Wonderful Wormtown. The new and expanded Wormtown Brewery opened its doors at its Shrewsbury Street location in the middle of March. With the move, the brewery will triple its capacity and has added a tap room, where you can sample the best beer in the world. So go on down and Be Hoppy. My favorite was the Irish Red Ale. The brewery is also available for functions. Best wishes to Tom Oliveri and David Fields and their co-workers in creating great beer and a new Worcester destination.

DCU in the restaurant business. The DCU Center will open a small restaurant at the corner of Foster and Commercial streets. The approximately 2,000-square-foot eatery will be open by the fall. The goal is to create some foot traffic in downtown.

Wonder years. We hear that Worcester’s Wonder Bar will open in April. The neon sign and the restaurant have been restored. The old drop ceiling has been removed and the original tin ceiling repaired. The major change is that the kitchen has moved up from the basement, and the larger bar is now located where some booths were. Kudos to the Prizio family for restoring this iconic piece of Worcester’s history.

You are seeing Violet. The downtown is getting a makeover with several new restaurants opening up in the near future. The north end of Main Street will soon be home to Violet Rice, a Thai and vegetarian restaurant which will be located next to Ritual, right near The Palladium.

And across Main Street. The Whiskey Bar will open in late spring/early summer in the space that once housed a yogurt shop near Mechanics Hall. The Whiskey Bar, specializing in ~ you guessed it ~ whisky from around the world, will be owned by Roger Bachour and his wife, Joanna. He formerly owned The Boiler Room in the Canal District.

In more downtown news. Midnight’s Tavern is the name of a new club opening on Commercial Street in the space that has housed numerous clubs over the past 10 years, the most recent being Bar FX. Midnight’s Tavern will be more of a pub and feature live music. It will be owned by the Ringuette family from Danvers, and it is the family’s first venture.

Too many chickens without their wings. Wingman is the name of the new wing stand at 275 Park Ave. in Worcester. It opened in the old hot dog stand at the corner of Chandler Street and is owned by the family that owns Zorba’s in Webster Square.

Establishing relations with Cuba. Café Reyes, a Cuban restaurant, opened its doors at 421 Shrewsbury St. in Worcester the first week of March, giving “Restaurant Row” a new cuisine to try. It is open initially only for lunch and is also a job-training program.

By Paul Giorgio