The dozen biggest surprises in 2014 Monterey County food: Part 2 of 4, the Carmel insanity installment.

Friday yielded a look at one wave of surprises to crash into Monterey County food and drink, including In N Out officially arriving in Seaside after years of pump fakes.

Now, part two of four (and numbers nine, eight and seven in the 12-to-one countdown), starring the one and only insanity-by-the-sea: Carmel, Calif.

Look for the other installments in the coming days, and the complete list in print Wednesday.

9 • Two Carmel restaurant pillars launched new projects.

These spots are so popular that sequels aren't so much a shocker as is the fact they were successfully kept quiet. Perpetually booked-up Italian farm-to-kitchen spot la Balena is adding il Grillo for more dining and deli-style options, plus a bigger kitchen for more butchering and pasta-making. Dametra’s singing-and-dancing approach to pan-Mediterranean bred a grab-and-go sibling in Del Monte Center that's already doing brisk business.

8 • Carmel inched closer to real night life.

Affina restaurant introduced a fun and fresh menu with jewels like melt-on-the-tongue Kurobuta farm pork rillette (laced with duck fat and zingy apple chutney) to go with an invigorating wine bar and a grand piano. Barmel pioneered nightly entertainment, including touring acts like Baby Gramps and Tyler Gregory. The upwelling of wine tasting rooms provided a variety of tasty venues for acoustic music and adult mingling. The more predictable part: the outrage of the Carmel Residents Association, with president Barbara Livingston announcing, “[Visitors] come here for respite, to breathe the clean air, to walk the quiet streets, to walk anywhere and not be arrested. It’s a peaceful, quiet, safe place. Do we want to muck it up and make it a whoop-de-doo joint? I don’t think so.”

7 • Monterey County tasting rooms hit the speed limit.

With another surge in new wine tasting rooms, and the recent debut of Coast View in Carmel Valley, the area total reached a whopping 56 that had even industry veterans pleasantly stunned. That includes 22 wine tasting rooms in Carmel Valley all told, 19 different destinations in Carmel and the Crossroads, 11 on River Road outside Salinas and four in Monterey.