The top 10 Monterey County food stories of 2014-to-date are enough to fill a year.

The booming foodie-fication of the population, the thawing of the economy and the general contagion of proliferating culinary choices have something to do with it. But I’m not terribly concerned with how or why so much is sizzling in our local foodshed of late. I’m more worried about keeping up, which is why I’m not waiting until December to spotlight the stories of the year. Here are the 10 biggest of the first half of 2014. Read more on the blog, www.mcweekly.com/edible, and find predictions on the three biggest to come.

10. Guy goes gaga over local restaurants.

The peroxided party boy parlayed a Pebble Beach Food & Wine visit into an extended love note to area eateries, filming episodes of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives at Loulou’s Griddle in the Middle, Rosine’s, Monterey Fish Company, Little Napoli and Cannery Row Brewing Company. Fieri’s local love has been showing Fridays all month on Food Network.

9. Todd Fisher gives Tarpy’s new life.

The big guy with the bigger personality took over one of the biggest venues in the vicinity, with huge potential to match, by jumping from STICKS to the 20-year landmark off Highway 68 in Monterey. His scallop crudo and frito pie rank among the must-tries.

8. Two promising restaurants open on the same day.

Despite being open less than six weeks, Seaside’s Taqueria Zarape in the old Curly’s is contending for the title of Most Popular Taco Shop in Town. Soban Grill and Bar, meanwhile, has brought something unprecedented (upscale/modern Korean) to Carmel, but it faces a higher rent, more complicated model and jumpier crowd than its birthday brethren.

7. Two iconic steakhouses change hands.

Wills Fargo is in the process of being sold from Bernardus Pon to Holman Ranch. (Pon also sold Bernardus Lodge/Marinus Restaurant/Wickets Bistro to corporate hotelier Noble House earlier this year.) The WhalingStation went from John Pisto (Cooking Pisto Style) to Jim Gilbert (Abalonetti, The Beach House at Lovers Point, Rappa’s). (Gilbert bought the Rappa’s lease a few months earlier.) They’re the top two spots for steaks in Monterey County – and the biggest sales of the year.

6. GourmetFest debuts in Carmel.

One-square-mile Carmel packs in nearly 50 restaurants, which helped it earn a 2014 ranking on Conde Nast’s Best American Cities for Foodies, ahead of Portland, Austin and Boston. Now it has an absurdly indulgent and carefully curated food festival that’s just as intimate and dense. The first annual in March dripped with Black River caviar, Harlan wine and Michelin-starred chefs like Jean Michel Lorain, Christopher Kostow andJoachim Splichal. David Fink and company may not have made money, but they made a hell of a first impression.

5. Downtown Monterey’s biggest debut in a decade doesn’t disappoint.

Alvarado Street Brewery & Grill brought hype on scale with its 5,000-square-foot, 110-seat, 20-foot-tall former theater space – and promptly lived up to it with fast-rotating house drafts paired with pan-Mediterranean fare from Exec Chef Aaron Haas. The last time I went downtown this often was back in Monterey Live’s heyday.

4. The co-founders of Coastal Luxury Management part ways.

No two people have done more for the millennial Monterey County eating scene than David Bernahl and Rob Weakley. The close friends brought us Pebble Beach Food & Wine, then Cannery Row Brewing Companyand Restaurant 1833, and added Los Angeles Food & Wine and two more hyper-ambitious restaurants in Las Vegas (Rose.Rabbit.Lie opened Dec. 31) and L.A. (Faith & Flower debuted March 31), with locals doing the heavy lifting on each. For a long while they seemed inseparable. But after an epic year of openings, Weakley was ready for time at home, and got a buyout offer from wine pioneer Charles Banks, who promises to capitalize – and catalyze – CLM further.

3. In-N-Out buys parcel in Seaside.

Locals have craved this news for the better part of a decade, and might just build a giant statue of Seaside Mayor Ralph Rubio out of Double Doubles now that city staff and the council have cleared the way for the obsessed-over chain to move in by Embassy Suites.

2. Salinas rises.

Super pretty Patria opened just days before 2014, but it’s only one, albeit the most impressive, piece of the Oldtown Renaissance. Dubber’s Sports Bar & Grill finally opened in the old Salinas Fish House in April, and across the street new Farm Fresh Deli Cafe is an underrated value hub. The most habit-forming new spot, with queues to make San Francisco line-lovers blush, sits outside of Oldtown, in bustling Avatar Indian, which opened in February.

1. Viridis Aquaponics breaks out at EcoFarm.

The slick setup designed and built by Monterey’s John Parr makes Viridis the coolest farm I’ve ever visited: Sturgeon waste feeds produce, which feeds us and filters the fish water, which stays in a loop with zero runoff and crazy maximized output. Now Parr is working with schools and through Barnraiser, a Kickstarter for progressive food practices, to introduce money-making greenhouses to schools desperate for more science.

: : QUICKBITES : :

• The Wharf Marketplace’s loss is Pebble Beach Company’s gain. The gifted Owen Appelt is now running the kitchen at Spyglass Hill, which means another standout spot at a golf course. (Along with Quail Lodge,Poppy Hills, Carmel Valley Ranch and in Pebble proper, The Bench too.)

• Former Pacific’s Edge/California Market Exec Chef Matt Bolton starts at C Restaurant + Bar in the Intercontinental on Cannery Row this week. “Fresh and seasonal is really what it’s about in the end,” he says. “You don’t have to get crazy; you just want to present everything in a balanced way with bright flavors and great texture.”

• Happy Girl Kitchen’s adorable parklet opens Sunday afternoon (Aug. 3) with live music, food and drinks noon-5pm. The Kickstarter campaign to make it happen raised $11,936.

• Holman Ranch chief Nick Elliot reports the winery/destination is in escrow for Will’s Fargo Dining House and Saloon (659-2774).

• Saturday, Aug, 2, John Russo of Carmel Lavender and Janna Jo Williams of Earthbound Farm lead a stroll through fields of lavender and lemon verbena, and a workshop on distilling the herbs into essential oils ($50), at the Farm Stand. www.carmellavender.com for tix.

• Red Brick Pizza (899-4566) in Del Rey Oaks’ Stonecreek Village closes soon.

• Rio Grill (625-5436) hosts its inaugural sustainable winemakers dinner Thursday, Aug. 7, with four courses from Cy Yontz paired with McIntyre Vineyards and Heller Estate wines ($85).

• Little Napoli’s (626-6335) takes its turn on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives Friday, Aug. 1, on the Food Network Channel, with house specialties like spicy seafood cioppino and tri-colore cannelloni ($18-$26) starring alongRich Pepe.

• Chili cook off and salsa competition at the Prunedale Shopping Center originally scheduled for for Sunday, Aug. 3. is moving to Sept. 14. 633-2465 for info..

• The Lopez Brothers put on Salinas Tequila & Mezcal 5-9pm Saturday, Aug. 2, pouring 60-plus spirits at Fox Theater on Main Street ($40, 869-2752).

• Sunday, Aug. 3, is National Watermelon Day. Bam.

• ”If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble,” Theodore Roosevelt said, “you wouldn’t sit for a month.”