Potential Stoked Expansion, All Those Four-Letter Names, and More Updates to Start the Day

Get Stoked

Stoked Pizza, a popular local food truck as well as a Brookline brick-and-mortar pizzeria (complete with boozy milkshakes and funky decor), is considering opening up a new location, as spotted by Boston Restaurant Talk. The restaurant put out a survey yesterday asking fans where they’d like to see a new Stoked; options include Somerville’s Union Square, Cambridge’s Harvard Square, Jamaica Plain, and more. (Vote now.) “We certainly do not have grand plans to be a mega-chain,” co-owner Toirm Miller told Boston Magazine, “[but] we’ve got a great team of employees and management that want to grow with us, and it’s a natural progression for us to start looking for a second one and keep promoting our people from within.”

Four-Letter Words

The Globe explores the sudden explosion of two-syllable restaurant names, including Pagu, Pabu, Ruka, and Mida. Sources from a “baby-naming guru” to a lecturer at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration discuss the trend, pinpointing a few possible explanations. For one thing, “name trends are a reaction to the previous generation,” Laura Wattenberg, an author of a baby-naming book, told the Globe, while Cornell lecturer Stephani Robson noted that vague names like these allow restaurant owners to easily adapt the menu to current trends.

Meanwhile, in Maine

A Japanese restaurant called Izakaya Minato opened at 54 Washington Ave. in Portland yesterday, reports Portland Food Map. On the menu: a sashimi omakase, “JFC” (Japanese fried chicken), udon vongole (noodles with clams), and more.

Elsewhere in the Eaterverse

Eater Boston’s big sister, Eater, takes on sexism in the restaurant industry this week with an op-ed by Jen Agg, a Toronto restaurateur. Plus, here’s a look at the vestibule, the thing standing between your restaurant table and a freezing blast of air.

Got a news tip for the Eater Boston team? Email boston@eater.com.