Followups on a couple of stories we’ve written about recently. Evanston’s Casteel Coffee, which couldn’t have been more definite about closing and liquidating its equipment in the email it sent out about three weeks ago, sent out a new one yesterday saying they wanted to set the rumors straight and they weren’t closing at all. Whatever; instead they’re moving back to Central Street and hope to open in April, bringing back much of the folkie-coffeehouse atmosphere and live music that marked their origins as the house coffee roaster at The Bean Counter almost two decades ago. No word, however, on whether they’re going back to the inhouse coffee roasting that they gave up a year or two ago, which seems to have cost them some of the loyalty of their audience in a much more crowded marketplace for locally-roasted coffee. [LTHForum]
Pasteur, which we noted the impending reopening of in this convoluted chronicle, reopened last night. The restaurant which introduced lots of Chicagoans to Vietnamese food in the late 80s and early 90s as a casual cafe, then got fancier in the early 2000s, seems fancier yet in this latest incarnation at 5525 N. Broadway, with Eric Aubriot in the kitchen making French stuff and Dan Nguyen side by side making Vietnamese stuff. [Urban Daddy]
Finally, Pie Hole Pizza Joint, which was shut down by the city over back taxes, reopened Monday after fans showed up with cash in a Boystown version of It’s a Wonderful Life, apparently. Make your own “Every time a bell rings” joke. [Chicago Phoenix via Eater]
