Paul Giorgio 

And The Winner Is: The wildly successful annual Taste of Shrewsbury Street was held in late June. Who has the best food? Well according to the judges, Vintage Bar & Grille captured the best food title with Dad’s Keto Kitchen coming in second. This is not the first time that Vintage has won. The Taste was sponsored by Wormtown Brewery, Discover Central Mass, Pepsi, M&T Bank, LCU & DCU credit unions. Cleaning up the sponsor list was Scrub-A-Dub car wash.

He Went Off The Rails: Chef Rick Araujo recently hung up his apron at Off the Rails and The District Wood Fired Kitchen and took a job at Nichols College. Araujo was a winner on the Food Network’s Guy Fieri show, Guy’s Grocery Games.

Lincoln Street News: Restaurants are opening up throughout the city, and it looks like a restaurant will soon be opening at 267 Lincoln Street in Worcester. No word yet on what kind of food, so stay tuned. 

Maker To Main To Harding: Worcester’s Maker to Main will soon be moving to Harding Street in the Canal District. The store is known for selling local products and the new location will also have a store beer and wine license. No opening date has been set.

Hit The Bricks: Brick and Stone opened in the middle of June at 1121 Grafton Street.  They specialize in brick oven pizza, panni and other Italian food. By the way, they also have a nice outdoor patio.

Northboro News: An ice cream and beverage restaurant will soon open in the space that once housed the Texas Roadside BBQ on Route 20 In Northboro. I’m not sure what an ice cream and beverage restaurant is, but I’m sure it will be selling ice cream. As for the beverages, who knows.

It’s Cold Out There: Cold Harbor Brewery will soon open on Otis Street in Westboro, off of Route 9. They have had a tap room in the town for about 10 years. The new place will encompass a brewery, a restaurant and function space. The restaurant will serve American pub food.

Further East: It looks like a new Thai restaurant, Coconut Rice Thai Cuisine will soon open at 418 Main Street in Hudson. Fitchburg is building a new restaurant, or are they? They are keeping it a secret. Il Forno used to have a second location in West Boylston, which closed.

Hit The Rails: Hudson’s Rail Trail Flatbread Co. will soon be opening a second restaurant in Milford, according to Michael Kasseris, one of the owners. Rail Trail is wildly popular in Hudson, and was responsible for sparking the city’s food revolution.

It’s Not Taco Tuesday: Taco Johns, a new chain, recently opened a store in Leominster. It is one of 15 planned for Massachusetts. And yes, they do have a taco Tuesday.

Wine Notes: It looks like Shrewsbury is getting a winery, the town recently approved a license for Broken Creek Vineyard.