• Eugene foodies were dismayed when Izakaya Meiji announced its doors were shutting, but really it was another door opening, at 345 Van Buren as Junglefowl, open 5-11 pm and closed on Wednesdays. Find it at Instagram.com/junglefowleugene.

• Ninkasi Brewing’s Better Living Room abruptly closed Oct. 29 with only four days’ notice to staff, causing consternation among its patrons, but life disruption to some 30 or so employees. Beer industry news source Brewbound noted at the end of May that portfolio brand Wings & Arrow merged with Ninkasi Brewing to form Great Frontier Holdings, which Brewbound says, citing a press release, “will make Great Frontier the third largest independent alcohol producer in the West, when including contract brewing.” 

• Speaking of Main Street, you may have noticed some changes. The owners of Springfield’s Bartolotti’s are going from a taste of New York Italian to Appalachia at the newly opened Cascade Biscuit Kitchen. And, boy, are these some whopping servings. The restaurant drowns huge, fluffy biscuits in gravy. Plus the restaurant serves po’ boy sandwiches. And if you’ve saved some room for desserts, head over to Mr. Ice Cream, which serves up creative takes on ice cream (using only the finest from Umpqua Dairy). They sold us when we saw ice cream nachos on the menu.

• After being closed for several months, leaving a hole in our greasy spoon-loving stomachs and an empty space in the Paramount strip mall on Springfield’s Main Street, Busy Bee Cafe is back in business. The Chronicle reported back in June that the restaurant was reopened by Meg Holiday, who, along with her husband and her husband’s business partner, also own John Henry’s and Slice Pizzeria. 

• Fonta Molyneaux, president of the Lane County Beekeepers Association, tells EW that at the Oregon State Beekeepers Association Conference in October, her Wild Everlasting Farm honey took first place in two categories, and fellow local beekeeper and Lane County Beekeepers board member Ariel Schulze of Honeystung Bees won the other categories, meaning they swept the competition. Molyneaux tells us, “Our sisterhood is powerful as we radically collaborated to support each other’s woman-owned and operated small farm businesses in Lane County!” Find the winning honey at the Lane County Farmers Market and the Holiday Market.

Send your food and dining tips to Chow@EugeneWeekly.com. 

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