North Shore Food Buzz: Downtown Beverly Gets New Taqueria

When you're looking for a night out and a break from cooking, you might want to know what's new not only where you live, but also in other North Shore communities.

Here's our round up of the area's latest food news:

Beverly

A restaurant with a better-defined Latin ethnic focus has announced it will open on Wallis Street this spring. La Victoria Taqueria is proudly and clearly Mexican.

Danvers

A&E's real estate show, "Flipping Boston" is tweaking their format a bit next week to "flip" the host's own pizza place in Danvers. You can stop by Pete's-A-Place and see what the makeover is like or just wait until the show is aired on March 9.

Peabody

In Puritan-haunted Massachusetts, I expect restrictive liquor laws. But the last thing I expect is for one of those highly-restricted liquor licenses to go unwanted. And yet, in Peabody, city officials are . The things usually fetch $150,000-200,000 in the Tanner City.

Swampscott

The guy who runs Whole Foods — the Swampscott outpost of which is a mainstay for my wife and me — is out with a book arguing that business is under attack in America. I could do without the Ayn Rand fever-dreams from co-CEO John Mackey, who spoke in Boston on the subject recently. But the guy sure does deliver a nice selection of happy animals and lovely veggies to the North Shore Patch family table.

Lynnfield

You've probably heard MarketStreet, the huge shopping and entertainment complex opening later this year in Lynnfield, right? Foodies rejoice — We recently learned that it will have a Wiliams-Sonoma.

Wakefield

Speaking of new businesses, a Thai place is slated to open soon in downtown Wakefield. Phuket will be a sister restaurant to the proprietor's existing place in West Roxbury.

Marblehead

There's a new breakfast destination in Marblehead. Don't let the name fool you — Terry's Old Fashion Ice Cream .

North Andover

The Academy Awards may be over, but you can still have some theme-dining fun courtesy of our editor in North Andover. Bryan McGonigle figured out which local restaurants had offerings matched to the "Best Picture" nominees.

Salem

A new restaurant, Celia's, is coming soon to Congress Street. The owners advertise their menu as "Hispanic food," but that moniker upset some Patch readers, who took issue with it in the comments section of our story. To my eye, the menu look Caribbean with a definite Dominican feel. But we'll see when they open!