Restaurant

Seward's Folly 1811 Abbott Rd. $6-$43 per plate 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Sunday 907-222-1218 Turnover is a natural part of Anchorage's restaurant scene, with Nino's Italian Eatery just north of the station closing shortly after the meal I enjoyed there last year. Where one place closes, however, another often opens -- something I learned during a recent drive in South Anchorage. Seward's Folly is a relatively new arrival to its neighborhood, occupying the garish but empty space left behind on Abbott Road by the March closure of Chili's restaurants in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Wasilla.

Numbers from a new national study show the challenges of being able to afford housing in Alaska. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the average wage for Alaskans who rent doesn't quite add up to the cost of renting a standard two bedroom apartment. The annual study says the average rent for a two bedroom apartment in the Alaska is about $1,111 per month and Alaskans would need to earn an average of $21.37 an hour to afford it. Megan Bolton,  NLIHC's Research Director, says Alaska is consistently in the top ten for most expensive states to live in, which impacts how much residents need to earn to rent a home.

Anchorage happy hour fans, take heart. The city may have tight laws restricting what bars and restaurants can offer in terms of drink specials, but food is a whole another story: That’s limited only by the imaginations of local chefs. Appetizers specials are a great way to sample a restaurant's offerings, says Kinley's Restaurant & Bar manager Marty Kimball. Here are a few of our favorites: Hott Stixx Hott Stixx is, like many Anchorage gems, tucked into an unassuming strip mall along with a dollar store and dry cleaners.

Dedicated Anchorage foodies track their favorite food truck vendors via Facebook and Twitter updates, but what about the uninitiated?  For the past few weeks on Thursdays, the parking lot at Chilkoot Charlie's in Spenard has been the temporary headquarters for a food truck carnival, making it easier for customers to locate the mobile restaurants. Foodies bundle up around lunchtime to pickup tacos, sandwiches, Asian-inspired street food and sweets from five local food trucks.

On Saturday afternoon, the family of Midtown Walmart manager Jason Mahi, 33, heard the startling news that he had been shot at work. Anchorage police alleged that double amputee Daniel Pirtle, 45, shot Mahi inside the store after a dispute over an unleashed service dog. Alex Asino, Mahi's brother-in-law, was at his auntie's restaurant in South Anchorage doing prep work when he heard about the shooting. “My auntie came into the kitchen, telling me and my uncle that Bulla, [a Hawaiian nickname]

Jens Hansen, an Anchorage chef and owner of Jens Restaurant in midtown, passed away Friday afternoon at the age of 68, according to his wife Annelise. She said he died after complications from leg surgery, but had not been well for a few years due to a decline in his health, and had not worked at his restaurant for some time. Annelise said word of her husband's death spread quickly on Friday and the restaurant was packed that evening, full of friends who wished to pay their respects to the well-known chef.

After two recent violent robberies at Subway sandwich shops, exactly one month apart, Subway employees are being trained on how they can help prevent robberies from occuring, and what to do doing a robbery. The training comes nearly a month after the second robbery of a Subway restaurant which left a teenage employee injured. The first robbery happened at the Subway in Spenard on August 3. Police say an armed robber came into the restaurant demanding money, and even though the employee complied, the suspect pistol-whipped him on the head.

The sudden closure of Sunrise Bakery not only left around 90 Anchorage workers without jobs, it also affected the business of a local Alaskan restaurant. Gwennie's Old Alaska restaurant is one of the businesses in Anchorage that supported the Sunrise Bakery. Gwennie's restaurant owner, Ron Eagley, says he tries to purchase ingredients locally when it is possible. When Eagley found out that his restaurant would no longer receive their bread deliveries last week, he quickly ordered frozen products from Seattle at a much higher cost.

In the last 10 years, Alaska’s Hispanic population has jumped by 51.8 percent, making it the fastest growing minority group in the state. Daniel Esparza, who grew up in Zacatecas, Mexico is in a good position to consider the long view: He’s a Mexican-American who has lived in Alaska for 37 years. To him, it’s obvious what’s drawing people to the Northernmost U.S. state: “It’s adventure and opportunity,” he said. The highlights of the Census data released this week included: -Alaska's Hispanic population was 25,852 in the 2000 Census to 39,249 in the 2010 Census - The number of people who identified themselves as being of Mexican descent jumped from roughly 13,300 to 21,600 - People who identify themselves as Mexican make up 55 percent of Alaska’s whole Hispanic population, followed by  Puerto Rican and Cuban -While Hispanics now make up 5.5 percent of Alaska’s population in 2010, that’s still much less than the 16.3 percent they make up of the entire U.S. population.

The Alaska Copper River commerical salmon season opener awaits fishermen in Cordova, poised to make a profit on the prized fish they're able to catch, beginning Thursday. It's the season many of the fishermen have been waiting months for, because Copper River salmon is prized by restaurant chefs and fish mongers as some of the best salmon in the world. "The Copper River is a very strong, powerful river, so these fish naturally have to be a stronger animal to fight these currents and get up to the spawning grounds," said Billy Green with Copper River Seafoods.