Quick Bites: New pizza in Seaside, one Carmel spot closes, two open.

Certain things are just intrinsically exciting, like all-you-can-eat lunch buffets, massive 20-slice pizzas and pies named after mountains.

Seaside gets all three when West Coast franchise Mountain Mike's (899-7900) soft-opens Wednesday, April 27, in the City Center where Me 'N' Ed's once lived (next to Dickey's Barbecue).

For the record, the lunch buffet is 11am-2pm weekdays, with pizza, garlic sticks and salad bar, for $7.99.

The mountain pizzas include the Everest with pepperoni, Italian sausage, salami, linguica, beef, mushrooms, black olives, bell peppers and onion, available in the "mountain" size ($36.97).

Ten beers on tap range from classic domestics to Golden Road's Get Up Offa That Brown and Firestone's Luponic.

Hours are 11am-10pm, until 11pm Friday and Saturday.

More news nibbles:

• Popular Barnyard spot Lafayette Bakery's second sanctuary, Lafayette Kitchen & Cafe (no phone number yet), in the former Em Le's on Dolores in Carmel, is cute as a kitten, with delicious crépes and croques and salted savory French toast. Look for photos on the blog later this week.

• Also in Carmel: Brophy's Tavern (624-2476) reopened yesterday. Check out its new look and new menu with "PHOTOS: Redone Brophy's Tavern opens at Hotel Carmel."

• Last week I took a peek into the former Jack London's, which will become mezcal joint Cultura Comida y Bebida on Dolores in Carmel later this year. McNickle Construction was in there gutting the joint (and its surprisingly big kitchen), which bodes well.

• On the other side of Ocean Avenue on Dolores in Carmel, Le St. Tropez Restaurant has closed its doors. It was a charming place adored among gluten-free types, but its closure will allow some much-deserved rest for hands-on owner-operator Jean Hubert.

• Half-price pizzas from Melville Tavern (643-9525) and its brick oven on Wednesdays; $5 wine and $3 beers 4-6:30pm weekdays too.

• Christopher’s Restaurant (626-8000) pours a free glass of wine with an entree for those who wish them a happy 13th birthday. The signature soft-shell crabs come soon too.

• MYO’s dynasty celebrates seven years of glorious DIY froyo and seemingly limitless toppings with free schwag and 50 percent off yogurt Thursday, April 28.

• Marina-based Ginger People just met with Inia Seruiratu, Fiji’s minister of agriculture and natural disaster management, to discuss the future of Fiji ginger, including the expansion of organically certified ginger farms. Part of the plan is to develop organic ginger on the island of Cicia (pronounced Didia), an organically certified island, starting with establishing 10 acres in September.

• Come 3-8pm Saturday, April 30, the charming hole-in-wall watering hole Baum & Blume's "beer garden" (659-0400) is back for the summer season. (One of the sibling-owned spot's mottos: "We might be tiny but we're mighty!") Local band Grove Acre and games mark celebrate the occasion, as do gourmet small plates—think Bavarian pretzels, smoky oysters, lentil sprout-garlic flatbreads and house-smoked pastrami Reubens—to pair with the selection of nice craft bottled beers.