For chef Nelson German, running a fulfilling restaurant meant full-service dining: It didn’t feel right unless there were hosts at the door and servers whisking entrees from the kitchen to the dining room. When it came time to open his own business — Cajun-influenced Oakland, California, seafood restaurant AlaMar — in 2014, he made sure it operated with the same attentive-service environment that he had grown accustomed to working in. But all that changed in December 2016, when the restaurant announced rather abruptly that it would be doing away with all the formalities of full-service dining in favor of a counter-service format. The root of the radical service change: minimum wage hikes.

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In the days leading up to August 26, 2017, James Beard Award-winning chef Justin Yu was getting ready to open a restaurant in Houston, Texas. He’d shuttered his iconic restaurant Oxheart earlier that year, and was close to debuting his latest, more casual concept Theodore Rex. But when Hurricane Harvey made landfall, those plans changed immediately. As the storm hit Houston, Yu’s building near Downtown was flooded with water.

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The first Big Food merger of 2018 is poised to be a sweet one: Italian chocolate maker Ferrero SpA announced its intention to buy Nestle’s U.S. candy business for $2.8 billion. Bloomberg reported the rumor last week, and today Nestle confirmed the deal. In addition to its namesake foil-wrapped truffles, Ferrero Rocher also makes Nutella and Tic Tacs.

Nestle’s confectionery division includes numerous iconic candy bars such as Butterfinger, Baby Ruth, Kit Kat, and Nestle Crunch. Though the world’s biggest food and beverage brand has long been synonymous with chocolate in the U.S., it’s pivoting away from sweets as sales of sugary products have declined in recent years. Nestle has instead poured its money into indie coffee brands, acquiring a majority stake in Bay Area-based Blue Bottle last year and also snapping up Austin-based Chameleon Cold Brew.

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In the Puget Sound, along the northwestern coast of Washington state, a clam known as the geoduck has been not-so-quietly residing for centuries. It’s native to the coastal areas of the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, but coveted by sushi chefs around the world.

Kotaro Kumita recalls when the sweet clam was relatively inexpensive in 1991, around the time when he moved to Seattle from Japan to learn English. But as Kumita notes, high rates of exporting geoduck to Asia have lead the price per pound to nearly triple.

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The always-present matriarch behind Alphabet City mainstay Casa Adela has died, according to the Puerto Rican restaurant. Adela Fargas — long a fixture in the East Village and LES — was 81.

A memorial with a slew of candles and flowers has already popped up outside the restaurant, which has been open for more than 40 years at 66 Avenue C, according to EV Grieve. Hundreds of comments also poured out over social media, noting memories of both her presence in the Puerto Rican community and the way she perfected the spices of a rotisserie chicken.

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During my yearlong travels as Eater’s national critic, I eat hundreds of meals to report on America’s dining culture as it changes and unfolds. At the beginning of 2018, it makes sense to stop and revisit some of the standout experiences that weren’t mentioned in other stories last year.

Since I toggle between a fork and a camera at dinnertime (I’ve come to love the double-duty of being my own photographer), I approached the task visually. Themes like trending cuisines and blockbuster openings often emerge among the 15 shots below. There are also glimpses of established restaurants that prove vital to their communities, and chefs whose cooking I found especially inspired. Mostly though, I flipped through reams of unedited images on my overcrowded photo-editing app and plucked out the pics that made me say, “Oh, right. Thatmoment. That food was a feat.”

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Back in December, Eater reported the arrival of Lyric Market, Houston’s newest food hall. Planned for the city’s Theatre District, early signs indicate that it’s going to be seriously awesome.

The project, a brainchild of real estate developer Jonathan Enav, is set to arrive at 411 Smith Street later this year. According to a press release, Lyric Center Market will occupy a massive 31,000 square feet, complete with an underground speakeasy, open-air terrace, and private dining rooms. Clark Cooper Concepts, the restaurant group behind eateries like Ibiza Food and Wine Bar, Brasserie 19, and Punk’s Simple Southern Food, has been tapped to help Enav curate a selection of diverse and exciting tenants inside the Market.

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The unfiltered, untreated spring water is a hit in Silicon Valley

Move over Soylent: Silicon Valley’s obsession du jour is raw water, or spring water that has not been filtered or treated in any way, according to a recent report in the New York Times.

It’s apparently flying off the shelves in San Francisco. But is it beneficial or safe? Here’s everything you need to know about raw water:

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Panera Bakery, the 2,000+ unit chain, just sold to JAB Holdings.  Earlier this week, there was rumor and speculation rippling through the news about a possible sale, but nothing concrete was reported.  Now, though, it is official; JAB purchased Panera for $7.5 billion.

JAB Holding Company is the German investment fund that has, over the past few years, purchased a range of coffee and bakery-focused concepts including Krispy Kreme, Caribou Coffee, Einstein Noah, Peet’s Coffee, Stumptown Coffee, and Intelligentsia Coffee.

Panera Bread was founded in 1987 by Ken Rosenthal in St. Louis and has grown to over $5B in annual sales, primarily under the leadership of CEO Ron Shaich.  Asked about the sale, Shaich said “We weren’t looking for this. Panera’s on an extraordinary run. That performance has been because we always operated in the context of long-term strategy.” Meanwhile, JAB’s chief executive, Olivier Goudet, echoed the same: “We have long admired Ron and the incredible success story he has created at Panera.  I have great respect for the strong business that he, together with its management team, its franchisees and its associates, has built. We strongly support Panera’s vision for the future, strategic initiatives, culture of innovation, and balanced company versus franchise store mix.”

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