Ready for surprising news? A restaurant is actually moving up its target opening date. A few months ago, a friend tipped me off that The Lazy Dog Cafe in Irvine (which is being developed in the space vacated by the departed French 75 Brasserie) is planning to open on April 1st of this year.
But just now, I got word that the 275-seat, 7,500-square feet restaurant (with an additional 1,000-square-foot space) is moving up that date to March 4th.
And I'm inclined to believe it. Driving by yesterday, there were new white window frames and actual work being done. Already, they've already transformed it beyond what Martin Yan's SensAsian and all the incarnations of David Wilhelm's eateries that existed in the space before had done.
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.