On the eve of the Dahlia Lounge's 20th Anniversary celebration , Jackie Cross confirms what I heard this morning: she and her husband and business partner Tom Douglas will open another restaurant next door to Etta's in April.

Pots, pans, another restaurant. You'd be smiling, too.

You know the space as the home furnishings store, Habits, on the corner of Western Avenue and Virginia. The idea for the new place "is a work in progress," says Jackie, and while the details remain under wraps for now, it will not be an extension of Etta's, she says. It will, however, "be a whole new world, a whole new thing. We're super excited."

As for the Ballard location the couple had been contemplating? "I was looking forward to being in Ballard, but that space just didn't jell, unfortunately," she says.

In keeping with the Tom Douglas Restaurants theme, the new place will be within walking distance of the Dahlia and its adjacent bakery, their pizzeria Serious Pie, Lola, Palace Kitchen and the Palace Ballroom where, despite all the chat I reported from the Foodportunity event held there Monday night, I failed to get the scoop on the really big news. Mea culpa and more to come as I learn it.