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


They speak Portuguese, too.
Worcester has quite a few Brazilian restaurants, but now we have our first Portuguese eatery. Azorean Bistro opened in late November at the site of the former Blackstone Bistro in Quinsigamond Village. Elias Pereira, his mother Maria and his sister Carla Soscia will run the restaurant. They have 20 years of experience in the Rhode Island restaurant industry.

Mediterranean madness. As reported in the past, a new eatery will open soon in the space that once housed Café Manzi. Grille 352, a Mediterranean restaurant, will open by the beginning of February if all goes according to plan.

Lots of horsepower. The staff of Worcester’s dead horse hill restaurant was recently asked to cook at New York’s James Beard House. This is considered at top honor in the culinary world. Kudos to Sean Woods and Chef Jared Forman. They prepared a “New England Landscape” dinner.

You can only dream about this. Worcester’s Flying Dreams Brewing Co., located on Park Avenue, brought home seven medals recently at the Grand International Beer, Cider, Mead and Sake Competition. There were more than 800 submissions.

G Bar no more. It appears that the G Bar has been sold. It is now Buck’s Burger & Whiskey Bar. G Bar was open for about three years at the corner of Green and Harding streets. The new owner will be Nick Panarelli. Nick’s family has been in the local restaurant business for at least three generations. Buck’s will have a country theme. It is slated to be open from 4 p.m.-midnight Monday-Thursday and will open at 11 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

I saw this coming. There is yet another brewery coming to Central Massachusetts, this one in Holden. Seven Saws Brewing, currently located in a building on Main Street in Holden, is hoping to open a brewpub in early 2018. Brewer and co-founder Tom Anderson and a group of five friends will operate it. The brewery’s name, according to Anderson, pays homage to Holden’s manufacturing history. The town was home to more than a dozen mills in the late 1700s, including seven saw mills.

Deliver this. A new food delivery service, Foodsquire, is set to launch this month. A Jan. 10 kickoff is in the works. The service, available at foodsquire.com, will offer lower fees than the big boys.

Mad about Maddie’s. Adam Hicks, of Uxbridge, is the new owner of Maddie’s, opening at 64 Water St. in Worcester — the former home of The Perfect Game, which closed in September 2016. Maddie’s – a cookery and taphouse – is named after Hick’s two children, Matthew and Addison. Hicks serves as both owner and chef of the Depot Street Tavern, which he opened in Milford.

Who doesn’t likes soup? January is National Soup Month, and Zoup!, on Worcester’s Main Street, is marking the occasion with a month-long drive to help fight childhood hunger. Throughout January, Zoup! guests who donate $2 or more to No Kid Hungry will receive a coupon for a complimentary 8-ounce side of soup, which can be redeemed on their next visit.

Nothing more Worcester than this. Wormtown Brewery in Worcester has announced a partnership with Dunkin Donuts with the release of DDark Roasted Brew, a stout-style beer brewed with Dunkin Donuts’ dark roast beans. The new beer was released on the darkest day of the year — the Winter Solstice. The beer will be available on draught only.

Paul Giorgio