Grub Street Grub Street New York

A rep confirms to Grub Street that in addition to the seasonal American restaurant going in at One Main Street (next to One Girl Cookies, which just opened), Brad McDonald and the Colonie team have also taken over the space just down the street at Five Front Street. The Front Street location will be a Mexican restaurant. Further details on the concept are under tight wraps. Both venues will open later this spring, and before anyone freaks out, McDonald is definitely still at Colonie on Atlantic. So we're all good.

• Hilarious: A wine from Chile's Maule Valley with the label "Chilensis" has some Chinese people upset, and others laughing their asses off. The word loosely translates as "f**king nuts" in Cantonese, and thus it went from a cheap bottle to a collector's item within days. [Drinks Business]

• Ice wine makers in the Czech Republic breathed a sigh of relief this week as temperatures finally dipped in this unusually warm winter and allowed them to harvest grapes for their expensive dessert wines. [Daily News Online]

• Napa Valley vintners sighed and cried this week as a villain was sentenced. Mark Christian Anderson — who torched a wine-storage facility in 2005 to cover an embezzlement scheme, and destroyed at least $50 million worth of premium vintages in the process — got 27 years. [Grub Street SF, Earlier]

While we were distracted by Crif Dogs' line of condoms and the revelation that Wolfgang Puck used to be shy, weird food stuff was going on right under our noses. So much weird food stuff! We've compiled the best of it in this week's edition of the James Weird Awards, straight ahead.

In light of a couple un-fun closings, it's nice to hear about an exciting, if not all that surprising, opening. Peter Hoffman has announced that his Soho space, formerly Savoy, will resurface as another Back Forty, called Back Forty West, with Shanna Pacifico in the kitchen. Zagat says the new menu won't be identical to the other Back Forty, but it will be close. The opening is a few weeks away. [Zagat]

Grub Street has learned exclusively that Epicurean Management's ellabess in the Nolitan Hotel will end its restaurant services on February 15, then transition into a private event space until the Nolitan introduces a new restaurant in springtime. This exit, graceful as it may be, is likely unfamiliar territory for EM, home of Joe Campanale, and proprietors of some of the city's best, and generally flawless, establishments like dell'anima, L'Artusi, and Anfora. A statement from them follows.

Ronen Seri tells Grub Street that he'll bring another location of his vegan Cafe Blossom to 41 Carmine Street around the middle of next month. The place will serve organic food and spirits, including some "new and very innovative dishes," Seri said via e-mail. The eatery will occupy two floors and have a candlelit grotto and fireplace, so expect the place to appear on every best-restaurants-with-fireplaces list next winter. On another note, Cafe Blossom uptown is evidently a favorite of famous vegan, and Kosher-food blogger, Mayim Bialik, a.k.a. TV's Blossom (get it?!) — Seri tells us she's throwing a red-carpet launch for her new book, Beyond the Sling, there next month.