Tacos Gringos, Tacos Guaymas, Tacos Chukis, Taco Del Mar, Rancho Bravo, El Gallito, La Puerta, La Cocina, Galerias, Bimbos Cantina, The Saint, El Mestizo. Poquitos. We forget anybody? [email protected] Oh, yeah, El Farol.

• With Tommy Gun slinging open its doors already on East Olive Way, everybody is wondering what’s up with its big gay neighbor, CC Seattle’s. The popular bar is in the midst of a long transition from its old home on Madison. There’s been a series of projected opening dates that have come and gone. Now, manager Chris Daw says CC’s can see the light at the end of the electrician and plumber’s bills:
  

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  *** PERMITS FINALLY APPROVED! *** Construction to begin soon, Electrician and Plumber to start work on 03/25/2011. The new projected timeline for opening is late April to early May. Believe me when I say that I want it open as bad as you do!

  The CC’s overhaul of the old Cafe Met space is a big project. Glad to hear they have a handle on things now and will be making some progress.

• Yup, Poquitos opens today. We broke the news back in February. At 11:30 AM, the lunch counter is prepared to serve you. We shared some promo photos last week. Here are some more lovely shots from a photographer who attended their Friday night pre-opening party. Cap to the Hill visited, too.
• Kiki is still putting on some finishing touches but the lounge that replaced Kurrent on East Pine has been sporadically open here and there. Things get serious with a grand opening this week, we’re told.
• Knee High Stocking Co. is celebrating its 2nd birthday this week. Dancing girls. Excellent.
• Homegrown is celebrating turning two, too.
• 15th Ave East’s Liberty has sent out early invitations to its big 5-year bash planned for April 17th.
• We’ve been finding Near East-branded paper cups on the ground around a few parts of Capitol Hill. Something called the Couscous Caravan. Crush’s Jason Wilson tells you why.
• Seattle Times calls (CHS advertiser) Big Mario’s “one of the best and cheapest dining solutions to the late-night munchies.”
• CHS-Monsoon neighbor night raised $150 for the Capitol Hill Community Council.
• April CHS happy hour will be a First Hill field trip. Join us at Primo on April 6.
• They’re also and advertiser — and, also, a good cause. The Plate of Nations promotion is inviting people to explore the restaurants of MLK. 
• April 14th, La Spiga is hosting a “Taste the Music” dinner — “a unique and innovative presentation of music as it appears on your plate.”
• Yes, we saw that NYT did a ’36 Hours In’ piece on Seattle and gave lots of love to Volunteer Park, Volunteer Park Cafe, Sitka and Spruce, Licorous and the entire Pike/Pine neighborhood. Our first question is why we should care when they are about to cruelly (and foolishly) erect a subscription wall and cut us off from their news flow. Second, why is the URL http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/travel/27hours-seattle.html ? Did they decide to add nine more hours to their trip?
• Work appears to be underway on 12th Ave’s old Dawson Plumbing building. We told you back in October that the people behind Umi Sake House and Kushibar had purchased the building with designs on joining the Capitol Hill food + drink fray.
• We’re also hearing rumblings on 15th Ave East that we only have the story partly right regarding the activities of Caffe Vita in the neighborhood.

• Pine’s CakeSpy Shop seems to host a cool bake sale every weekend now. This coming Saturday, they’re planning a bake sale for Japan. The April 2nd event will reportedly include items from Harvest Vine and, apparently, the Piecycle man, to name a few.
• More benefits for Japan coming up this week on the Hill including Wednesday at RockBox. We’ll have a separate post on those soon.
• Nagle Place’s Cure had its construction permits approved and is busy building out the tiny meat, cheese and wine shop.