Quick Bites: In-N-Out breakthrough, an artichoke choke and new coffee spot.

Yes, we are crazy about food and, more specifically, In-N-Out. 

On that front there was a breakthrough this week.

Its officials, long wary of touching off any deeper angst, had declined to give me anything but the most vague opening target.

But now they've finally furnished a tentative open date: March 27, Easter Sunday.

Here's another crazy element: The way that the Seaside In-N-Out Facebook page provides updates.

It's not a sanctioned site—and its operators remain anonymous, though my sources close to the city bet it's Mayor Ralph Rubio's wife—but it takes on a bizarre royal "We" of sorts with announcements like this week's:

We know that you're all anxious for us to open and want to know when. As has been said previously, when senior management tells us, we'll tell you.

HOWEVER, as we don't have any freezers, we restock our restaurants at least three times a week, SO WHEN YOU SEE ONE OF OUR TRUCKS ON THE PROPERTY, you'll know we'll be open in a couple of days.

Does that mean the First Family of Seaside doesn't have a freezer, or are they going partners in the burger chain?

More craziness: Hundreds, maybe thousands, are aware In-N-Out is coming. But relatively speaking nobody is aware how much hunger exists in Monterey County—which comes with a side dish bitter irony given its status as Salad Bowl of the World.

As a recent hunger report from the Monterey County Health Department reports:

• 1 out of every 4 pregnant women in Monterey County experienced food insecurity—limited or uncertain access to adequate food—in 2014

• About 53,080 Monterey County residents had low or very low food security in 2013.

• Salinas Valley farmworkers are especially vulnerable to hunger: as much as 13 percent have live with disrupted eating patterns and reduces intake. 

Please check out the hunger report and consider contributing to the many agencies who battle food insecurity, including the Food Bank for Monterey County.

More food news nibbles follow:

• Bay of Pines (920-3560), the wildly unique downtown Monterey restaurant with the pirate ship bar, marine murals and organic cocktails and food, is reopening after a number of months dark. More on the blog soon.

• The Monterey County Visitors and Convention Bureau has a new website at www.seemonterey.com designed to be mobile-first and more user-friendly, with new trip planning tools.

• Hotel Carmel, from the people behind La Playa Carmel, is actively overhauling the former Brophy's to be a watering hole of some kind, though that won't be finished until after the hotel remake is done next month.

• When the chef grew up with lots of Irish neighbors, that bodes well for a St. P’s feast. That's the case at Edgar's of Quail Lodge (620-8910), where Chef Kenneth Macdonald, a Scotland native, asks only $18 for a spread of corned beef & cabbage, potatoes and Irish soda bread (to complement the Guinness stout, Irish whiskey and Irish coffee).

• Attention industry peeps: Santa Lucia Highlands Wine Artisans does a tasting for service industry and media types 1-4pm Monday, March 21, also at Quail, in the Peninsula Ballroom. Email dave@santaluciahighlands.com.

• Water + Leaves (238-9999, though it's not working at the moment), a locally owned upscale craft tea and coffee bar, is now open Wednesday-Sunday on the water at Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey.

• The Choke Coach food truck (241-2587) and Pezzini Farms beg for pit stops when heading north on Highway 1. And the artichoke cupcakes, fried hearts and artichoke po' boy sound so fun and festive, but at $4, $6.50 and $6.50 are just way overpriced for what you get and how long you wait. (The po' boy's all bread, the hearts small and unsatisfying, the cupcake the best of the bunch but not cheap.) Fortunately I grabbed some some gold pressed garlic juice in a spray bottle and a can of Gil's Gourmet artichoke-and-lobster bisque to comfort me.

• Show me a better happy hour than Hula's Island Grill in New Monterey (655-4852) and I'll show you an ugly otter pup.

• Wharf Marketplace (649-1116) has brought back fresh fish offerings with assist from Monterey Fish Company.

• Best of Monterey County Readers Poll results publish March 24.