Despite the shaky economy and the challenges the Winslow Way reconstruction poses for businesses, five new downtown leases were signed last week, including three for new eating establishments.

Blackbird Bakery’s customers have long wished the nearly-always-crowded coffee and lunch hangout would expand. That wish will come true by mid-April with the opening of Fork and Spoon, a new restaurant that borrows from Blackbird’s menu while expanding it to include meat dishes, salads, beer and wine.

“This started as a way to grow our lunch business, which was held back by seating capacity,” Blackbird co-owner Jeff Shepard said.

Fork and Spoon will take over the nearby Madrone Lane space formerly occupied by Victor Alexander winery.

There will be no indoor connection to Blackbird’s Winslow Way space, although the new restaurant will make use of Blackbird’s kitchen.

The new location will have outdoor seating in an enclosed courtyard.

Shepard said Fork and Spoon will use many local ingredients, including Bainbridge eggs and vegetables.

Also set to open soon is Radish, a high-end restaurant run by the former owners of Real Foods, which closed closed a few months ago.

A new sandwich shop is set to open soon in Winslow Mall, but I have little more detail than that.

Real Foods is closing its cafe on Thursday. Its adjacent specialty grocery store will shut down early next year.

The closures will add another empty store front to the Harbor Square development on Winslow Way. The Harbor Square space formerly occupied by Cafe Trios, which shut down during the summer of 2009, remains empty.

Real Foods’ owners are planning to open a new restaurant and retail business in the Island Gateway development taking shape a block to the west, at the Winslow Way-Highway 305 intersection.

Think a visit to Bainbridge Island, aka “one of the Northwest’s most happening destinations,” is all about drinking wine at wine tasting rooms, and then drinking wine at Fort Ward, and then drinking wine on wine tours and then drinking wine with some boeuf bourguignon*?

No, it is not. It is also about going for a “glide around Eagle Harbor in an electric cruise boat.” Don’t like electric boats? Mostly want to find new ways of drinking more wine? Sorry, there is “no excuse” but to glide in an electric boat.

For more guidance, turn to the latest issue of Sunset Magazine.

*French for “beef with some more wine”

Bainbridge-based My Kids’ Cookies plans to open a coffee shop at a prominent Winslow location in late August.

Planned for a small storefront in near the Winslow Way-Ericksen Avenue intersection, the downtown location will feature the company’s signature chocolate chip cookies, other baked goods and a full coffee bar.

“We chose the location because it’s the first off the ferry for people who want a coffee or a sweet treat,” said owner Barbara Reininger.

The three-year-old company currently operates out of a Sportsman Club Road business park. It does much of its business through the Internet and as a supplier for local eateries.

A recently-opened retail area at the Sportsman Club facility has been popular enough to convince Reininger that a better location could draw even more customers.

“The retail actually took off even though it has a bizarre location,” she said. “So, we’re going where the people are.”

The 800-square-foot shop, which most recently served as a real estate office, won’t have a lot of seating, but Reininger plans to have a few tables and chairs outside during the warmer-weather months.

Councilwoman Debbi Lester shot a short video introducing City Hall’s newly-planted edible garden. That’s Councilman Barry Peters doing the talking and Sound Food member Sallie Maron doing the planting.

A few days later, the planting began in earnest, with about a dozen volunteers planting corn, squash, tomatoes, chard and other crops that will be free for the taking. Read my story about it HERE.

And for more information on the guy who inspired all this, head over HERE and read one of his essays HERE.

Restaurants specializing in local foods are booming on Bainbridge. Two opened last month and a third is set to open this month.

While writing THIS story about the three restaurants, I checked in with chef Jeffrey McClelland, who cooks for the Harbour Public House and Pegasus Coffee. While both Waite family-owned dining spots don’t market themselves as local food specialists, the pub and Pegasus have had a growing commitment to meat and produce sourced close to home.

McClelland is planning a monthly showcase of local food he calls the “Locavore’s Dinner.” Hosted at Pegasus, the multi-course meal will be served family style and come at a base price of $60 or $85 with wine.

“I think a major reason we’re doing this is that it helps the local economy,” McClelland said.

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Here’s some reading material to keep you busy as we head into a three day weekend:

-The city has a new manager…at least for now. Here’s my story.

-Did you hear what the Sun said about the city of Bainbridge? I won’t say the Sun called the city “stupid” but it was sure close. Read the Sun’s take on the city’s policy of charging its road ends committee permit fees here.

-Bainbridge’s mywedding.com and Rep. Jay Inslee weighed in on the net neutrality issue.

-The island’s largest farm is leaving. American Gold Seafoods, which operates the salmon net pens near Fort Ward, is packing up and moving across the water to Manchester. Read about the move here.

-Speaking of farms, it looks like local growers are getting a boost from three (yes, three) new Winslow restaurants that specialize in local foods. They are Hitchcock (which we’ve discussed here before), Arbutus (in Mon Elisa’s old spot) and Local Harvest, which is set to open at Penelope’s former location by July. Look for my story in Monday’s paper.

-Also next week, look for my stories about City Hall’s effort to grow food for the grazing masses and the new teen sensation: Parkour.

Andante Coffee appears to have served its last cup.

The popular coffee shop was a place to work away from work (with a generous array of laptop plug-ins and a sturdy wi-fi signal), a casual meeting spot for local politicos, a teen hangout, and second living room for many folks who spent hours reading books and newspapers on comfy leather chairs.

It was also a place where many of my stories (and blog posts) were filed.

The property manager told me he doesn’t know what happened to Andante. “They just left,” he said.

Andante joins Cafe Trios in the graveyard of Bainbridge coffee shops that died too young.

Andante’s disappearance also marks the latest loss for the four-year-old Seabreeze building. A tea shop, wine bar, pottery painting business, art gallery and bath supply shop have all since shut down or moved away.

The fact that Bon Bon is the only holdout from the Seabreeze’s founding is perhaps a testament to the recession-proof power of chocolate.

Reality TV chef Marcel Vigneron credited the Streamliner Diner for sparking his interest in cooking.

Here’s a bit from an interview LA Weekly did with him:

“What happened was that I was going to high school, and my parents were like [in old folks accent], You need to go out and get a job and start making some money. So I was like, Okay. And I started working at a little diner, it was called Streamliner Diner on Bainbridge as a dishwasher. And realized that dishwashing was kind of like grunt work and it wasn’t really for me. And I saw these prep cooks working with like vegetables and stuff and I was like, Oooh, that looks like a glamour job.”

Vigneron was on season two of Top Chef, a reality TV competition show that airs on the cable network Bravo.

He’s now a chef at Bar210, “a posh lounge” near the Beverly Hills Hillton, according to the Weekly.

Read the rest of the interview HERE.

It took an extra eight months, but Bainbridge Organic Distillers is now selling spirits from its Coppertop Loop distillery.

Bottles of island-made vodka going for around $33.

A small batch of whiskey should be ready in time for Christmas. A wait list has already been established and is filling fast.

Like the name implies, all of Bainbridge Organic Distillers’ products are organic – even its line of t-shirts and hoodies.

For more, read my story (and see video) HERE.

The growing number of Bainbridge winemakers will showcase the fruits of their labor during a tasting event on Saturday, April 24.

Bainbridge Uncorked! will feature seven Bainbridge wineries, including two that use island-grown grapes and berries.

“This is a great opportunity to meet the winemakers and try some of their new releases,” said the event’s organizer, Kim Hendrickson. “There are some wonderful new wines being made on this island that show how far we’ve come as a wine-making area.”

In recent years, the island has seen the rise of three tasting rooms within a short walk of the Winslow ferry terminal.

Bainbridge Uncorked! will be held at the plaza on the south end of Madison Avenue, next to Doc’s Marina Grill. It runs from 5 to 8 p.m.

The $30 advance tickets are available at Doc’s and through islandwineweekend.com. Tickets are $35 at the gate. Admission includes food and wine samples. Proceeds will benefit the Bainbridge Island Downtown Association.

Hendrickson said Bainbridge Uncorked! is aimed at whetting appetites for a larger, three-day event planned for October. The event will feature visits to island wineries as well as a dinner cooked-up with Kitsap County-grown ingredients.

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Sound Food’s Carolyn Goodwin uncovered some exciting culinary news about a new “farm-to-table” restaurant opening in Winslow next month.

“My curiosity was piqued today by a new sign on the papered-over Winslow Way windows of what was Gibilaro’s, then Isabella’s, now closed. Mysteries always intrigue me, so I dashed home to do some sleuthing” Goodwin wrote in a recent Sound Food blog post.

She learned it’s name is Hitchock and its owner is chef Brendan McGill, who has worked in several high-end Seattle restaurants and studied the foody arts in Spain, Italy and France.

Goodwin also tracked down Hitchcock’s “help wanted” ad for some more info:

“So what does McGill have in mind for Bainbridge Island? His help-wanted ad on Craigslist (he’s looking for a cook, a bartender, and a server) offers some hints about his farm-to-table concept: ‘The centerpiece of the kitchen is an applewood-fired oven that we’ll use to roast fish, vegetables & meats to order. We’ll be making fresh pasta daily, working an in-house charcuterie program, butchering small animals procured from local farms and using them to their fullest extent. All desserts are made in-house.'”

Hitchcock already has a website, hitchcockrestaurant.com, where you can read more about the chef/owner and see a preliminary menu.