Negronis at Artusi. Same bar, same ingredients, different presentations. They change the glassware periodically.

Jason Stratton of Spinasse and Artusi has announced that his new spot, Aragona, will take over from Thoa's, at the very base of Union Street. Meanwhile, a block away from Artusi, the Maximilien's in the Market team of Willi Bouteillier and Axel Macé is preparing to open Le Zinc this weekend. Reports coming; stay tuned.

Over in Ballard: Stoneburner (along with its private event space, the Olympic Rooftop Pavilion) will open on Tuesday. Both are inside the remodeled Hotel Ballard. Chef is Bastille's executive chef, Jason Stoneburner; the owners and developers are the duo behind a growing number of Seattle restaurants (including Von Trapp's and Bastille), James Weiman and Deming Maclise.

One sad note from Ballard: the Copper Gate will close on Sunday, June 30th. The new owners are locally-based and will have a new concept and a different name for the venue.

In Belltown meanwhile: the Irish dive bar at 3rd & Bell known as Kelly's is finally g-gone. In place of the smokey tavern, longtime hangout for Bud-drinking regulars, temporarily run for the past couple of years as an extension of Aquabar, comes a "new Chinese restaurant." A permit for remodeling has been issued in the name of Black Bamboo, but there's no guarantee that the new place will actually operate under that name, especially since Black Bottle, at First & Vine, is doing a thriving business..

Next door to the Chinese mystery restaurant is the former Gambas, now Local Pho. Aquabar's main entrance remains around the corner, and across the street is Belltown's popular off-leash Dog Park. The Bell Street park project continues to offer street improvements, with the first section, between First and Second, opens later this month.

Now down to Madison Valley.With Luc, Bistrot Voilà and La Côte all along the same block, you'd think you were in Paris, non? One of the three will soon morph into a Tuscan spot with a familiar name: Cantinetta.

According to the Madison Valley Blog, Arnaud Guérin of La Côte has done a deal with Trevor Greenwood to transform his creperie into Bar Cantinetta this summer.

Greenwood opened the first Cantinetta in Wallingford in 2009 and followed it up with a Bellevue store a year and a half later. He and his business partners also opened Mercato Stellina in Old Bellevue, first as a sort of grocery, then remodeled the space as a Tuscan pizzeria.

Bar Cantinetta will offer a wine-bar approach to food and drink, with Italian wines by the glass and home-made pasta dishes.

And a reminder that Sunday is the last day to eat at Rover's. But don't despair: Thierry Rautureau is talking seriously about a new spot, somewhere downtown. If he tells Cornichon, I'll pass the word along to you.

DOMME, France--It would be understandable if you failed to recognize the people in this old photograph, taken over three and a half decades ago in this tiny hilltop village. For starters, the daddy will lose most of his hair. The wee one, named for this village, will grow up to occupy a prominent position in the civic affairs of an American city.

And today is his 36th birthday!

Everybody's posting Father's Day pix, and who am I to pretend I'm different?

That's Max Hochfeld, whom everybody called Peter. He was 32 when he fled Hitler's Germany and arrived in the USA, settled in Portland, and started his little family. I took this picture during a camping trip in late July, 1952.

I remember listening to the Democratic Convention on a battery-powered shortwave; they drafted Adlai Stevenson and rounded out the ticket with John Sparkman of Alabama. In addition to the radio, there would have been a tent, but Dad never quite caught onto the "roughing it" part of camping (note coffee, cigar, NYTimes, comfortable chair). He was not an outdoorsman, but I think he saw a camping trip as something that American dads did with their kids. He gamely gave it a try, but once was enough.

Tanaka San (one word or two, doesn't seem to matter much) is the official name, honoring Eric Tanaka's contribution to the Tom Douglas restaurant empire. It's a "modern American Asian restaurant," newly opened in the Via6 apartment block between Blanchard and Lenora on the western edge of Belltown, Sixth Avenue.

Known since high school as ET, Tanaka is Douglas's executive chef and business partner, the guy who converts the big picture (T-Doug's strong suit) into the nitty gritty of getting it done. He grew up in Los Angeles, a Japanese-American kid who ate his way effortlessly through the melting pot (almond duck in Chinatown; avocado burgers in the Valley).

Though many of the dishes at Tanaka San have Asian names, the menu isn't meant to be "authentic" anything in particular. There's a braised oxtail ($25), to be sure, and a wok fried crab ($34), but also "family fried rice" ($8.50) and a trio of ramen dishes (tonkotsu, photo, for $12). The miso-dashi ($8) is made with matzo balls. House cocktails include a Ghost Dog ($10) concocted from Big Gin, Dolin vermouth and Kiuchi No Shizuku sake.

On the west side of Sixth, right now, is another deep hole where Amazon plans to build its new headquarters, agglomerating offices currently spread around South Lake Union. Used to be, when the company was located in the old Public Health building, the employees would grab a cheap lunch in Chinatown, at the bottom of Beacon Hill. When they moved to SLU, old habits died hard: the workers preferred inexpensive food trucks to pricier full-serve. (In any event, a couple of Tom Douglas restaurants--Brave Horse Tavern and Cuoco--were waiting for them in SLU.)

Tanaka San is set to take advantage of Amazon's new prosperity, and it's only a couple of blocks from Westlake Mall, so there's no excuse for staying away.

Tanaka San, 2121 6th Avenue, Seattle