EDIBLE: In-N-Out update and amazing 2015 recaps.

When Rebecah Jane Roque heard the news, she believed she might die. “I thought my life ended when I read that… ” she wrote on Facebook.

Amy Cat went grumpy cat. “So there won’t be an in and out burger… that sucks,” was her comment. Katrina McKenzie added, “I was all butt hurt.” Debbie Taylor fumed. “That was a terrible joke!” she posted.

Suddenly our readers were angrier than other moments this year when we revealed sweetheart lease deals on Monterey’s wharfs, cover-ups in theCatholic Church and dangerous student safety scares at CSU Monterey Bay.

At one point I overheard a glass worker talking to his dad about the upsetting story. “This is why there should be an ‘Unlike’ button on Facebook,” he said.

Six months later Facebook announced a forthcoming “Dislike” button.

Coincidence?

Here’s why everyone was so hot: an April 1 “story” reporting the following:

Putting the out in In-N-Out, the wildly popular burger chain has abandoned its plan to set up shop in Seaside.

In-N-Out did it animal-style, curtly claiming there are too many geese that would defecate in the parking lot as part of an email to Mayor Ralph Rubio that also ripped him for frequenting McDonald’s.

This comes after years of breathless anticipation and overzealous courting that included Marina Mayor Bruce Delgado staging a flash mob.

Several other suitors for the spot swooped right in, including Monterey Downs In and Outs Strip Club and an off-track horse-betting casino called Ralph’s Race Place.

But ultimately Burger King won the rights to develop the spot as the new home of a breakout hit from its developmental menu, the Left-Handed Whopper, in which all the ingredients are rotated 180 degrees to maximize southpaw manageability.

It’s no longer April Fool’s Day. The actual and up-to-the-minute In-N-Out update from city officials will be more encouraging for die-hards.

“In-N-Out is moving as fast as they can to complete the construction phase. They have advertised for their job openings already,” writes Deputy City Manager Diana Ingersoll by email. “If El Niño doesn’t completely take over January, we should see ourselves eating a double double and animal fries with a chocolate milkshake early February.”

Yes it was a jokey, scary, fun, inspiring, bizarre 2015 in food and drink. Which is why even as we barrel toward new restaurants in the coming days and weeks – ramen! poke! (see the blog) – we gotta squeeze in one more year-in-review list.

What follows are other are-you-kidding-me stories from that time span:

The Most WTF Story

Any spin around the sun with Coastal Luxury Management can inspire the thought, “Whatta year.” This one has them all beat. In January, word emerged founding partners David Bernahl and Rob Weakley were suing each other and Bernahl, et. al. were in court fighting for CLM’s Faith & Flower in L.A. From there (in short), Corporate Chef Levi Mezick left, star Chef Jason Franey came to 1833, CLM won F&F convincingly, Weakley opened a wildly ambitious medicinal marijuana bon bon business, and CLM was bought out of Faith & Flower when they were late on a payment by a day due to a clerical error (and lost an appeal in arbitration). Bernahl celebrated NYE like a boss at 1833, recreating the Champagne pyramids and hanging acrobatics that were a staple at Rose.Rabbit.Lie. in Las Vegas, which went from CLM to Cosmopolitan control to start the year.

The Most Hallelujah Let’s Eat Story

Monterey County debuted more than three dozen high-quality, locally owned outlets over the course of the year, from Züm Sushi and Zab ZabThai to il Grillo and il Tegamino, a record for the area. See the top 30 on the blog.

The Most Holy Spirit Story

Salinas natives Bryan Davis and Joanne Haruta hatched a company that creates reactors that give whiskeys and rums many of the natural chemical properties 20-year-aged liquors enjoy, in a week. Lost Spirits Technology has patented the machine and started partnering with craft distilleries to do stuff that wows and baffles critics.

The Most Amazing Grape Story

In the second half of summer, Folktale Winery launched a dynamic plan for new wines, barrel room concerts and social tastings in the old Chateau Julien, and – in just a week – Santa Lucia Highlands pioneer Talbott Vineyards sold to Gallo and Joullian Vineyards sold to a 20-something couple from L.A.

The Most Amen Brother Story (tie)

In Del Rey Oaks, a group of entrepreneurial Middlebury students formed a company called Both Co. and hand-built an amazing backyard aquaponics farm and a plan to take its sustainable food to food deserts around the world.

In Big Sur, Sierra Mar Exec Chef John Cox introduced a way to help clean plates using compressed air rather than water, which relates to eye-popping savings in the face of severe drought.

The Most Amen Sister Story

My work wife’s other husband won the lottery, so Weekly Editor Mary Duan said, “See ya, suckers,” then realized how great (or at least strangely unique) a team and a community and a mission we’re working on here, so decided to stay. And shared a First Amendment Coalition Free Speech & Open Government Award that same month.

Get more on each story on the blog, www.mcweekly.com/edible.

And happy new year.

QUICKBITES

• jeninni kitchen + wine bar (920-2662) now does robust brunch 9:30am-1:30pm weekends. The goodies include lamb-potato cakes ($9.50), spiced sausage hash with fried egg ($13), Niño Gordough nutella donuts ($4) and polenta French toast ($9). Get more menu items, drink offerings and photos on the blog.
• Here’s a first for around here: a wine dinner in a liquor store. Surf N Sand (624-1805) and Franciscan Winery pair five wines with five family-style courses 6-8pm Thursday, Jan. 21 ($49, 624-1805), to launch a fun tasting series.
• One of the coolest meals in a month, and year, filled with them: restaurant-car lunch on Amtrak Coast Starlight, with exclusive views of the coast and a downright decent veggie burger on the plate. A minor reason it’s a great way to get down the coast south or north by rail.
• It’s not on the menu, but the carnitas chimichanga ($10.25 with rice and beans) at Jose’s Mexican in Seaside (899-0345) is profound comfort grub. The seasonally appropriate soup specials are doing well, including the avocado-laden tortilla soup ($4.95) and the albondiga (or meatball, $6.95).
• Former Affina and Casanova Chef James Anderson is taking a break from formal dining to get after other projects. That includes helping Joey Nguyen with the downtown Monterey Poke Lab project that has everyone drooling and what Anderson calls “a mobile concept of my own which could be ready by summer.”
• Hyatt Carmel Highlands has begun a promising reinvention-merger of popular Pacific’s Edge, California Market. More on the blog.
• Life hack alert: You do not need a membership card to buy beer, wine or spirits at Costco in Sand City.
• An inspiring and rather mesmerizing TEDx talk about a liquor time machine is up on the blog, delivered by Salinas’ own Bryan Davis of Lost Spirits.
• Thanks to everybody who pitched into MC Gives! nonprofit push, which reached $3.127 million at midnight Dec. 31. Postmarked donations continue to pile up. More on p. 19.
• Anne Frank: “In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit.”