, plans to open a second location at Second and Pike downtown, with an expanded menu that will include croissants, salads, and spring rolls.

EVENTS
DEC 7-8
Winter Solstice Beer Festival
Drink away the cold-weather doldrums at the inaugural edition of this new indoor craft beer festival co-hosted by local indie comix heroes Short Run Seattle. The event will feature an all-ages food hall and night market with food trucks and shopping, plus a separate beer tasting hall with live music, where a $25 ticket will get you 32 ounces' worth of beer from local breweries.

DEC 7-24
Miracle on 2nd
In 2014, Greg Boehm of New York bar Boilermaker temporarily transformed the space for his bar Mace into a kitschy Christmas wonderland replete with gewgaws and tchotchkes galore. Now the pop-up has expanded to bars in 50 cities worldwide and will be taking up residence in Belltown’s Rob Roy. The specialty cocktails are no ordinary cups of cheer: Beverages are housed in tacky-tastic vessels (a drinking mug resembling Santa’s mug, for example), bedecked with fanciful garnishes like peppers and dried pineapple, and christened with irreverent, pop-culture-referencing names like the “Bad Santa,” the “Yippie Ki Yay Mother F**r,” and the “You’ll Shoot Your Rye Out.”

DEC 8-9
Holiday Drinks That Don't Suck
As the site of the cocktail wonderland Miracle on 2nd, Rob Roy is an ideal place to craft a tasty holiday beverage. Paul Clarke, editor of Imbibe Magazine and author of Cocktail Chronicles, will teach you to make some of your own while you sip drinks made by Rob Roy owner Anu Apte-Elford.

SATURDAY, DEC 8
CookieFest
This annual cookie bake sale pop-up benefiting the Seattle Milk Fund offers a smorgasbord of gooey, crispy, chewy delights from a variety of vendors, including beloved Scandinavian bakery Byen Bakeri, Capitol Hill cookie purveyor Hello Robin, the late-night cookie delivery service Midnight Cookie Co., and Greenwood plant-based dessert shop Cookie Counter. Guests are encouraged to tote along their own “cookie vessels” or grab a bakery box and load up on as many confections as they like.

Holiday Candy and Confections
Learn to make six different kinds of festive holiday candies and confections like velvet fudge, chocolate bark, toffee, and more. You'll go home with gift bags, boxes, ribbon, and paper with which to wrap up your creations for holiday gifts. 

Holiday Cocktail Workshop
Impress your holiday party guests or just yourself by learning to craft fancy seasonal cocktails.

DEC 8-30
Holiday Tea at Hotel Sorrento
Instead of gazing at a virtual Yule log video, take your tea beside an actual roaring, crackling hearth at Hotel Sorrento’s Fireside Room, a Mad Men–worthy old-school vision in opulent ochre mahogany paneling. You can nosh on posh teatime fare—like freshly baked chocolate-filled croissants with butter and jam, cucumber and cream-cheese finger sandwiches, and chocolate espresso pots de creme with strawberries—as you sink into a squishy high-backed leather chair and enjoy sounds played on a baby grand piano. If you’re lucky, you might even spy the ghost of Alice B. Toklas, who is said to roam the halls of the hotel.

SUNDAY, DEC 9
NARN Vegan Holiday Potluck
If you're a vegan who's sick of going to holiday parties filled with buttery cookies, bring your favorite animal product-free dish to this potluck hosted by the Northwest Animal Rights Network. 

MONDAY, DEC 10
12th Annual Cookbook Social
At Tom Douglas’s annual gathering at the Palace Ballroom, you can sip wine, purchase cookbooks, sample recipes inspired by the titles on display, get autographs, and visit with the authors of some of the season’s most exciting cookbooks. This year’s roster includes Instagram star Linda Miller Nicholson, who shares how to re-create her vibrantly-hued handmade pasta in Pasta, Pretty Please; Hsiao-Ching Chou, whose Chinese Soul Food explains how to make comforting dishes like dumplings and stir-fries; Julien Perry, whose Seattle Cooks collects signature recipes from top chefs and bartenders in the Seattle food scene; and Kausar Ahmed, who includes her favorite recipes from Pakistan in The Karachi Kitchen.

Delancey Feast of the Seven Fishes
The Feast of the Seven Fishes is a traditional Italian American supper featuring seven kinds of fish or seafood, usually served before midnight mass on Christmas Eve. This lavish spread from Delancey promises the freshest catches that the Ballard pizzeria can procure, which may include albacore, lobster, Dungeness crab, Penn Cove mussels, anchovies, and roasted oysters snatched from Delancey’s roaring wood-fired oven, along with seasonal produce and a steady flow of beverages throughout. They’ll finish with some delightful-sounding butterscotch pots de creme for dessert.

Martinis & Mistletoe Happy Hour at The Nest
Get yourself in a holiday mood with festive martini specials made with either Absolut Elyx vodka or Monkey 47 gin. 

Oagari-Yo Pop Up Night
This new pop-up from Revel sous chef Stephen Toyofuku will serve up an “umami-rich, home-style” youshoku (Japanese-style Western cuisine) feast inspired by anime and manga. (The name comes from the manga series Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma and means “dig in.”) Tuck into some Japanese-style comfort food like chicken karaage served with fried kimchi, kimchi ketchup, house-made kewpie mayo, and nori.

TUESDAY, DEC 11
Holiday Cookie Extravaganza
Add gumdrop cookies, cold dough cakes, snowflake cookies, and other sweet treats to your holiday baking repertoire. Gift-wrap materials (including boxes, ribbon, and paper) are included in the class.