Paul Giorgio

Now is not the time to whine. Sail To Trail Wine Works signed a lease in January for a tasting room . They will be located in a 1,200-square-foot space in the Higgins Armory. The winery is on schedule to pour their first glass of vino in April.

It’s there legacy now. Big T’s food truck is taking over ther space once occupied by Legacy, and before that Joey’s, on Worcester’s Mill Street. This is the first brick and motor location for Big T’s food truck which serves great BBQ.

Find Redemption. Redemption Rock Brewery opened its doors the last Saturday in January to large crowds eager to sample Shrewsbury Street’s second tap room.

Game on. Leicester’s Castle Restaurant will host its annual game dinner on March 3 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. The multi-course dinner will be preceeded by hors d’oueves and will include wine pairings. The cost for the dinner is $120 per person . Reservations are required and seating is limited.

The Patriots have nothing on them. Worcester’s acclaimed Armsby Abbey has been rated the best beer bar in the state for the ninth consecutive year. The ranking comes from ratebeer.com, a website and forum for craft beer enthusiasts. Ratebeer released its “Best Places for Beer by Subregion” list for 2018 on Wednesday.

Thinking out of the box. An old library branch at 15 Hamilton Street in Worcester is now home to a new bar and hookah lounge. Owner Charlie Yossef celebrated the grand opening of the Cedar Box Lounge at the end of January. Many folks may know Yossef as owner of Roadrunner Pizza, a pizza delivery service with three locations around Worcester. The first Roadrunner Pizza openned nearly 24 years ago.

Some have opened. Some have closed. The beginning of 2019 saw a host of local eateries turning off their ranges for many different reasons.Thai Island in Holden closed at the end of the year, as the owner pusured her successful modeling career. Josephine’s is not happening. The proposed restaurant for the Hanover Theatre building feel through recently. They are still looking for an operator. Rumor has it that a couple of new places will open on Worcester’s Water Street. We hear that an Indian restaurant will be taking over the space once occupied by Kumerspek. Also in other Water Street news, we hear that a new Italian eatery will be going into the space once occupied by the Canal.

In other openings. Grill on the Hill has a new owner, Gino Raimondi who plans to open the eatery at Worcester’s Green Hill Golf Club the last week of March.

It’s in the icebox. The IceBox Pub in Barre, a farm to table eatery, opened its doors in the middle of February.

New life for Holden landmark. Tim Quinn of Quinn’s in Worcester has purchased Holden’s iconic Blue Plate Diner and will be converting it into an up-to-date restaurant. Extensive renovations are planned for what will become Quinn’s Blue Plate.

Hope its not a mirage. It appears that the space once occupied by Le Mirage and later Dianna’s Kitchen will be reopening soon. No word yet on the concept