Ess-a-Bagel’s Imminent Return, Hometown Fried Chicken Tracking, and More Intel

— The Stuy Town location of Ess-a-Bagel is finally close to making its debut. A tipster tells Eater that the legendary bagel shop was firing up the new ovens at 326 First Avenue on Wednesday. An employee says the location will be opening within the next week. The shop was pushed out of its 39-year-old home on First Avenue last year and has since been working to reopen across the street, though a Third Avenue outpost has remained opened. The bagel house will be posting on social media when the First Ave. shop officially opens.

— Longtime East Village cafe and independent arts venue Nuyorican Poets Cafe is about to get a massive, more than $10 million renovation from the city. The cafe with slam poetry competitions, open mic nights, and spoken-word readings will receive a gut renovation that will add performance space, classrooms, and office space. The project will start in 2018.

— A new conveyer belt sushi restaurant is coming to New York. YO! Sushi is a chain that will be making its New York debut on 23rd Street between 5th and 6th Avenues. About 90 different dishes, including sushi, tempura, and salads, will pass by diners on the belt.

— Eleven Madison Park’s Daniel Humm is the latest chef to embark on a project with a brand, this time with luxury appliance company Gaggenau. He’s the chef at a pop-up restaurant called Restaurant 1683 that intends to transport the diners to the Black Forest, where the company was founded. It’s an invite-only event for now, and it sounds pretty bizarre. The concept: "Feel the forest beneath your feet and the cool mist on your skin as you are fully immersed in the history of Gaggenau."

— Hometown’s beloved chief Billy Durney is hard at work experimenting with recipes for his new Red Hook fried chicken restaurant. First up, a pan fry method and some flaky-looking biscuits:

— Station Diner closed in August after 35 years in Gowanus. The owner of the greasy spoon is retiring, and a Mediterranean restaurant is moving in.

— A nail salon called Chillhouse where you can have also have a drink wants to open on the Lower East Side.

— Seafood restaurant Greenpoint Fish & Lobster Co. is opening a seafood market in Long Island City at 5-43 48th Ave. on Friday. It will sell both grab-and-go items and seafood dishes for the home oven. Expect options like lobster and fish stocks, smoked bluefish salad, ceviche, shrimp cocktail, and — of course — poke.

— Early word from Eater readers on hot hot hot udon restaurant TsuruTonTan is that it’s a buy. One reader recommended going at 5 p.m. to get a table and called it definitely worth it. "Tasty, balanced, perfect noodles, soft tempura," he writes. Another reader got a seat at the bar on Tuesday after showing up at 5:30 p.m. She said the spicy tuna appetizer can be skipped, but she had a good experience and would return:

The noodles are incredible: stretchy and ever-so-slightly chewy! The sukiyaki udon is the STAR - it is hard to get a fantastic bowl of sukiyaki and they do it right. Get the thicker noodles for this one. It errs slightly on the sweet side, but overall no complaints.

The new outpost of the Japanese chain still only accepts walk-ins except for large groups, but restaurant management says they will be starting a reservation system soon.

— And finally, here’s a look at how People’s Pops makes its gourmet popsicles in mass: