A buffet of dining news, kicked off by a Monday cocktail

I should have known this would be a bizarre week when the food-holidays calendar reminded me Monday was National Margarita Day. Any work week that starts with a tequila-drink holiday could get complicated. What came after Monday was a blitz of dining news, tips and pitches that forced my email inbox and cellphone to work overtime.

Vendor updates continued to buzz in from the mega food hall that’s coming soon to downtown Delray Beach. The Delray Beach Market aims to be the largest food hall in Florida. We know Delray is easily fascinated by shiny, new dining endeavors, so we’ll be eager to watch how this multi-story, $60-million project develops.

Speaking of food halls, Grandview Public Market near downtown West Palm Beach welcomed a new barbecue stand this week. The 3-year-old food hall is in flux. A few vendors have departed, and we hear another will make its debut soon. The folks behind one of Grandview’s most popular stalls, Zipitios, just opened a unique taco pop-up at nearby Rosemary Square. Co-owner Niria Perez tells me she and her husband Ricky are hoping their new Taquería Bonitas pop-up will pave their way out of the food hall and into a more permanent brick-and-mortar restaurant.

In news that served to remind us the pandemic continues to wreak havoc on our restaurant industry, the three new restaurants that make up Charlie and Joe’s at Love Street in Jupiter closed abruptly on Tuesday after a few employees tested positive for COVID-19. The restaurants reopened Thursday after they were deep-cleaned and the employees tested for the virus. Those who remained positive and/or symptomatic were told to stay home.

On the bright side, there’s the weather. The weekend promises to be a nice one for venturing out into the fresh air. I did that last Saturday when I took my puppy to the West Palm Beach GreenMarket. It was more crowded than I had expected, but the great thing about the downtown waterfront location is that social distancing is more than possible. My 8-month-old pup doesn’t understand the concept, of course. He greeted masked strangers, jumped playfully on random dogs and sniffed toward the baked goods. I nudged him over to the periphery of it all and we viewed the scene from a nice distance. It still sparkled.