The holiday season is approaching; it is a time of possibility. Prior to the rush that will soon hit, with shopping, parties, and all the accompanying whatnot, we bask in a feeling of anticipation. Once it comes, everything will be about the stress and the craziness. But right now, we sit here with romantic visions of lights at night, seeing our breath in the night air, the scent of fir trees.

Restaurants are opening like mad. With them comes that same sense of something big about to happen -- something good that will, unfortunately, also cause a great amount of anxiety.

No matter the woes that come, it's a reassuring thing when restaurants open; they are places of celebration. And just knowing people, rich and poor, have the bravery to start something new in this world should give everyone a little burst of joy. Kind of like the first holiday lights of the season.

What's Here and What to Wait For

In New York, there are two new Italian places open -- one in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and another in town on West 57th. There are eight restaurants opening this week, notably another Blue Ribbon restaurant and an "eco-friendly juice bar and restaurant" called Community Food & Juice uptown. Another place, Lunetta, will open where Mayrose used to be on 21st and Broadway; what we like about this is that it's the "Manhattan outpost" of a Brooklyn place. Fuhgeddaboudit, my friends.

In D.C., Tom Sietsema notes that the stellar pan-Asian TenPenh has started offering a $21 "blue plate" bento box lunch that varies by country from day to day: Korea, Vietnam, Philippines, Japan and Thailand.

Even With Reviews Like This, They Won't All Survive

The Washington Post has a review of Bastille, a country French place which has been open in Old Town Alexandria for a year. We like the sound of the French family dinner that happens on Sundays, and it's not easy to find "a good assortment of reasonably priced French bottles."

Our guy Peter Meehan at The New York Times hands out some hefty praise in his review this week of "New York’s best, and maybe only, true tapas bar" in Chelsea. Most new places are "all elbows and knees, wobbly and uncertain of themselves," and "once in a while, a restaurant like El Quinto Pino pops up and hits the ground running."

Meehan doesn't usually review a place unless it has a certain unusual something, and this place makes the cut because "it takes no reservations and has no tables, just a bar and a narrow counter that rings the room." FYI, he "didn't love the pig's ear salad," folks, so if that's a dealbreaker for you, maybe you should skip it. However, Hot Plates loves itself a dish of white anchovies, and the wine selection (Bierzo! Jumilla!) sounds great.

The L.A. Times reviews Amaranta Cocina Mexicana, a new spot in Canoga Park where a big draw is the "tequila service": it offers 375 varieties of tequila, ranging from $7 to $175 that you can choose "not only by age (blanco, reposado and añejo) but also by flavor impact (gentil, moderado, agresivo)."

S. Irene Virbila at the L.A. Times says Osteria Mozza might be the hottest place of the moment, and we don't doubt it. This is a sparkling review of Mario Batali and Nancy Silverton's new place, open four months. The whole menu sounds divine, but our mouth waters reading about the "L-shaped "mozzarella bar," where everything is based on fresh Italian cheeses and you can't make a reservation.

We want to eat "squat rectangles of cheese dressed in anchovies and lemon then breaded and fried," or "stracciatella, a soft cheese, with fresh, crisp celery, scallions and a refreshing herb salad." Or really anything Silverton offers while we're sitting there sipping something good and cold.

You can see there are a lot of new beginnings happening out there. So maybe civilization isn't collapsing after all. We'll leave you with one more feel-good item. There is a great N.Y. Times profile of the "anti-Emeril,"  John Besh, a "Next Iron Chef" star who is "less bam! and more bayou" and whose "telegenic Southern humility" adds to the whole package. He is sort of a Katrina hero, a restauranteur with "military focus" who is "one of only a few chefs in New Orleans who are much better off than before the storm."

The storm. It is coming, readers. If you're beginning to stress about Thanksgiving already, first of all, don't. Make a couple of reservations for the month of November, and let yourselves be inspired.