What’s hot and what’s happening now in the restaurant scene!

Go East. It looks like the owners of Worcester’s Café Espresso on Chandler Street will be taking over Northborough’s Guiseppe’s Grille. The new restaurant will be called Casta Diva and will feature upscale Northern Italian cuisine and local ingredients.

Through the looking glass. The Queen’s Cups bakery has officially opened its new Canal District location. The Queen owner, Renee King, has been baking up at storm at the new store at 56 Water St. in Worcester. The new bakery, in the former Bucky’s building in the Canal District, is 3,200 square feet ? much larger than the 750-square-foot Millbury store. King has said the Worcester location will be open later at night so customers can grab coffee or dessert after having dinner in the area.

Thoreau would approve. A brewery and taproom will open in downtown Marlborough later this year with the help of financing from the city’s economic development agency. The brewery, Walden Woods Brewing, will be owned by Chris Brown and Alida Orzechowski, brewers with a combined 20 years of experience in the field. The name Walden Woods is inspired by Henry David Thoreau and his time at Walden Pond.

Thai this place. The Thai-inspired rolled ice cream trend has officially made its way to Worcester with the opening of Tastetea Rolls, an ice cream and bubble tea shop. Tastetea Rolls is the first of its kind in Worcester, serving up rolled ice cream creations like Cookie Monster and Mono Loco and a variety of bubble tea flavors on Park Avenue.

Timber. A former lumber store on Route 9 in East Brookfield has been sold for a new brewery to be called Timber Yard Brewing Company. The site, at 545-555 E. Main St., is a former Howe Lumber store just west of the Spencer town line. Howe, a longtime store in town, is now about a mile and a half down Route 9 at 225 E. Main St. Timber Yard Brewing Company is slated to open next year

More micro brews. Purgatory Beer Co. is planning to open a 2,400-square-foot brewery and taproom in the Linwood Mill in Northbridge sometime next month, said co-founder Brian Distefano.

Eat at Joe’s. The long-abandoned drive-in restaurant on Route 9 in Leicester, next to the Leicester Drive-In, has reopened. The 1960s retro drive-in opened the first week of August. The restaurant serves home-cooked meals in a casual atmosphere. There is some outdoor seating under the overhang. There isn’t too many 1960-era drive-in restaurants left.

Whistle Stop tour. Oxford’s Whistle Stop Restaurant will soon have new owners. Eli Moussa and his son, Tim, recently purchased the Oxford eatery from Tina Betley, who has owned the place for 19 years. We wish everyone good luck.

The only excitement isn’t in Korea. The owners of Worcester’s deadhorse hill plan to open a new restaurant later this fall at the former home of Sweet Kitchen & Bar on Worcester’s Shrewsbury Street. The concept of co-owners Jared Forman, Sean Woods and Albert LaValley is inspired by Korean culture and cuisine. The restaurant will be called Simjang.

Paul Giorgio