This shortened, travel-heavy week is often a time for under-the-radar openings and end-of-year closing announcements. We are, sadly, saying goodbye to old-timey greasy spoon The Lucky Penny on Christmas Eve, and we learned that Harvey's in the Castro is only temporarily shuttered for a remodel and menu update. In the pages of the Chronicle, Jonathan Kauffman waxed nostalgic about all the restaurants that have closed this year, some for loss of leases like old Capp's Corner in North Beach, and others like Joe Hargrave’s Chino and Charles Phan’s Coachman due to the whims of the market, despite being helmed by experienced restaurateurs.

Here's what else is happening around town, ahead of the end of the year...

There may finally be a reason to go to the mall as Volta had its soft opening this week. The French-Scandinavian restaurant located inside of the Westfield San Francisco Centre (the former 'wichcraft spot) has chef Staffan Terje at its helm, notes Eater, with Terje looking to food from his youth as inspiration. And yes, Hoodline helpfully informs us, there will be Swedish meatballs.

After you've plunked down that base layer of Swedish meat, perhaps head over to Tsk/tsk as the temporary pop-up is finally coming to an end. To celebrate, Eater tells us that the bar is having a "beverage liquidation" sale on New Year's Eve — the bar's final night. Owner's Ian Scalzo and Justin Lew are shutting the space down to make room for their next, more polished creation — Horsefeather.

Just up the street from there you'll soon find Kava Lounge. The place has a January 21 opening date, reports Hoodline, and owner Alva Caple told the publication that it will serve "a drink that will get you feeling the love, a drink if you're feeling under the weather, a drink for energy, a drink to calm you" in addition to organic food offerings.

And as noted last week, as a reminder, Brazilian churrascaria chain Fogo de Chão opens tonight in the former Chevy's spot on Third. Eater's got the hours. Another location is already open at Santana Row in San Jose.

A new bakery opened in the Ferry Building Arcade yesterday. Marla Bakery, writes Inside Scoop, is owned by Amy Brown and Joe Wolf, and follows on the success of their Mission and Outer Richmond locations.

Bernal Heights is getting a new craft brewery by the name of Barebottle Brew Co., reports Inside Scoop, who goes on to note that the project is set to open in the early spring. The brewery intends to work with local craft brewers and produce their beer on a larger scale, says owners Lester Koga, Michael Seitz, and Ben Sterling.

A promising sounding new restaurant is set to open on Valencia Street around May of next year. Flor de Cafe, notes Tablehopper, will serve Latino food with a focus on coffee and live music. The music will likely be in the basement, where there is apparently a space that seats 16. Tablehopper says "it’s refreshingly sounding like a project that would have opened on Valencia 15 years ago," which we take to mean it sounds actually good.

This Week In Reviews

Michael Bauer brought us his own list of the 10 best new restaurants of the year in the Chron — we thought there were 17 worthy contenders, and one of his, The Progress, actually opened last year and was on our 2014 list.

And his update review this week is of Plaj, the three-year-old Scandinavian restaurant on Fulton near Civic Center where he says the "food has become more focused" in these three years. Chef Roberth Sundell has added categories for smørrebrød (traditional Swedish open-faced sandwiches) and herring to the menu, offering quick, drink-friendly snack options for ballet-, opera-, and symphony-goers. He's still pleased with the Swedish meatballs, and says the space has "a traditional feel, but that doesn’t mean it’s staid." In the end: two and a half stars.

In SF Weekly, Ali Wunderman finds so much to love about the Marina's Spaghetti Bros. that she not only forgives the restaurant's questionable name but comes to embrace it. In fact, she enjoys the "traditional recipes that have been given modern innovations" so much that her only complaint is that the toasted raviolis were merely offered as an appetizer (four was apparently not enough). Wunderman highlights the spaghetti ($14), and notes that all of the pasta is made fresh in house. She gives repeated mention to the romantic atmosphere, which she calls out as being perfect for a date. In conclusion: bring a lover and order everything.

Like layer upon layer of house-made mayo, Anna Roth heaps praise on the newly opened Pal's Take Away location in Oakland's Uptown. The sandwich shop operated out of a corner market on 24th Street in the Mission for years before owner Jeff Mason moved it across the Bay last month. Roth clearly is a fan of Pal's offerings, even going so far as to call out the vegetarian sandwich as "worth ordering even if you’re not a vegetarian." In a line that strikes a little too close to the home, Roth says that Pal's is worth the BART trip and that "[like] most of your friends, Pal’s Take Away hasn’t disappeared — it just moved to the East Bay."