It's Lunar New Year, people have been banqueting, spring has been in the air (sort of), and we have some exciting news to share from the world of Bay Area food.

Hopefully you saw the big news that Nyum Bai chef Nite Yun is opening a new noodle bar at the Ferry Building called Lunette. We don't have a firm opening date for that yet, but Yun is aiming for the spring, in space just across from Far West Funghi that used to be Prather Ranch Meats.

The other big news — besides Tony's Pizza Napoletana's new pizza tasting menu — is that new Chronicle critic Mackenzie Chung Fegan has finally started on the job, some nine months since her hiring was first announced. This will fill a void in local restaurant criticism generally — and for many years, many Bay Area residents relied on Michael Bauer to give his take on every new notable opening in town, something which hasn't happened with any consistency in about five years, with Soleil Ho not necessarily covering every opening, and then there was a pandemic and then Ho quit. Fegan notes that her life "has been uniquely shaped by restaurant criticism," because of 1980s rave reviews in the New Yorker and Gourmet that called her grandparents' restaurant, Henry's Hunan, "the best Chinese restaurant in the world," and launched many more Henry's Hunans, one of which was managed by Fegan's mother. Her first review is expected next month.

The "izakaya-like" Chinese restaurant we reported on in September, Four Kings, from former Mister Jiu's chefs Franky Ho and Mike Long, is getting set to open at 710 Commercial Street The Examiner reported on the opening, which is happening in time for Lunar New Year celebrations, and Ho, who grew up in Chinatown says, "It feels good to come back to the place I grew up to open the restaurant."

And the Chronicle reports on some movement, finally, at the long shuttered New Sun Hong Kong restaurant in North Beach/Chinatown — at the corner of Columbus and Broadway. A new generation has taken over the Hong Kong-focused restaurant, and the new name is 606, after the address at 606 Broadway. The couple who had run the restaurant since 1989, Raymond and Mimi Owyang, decided to retire and they closed the place in 2020, but their daughter Theresa Lau and son-in-law Eugene Lau have reopened the place, with a pared-down menu — but longtime favorites like pan-fried Hong Kong-style noodles and the salt-and-pepper pork chop are still there.

A swanky, retro, next-door sister bar to Stookey's Club Moderne has opened on Nob Hill called The Blue Room (891 Bush Street at Taylor). As the Chronicle reports, co-owners Tim Stookey, Leslie Cole Stookey, and Aaron Cole wanted to open an adjacent space that would just be devoted to music, from jazz to punk and beyond, so that patrons who just want a quiet drink can still go to Club Moderne and not pay a cover charge.

A "high-end Thai restaurant concept" is coming to the recently renovated Kimpton Hotel Enso in Japantown (1800 Sutter Street). The chef is Naruephon "Billie" Wannajaro, from the well regarded Hed Verythai in the FiDi, and as the SF Business Times reports, and it is expected to debut within a few months, along with an attached bar. Eater reports that "Wannajaro is bringing chef Piriya “Saint” Boonprasan in from Bangkok’s formerly Michelin-starred Thai restaurant Saawaan," which was known for 11-course tasting menus.

Over in Russian Hill, Moroccan restaurant and cabaret Berber (1516 Broadway) is closing its doors after March 2. Eater reports that the owners cite declining business for several years at the seven-year-old restaurant, which also featured Moroccan dancers. The SF Business Times noted in November that they were facing an eviction at that point.

Photo: Four Kings/Instagram